Anecdotes

The son of a merchant seaman he hardly knew, he was a child evacuee during the war, and lived with three different families in the Morecambe area.

In March of 1961, he and his wife Lois Daine were to star together in a BBC live television play, Cottage for Sale (1961), but she couldn't take part because, two weeks before, she had given birth prematurely to their son, Aran Bell, who weighed just 3lb 13oz.

Ended up being shunned by the acting community, following a drunken incident at an awards ceremony. At the ceremony in question, Richard Attenborough and Bryan Forbes kept their distance from him as his alleged drunken behavior worried them that they wouldn't be considered for a knighthood.

Highly regarded as an actor within the industry, Tom Bell never quite achieved the recognition he deserved.

His stage career dated back to 1948.

Preferred to show his acting range on camera instead of in the theatre.

In 1962 he was arrested for picking flowers from someone's garden in Hampstead.

Father of Polly Bell born 1978, by his partner of 30 years, the costume designer Frances Tempest, with whom he also had a step-daughter, Nellie.

In 1982, he appeared before a bankruptcy court over trouble with non-payment of income taxes. He was subsequently discharged.

He and fellow actor Tom Georgeson share a granddaughter, Aran's daughter, the actress Florence Bell.

Played characters who would impatiently chew out anyone telling him what to do, especially those in charge, including a villain leading a heist, as in two British Neo Noirs, Les gangsters (1961) and Les clés de la citadelle (1962).

His mother knew a woman at the local repertory theatre who got him started in the theatre.

Elder brother of actor Keith Bell.

Cast with Susan Hampshire in The Violent Enemy (1967) (aka Came the Hero).

During the war, he was evacuated to Morecambe when he was 6.

He was one of 8 children whose father was a Liverpool merchant seaman.

He and Lois Daine separated in 1971 and divorced in 1976.