[These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be given and anything that you can add would be appreciated.]
Patrick Anthony Connolly was born in Everton, Liverpool, Lancashire, England on September 3, 1921. Dean worked variously as a tram driver, pipe fitter, insurance agent, ship's steward and docker by day, while playing the clubs as a stand-up comic at night. War service in the RAF from 1940 took him all over the Middle East, and by the time of his big dramatic break, in 1969, he was a local government officer in Liverpool. He gave up the day job when Ken Loach cast him in Neville Smith's BBC play, “The Golden Vision”.
He used the stage name Billy Dean and appeared in thirty-six films as an actor from 1956 to 1986 and worked as a stuntman in 18 films 1956 to 1996. He’s best remembered for his work on the British TV series ‘Brookside’ that Dean will be best remembered where he played the curmudgeonly pensioner Harry Cross for a decade.
His only Euro-western was as a ride in 1965’s “Carry on Cowboy.”
DEAN, Billy (aka Bill Dean) (Patrick Anthony
Connolly) [9/3/1921, Everton, Liverpool, Lancashire, England, U.K. -
4/20/2000, Upton, Birkenhead, Wirral, U.K. (heart attack)] – stuntman, theater,
film, TV actor, married to ? father of Peter Dean, David Dean, Diane Dean.
Carry on Cowboy – 1965 (rider)
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