🎭 Harry Fielder Biography
⭐ At a glance
- 🎭 Full name: Henry Arthur Fielder
- 🎬 Also credited as: Harry H. Fielder / Harry Aitch Fielder
- 🎂 Born: 26 April 1940
- 📍 Born: Islington, London, England
- 🕯️ Died: 6 February 2021
- 📍 Age at death: 80
- 🎭 Occupation: Actor, supporting artist and occasional stunt performer
- 📅 Active: 1967–1999
- 💍 Wife: Mary Fielder
- 👨👩👧👦 Children: Three
- 🚌 On the Buses: Regular extra/supporting artist
- ⭐ Best known for: His enormous body of uncredited appearances in British films and television
- 🌌 Star Wars: Corporal Grenwick in Star Wars: A New Hope
- 👽 Doctor Who: Numerous supporting roles
Harry Fielder was one of Britain's most prolific supporting artists, appearing in a remarkable range of major films and television programmes without usually receiving a named character credit.
👦 Early life
Harry Fielder was born Henry Arthur Fielder on 26 April 1940 in Islington, London.
Before entering the entertainment business, his working life was considerably more ordinary. He worked as a GPO messenger boy, made Christmas crackers and dyed feathers before working at Anderson's Timber Yard in Islington from 1958 to 1966.
🎸 During this period, Fielder was also a keen musician. He performed as the lead singer and guitarist in several rock bands, playing pubs and clubs around London.
It was through this musical work that he met his future wife, Mary Fielder, at a gig in South London. They married in 1963 and eventually had three children.
🎬 Entering the film and television business
Harry initially worked as an extra/supporting artist.
After appearing in some television work in 1966, actor William Roache reportedly encouraged him to join the Film Artists Association/Central Casting. Fielder subsequently obtained a probationary Equity card after appearing in a television commercial.
His career really began to take off in 1967.
From then onwards, he became an extraordinarily familiar face in British productions. His ability to blend into crowds, military formations, police scenes, streets, pubs and other locations made him extremely useful to film and television productions.
🚌 Harry Fielder and On the Buses
For On the Buses fans, Harry Fielder is particularly interesting.
He became one of the programme's regular supporting artists/extras, appearing around the bus depot and in other scenes.
🎬 Mutiny on the Buses — 1972
Harry appeared as an uncredited bus driver in the second On the Buses film, Mutiny on the Buses.
This is an especially nice credit for fans because it places him directly among the bus crews surrounding Stan, Jack and Blakey.
🎬 Holiday on the Buses — 1973
He also appeared in Holiday on the Buses as a busman.
So Harry Fielder's On the Buses career extended beyond the television programme into the feature-film series.
🌌 Star Wars: A New Hope
One of Fielder's most famous film appearances was in:
🚀 Star Wars: A New Hope — 1977
He played:
🪖 Corporal Grenwick
The role was small, but Star Wars subsequently became one of the biggest film franchises in history.
Fielder's appearance is particularly interesting because he was part of the large group of British supporting performers used during the production in the United Kingdom.
👽 Doctor Who
Harry Fielder was also a regular supporting performer in Doctor Who.
His Doctor Who credits include a remarkable collection of different characters, including:
- 👮 Guard
- 🚀 Crewmember
- 🛸 Vogan
- 🔫 Assassin
- 🛰️ Titan Base Crewman
- 👽 Leviathan Guard
- 👽 Tigellan Guard
His television filmography records 14 episodes/stories involving Doctor Who appearances between 1967 and 1982.
He was also involved with Shada, appearing as a Krarg Commander/Krarg 3 in the later completed version of the unfinished Fourth Doctor story.
🚀 Science-fiction career
Fielder became a familiar face in British science fiction.
📺 Blake's 7
He appeared in approximately 10 episodes, playing various Federation and other supporting characters.
🌙 Space: 1999
He appeared in seven episodes, again playing different supporting roles.
His other science-fiction work included appearances associated with productions such as:
- 👽 Doctor Who
- 🚀 Blake's 7
- 🌙 Space: 1999
🎬 Major film appearances
Fielder's film career is particularly impressive because he frequently appeared in productions that became classics.
🎞️ Notable films
- 🏛️ Quatermass and the Pit — 1967
- 🪖 The Dirty Dozen — 1967
- 🎩 Oliver! — 1968
- ⚔️ The Last Valley
- ✈️ Battle of Britain
- 🕵️ Billion Dollar Brain
- 🏰 The Eagle Has Landed
- 🦸 Superman
- 🏹 Raiders of the Lost Ark
- 🐘 The Elephant Man
- 🌌 Star Wars: A New Hope
- 🎬 McVicar
- ⚔️ Highlander
- 🕵️ The Jackal
- 🎩 Wilde
- 🎥 The Man Who Knew Too Little
- 🕵️ Entrapment
His filmography includes dozens of films, with many of the appearances being uncredited.
📺 British television career
Harry Fielder's television work was enormous.
He appeared in productions including:
🚔 Police & crime
- 🚓 Z-Cars
- 🚔 The Sweeney
- 👮 The Professionals
- 🚨 The Bill
- 🕵️ Minder
- 🔥 London's Burning
😂 Comedy
- 🏨 Fawlty Towers
- 🎭 Hi-de-Hi!
- 👩 Girls on Top
- 😂 In Sickness and in Health
- 📺 Shelley
- 🎭 All in Good Faith
🏘️ Continuing drama
- 🏠 EastEnders
- 🏥 Casualty
- 📺 The Bill
British Comedy Guide records numerous named supporting appearances during the later part of his career.
📺 CBTV
One of Fielder's more unusual television jobs came in the 1980s.
He co-presented Thames Television's CBTV, a programme aimed at younger viewers.
His role was particularly memorable because he played Harry, the security guard at Teddington Studios.
🎬 The premise involved presenters Jim Sweeney and Steve Steen having to sneak past Harry at the studio gates.
This gave Fielder something he rarely received in his film career:
⭐ a recurring named character.
🎭 His remarkable supporting-artist career
What made Harry Fielder unusual was the sheer quantity and variety of productions in which he appeared.
He could be:
👮 A policeman
🪖 A soldier
🚌 A busman
🍺 A pub customer
🚪 A security guard
🚀 A spaceship crewman
👽 An alien
🎩 A gentleman
🏥 A hospital worker
👷 A labourer
🚓 A criminal
👥 A member of a crowd
—and sometimes several of those in the same year.
His filmography demonstrates just how frequently British productions relied on experienced supporting artists like Fielder.
📚 Autobiography
In 2012, Harry Fielder published his autobiography:
📖 Extra Extra, Read All About It!: My Life as a Film and TV Extra
The book provides an unusual first-hand account of life as a British supporting artist.
Rather than focusing on celebrity stardom, it describes the day-to-day reality of working as an extra, including filming, casting, locations and encounters with famous actors and productions.
❤️ Family
Harry was married to Mary Fielder, whom he had met through his musical career.
💍 They married in 1963.
👨👩👧👦 They had three children.
He maintained his family life while building a career that took him onto some of Britain's biggest film and television sets.
🕯️ Death
Harry Fielder died on 6 February 2021, aged 80.
His death brought an end to a career that had lasted from the 1960s through the late 1990s, although his work continued to be rediscovered by fans because of the enormous number of classic productions in which he appeared.
🏆 Harry Fielder's legacy
Harry Fielder was not usually the star whose name appeared above the title.
Instead, he was something arguably just as important to British film and television:
⭐ A great supporting artist.
His career connected an extraordinary number of famous productions:
🎬 Production⭐ Harry Fielder connection
🚌 On the BusesRegular extra/supporting artist
🚌 Mutiny on the Buses Bus driver
🚌 Holiday on the Buses Busman
🌌 Star Wars: A New Hope Corporal Grenwick
👽 Doctor Who Multiple roles
🚀 Blake's 7 Multiple roles
🌙 Space: 1999 Multiple roles
🏨 Fawlty Towers Laundry van driver
🚔 The Sweeney Supporting roles
🕵️ Minder Supporting roles
🏠 EastEnders Supporting roles
🔥 London's Burning Supporting roles
He is particularly beloved by cult-TV and film fans because he can often be spotted in productions even when his name does not appear in the main credits.
🚌 ⭐ For On the Buses fans
Harry Fielder deserves special recognition as one of the show's familiar background performers. His involvement continued into both Mutiny on the Buses and Holiday on the Buses, and he remained connected with the On the Buses fan community decades later. At a 2011 fan-club event, he appeared alongside creators Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe and producer/director Stuart Allen.
🎭 Harry Fielder (1940–2021) — a remarkable British supporting artist whose career stretched from On the Buses and Doctor Who to Star Wars, Fawlty Towers, The Sweeney, Blake's 7 and countless other productions.