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Born in New Zealand, actor Colin Tapley was brought to Hollywood as the result of a talent contest. Under contract to Paramount, Tapley played "stiff upper lip" types in such films as Double Door (1934), Murder at the Vanities (1934), The Lives of a Bengal Lancers (1935) (in which, as an Army spy, he was obliged to play his scenes in East Indian disguise) and Peter Ibbetson (1936). In the pioneering Technicolor production Becky Sharp (1935), Tapley looked splendid in his 19th-century military uniform, even though he had practically nothing to do. So it went with his career until 1949, when he left Hollywood to make films in England. Few of his British films were remarkable save for the extremely profitable The Dam Busters (1955), thus Colin Tapley went from erstwhile second lead to character player as his career wound down in the '60s.