AllMovie

Tall, imposing Irish character actor John Welsh spent most of his film career playing authority characters of dubious qualifications. After several years with the Gate Theatre in Dublin, Welsh made his London debut in 1950 and his entrée into films three years later. For the next 30 years, he was seen in innumerable cameos as policemen, custom officials, clerks, and floorwalkers. Welsh was also prominently cast in several of the major British TV miniseries of the 1960s and '70s, playing Uncle James in The Forsyte Saga (1967), Merriman in The Duchess of Duke Street (1976), and Cordwainer in To Serve Them All My Days (1980).