- published: 12 Sep 2014
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Sir Donald Alfred Sinden CBE FRSA (9 October 1923 – 12 September 2014) was an English actor in theatre, film, television and radio as well as an author.
Achieving early fame as a Rank Organisation film star in the 1950s, Sinden then became highly regarded as an award-winning Shakespearean and West End theatre actor and television sit-com star.
Sinden made his first stage appearance at the amateur Brighton Little Theatre (of which he later became President) in 1941, stepping into a part in place of his cousin Frank, who had been called up to war and so was unable to appear. Offered a professional acting part by the Brighton impresario Charles F. Smith, he made his first professional appearance in January 1942, playing Dudley in a production of George and Margaret for the Mobile Entertainments Southern Area company (known as MESA) and in other modern comedies, playing to the armed forces all along the South Coast of England during World War II and later trained as an actor for two terms at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.