British actor Timothy "Tim" Bateson, the voice of Kreacher in 2007's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, died September 16, his former management has confirmed. He was 83.
Voiceover work late in his career led to his being cast in the 2007 film, which was his last. However, he was not cast to voice the character in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I, in which Kreacher also appears.
Bateson provided the voice of Antigonus in The Winter's Tale, a 1994 episode of Shakespeare: The Animated Tales, a co-production of several Russian, British and other studios which aired on BBC2.
He was also in the voice cast of Operation Teastrainer (1975). Produced by Larkins Studios in 1975, this live-action film with animation sequences was produced for the Ministry of Defence to promote the Royal Navy Supply and Transport Service.
Born in London on April 3, 1926, Bateson began his film career on the Ealing production of Nicholas Nickleby (1947), playing Lord Frederick Verisopht. On stage, he appeared in the first British performance of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot in 1955.
Bateson appeared in several popular films of the late 1940s and early 1950s, including the Boulting Brothers' commentary on class The Guinea Pig (1948), the Pat Jackson-directed National Health Service-embracing feature The White Corridors (1951) and Laurence Olivier's Richard III (1955). He was a favorite of Jackson's, later turning up in What a Carve Up (1961), the CFF film Seventy Deadly Pills (1964) and his episodes of Man in a Suitcase and The Famous Five.
Film parts flagged in the late 1950s, but he became more prominent in the comedies The Mouse that Roared (1959) and The Crooked Man (1960). His comedy parts in film began to shrink to bit parts in James Robertson-Justice/Leslie Phillips vehicles, but he began racking a few appearances in Hammer horror features before embarking on a very prolific TV career.
He appeared in almost every British TV drama series filmed in the 1960s, including The Avengers, Z Cars, Gideon's Way and Out of the Unknown. Bateson pretty much continued working solidly through the 1970s in TV, making a couple of film appearances. He became a regular in Grange Hill and Don't Wait Up in the 1980s, as well as the revived Zorro TV series, which was shot in Spain.
Bateson worked mostly in television for the rest of his career. He provided the voice of OJ in several 1989-90 episodes of Tugs. Made by the same company which produced Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, the series used models (not animated, by pulled by invisible strings), to tell about the adventures of two rival tugboat companies.
