I just thought everyone's grandfather played Scrooge on TV at Christmas
Granddaughter tells how star didn’t care about fame
As one of Scotland’s greatest comic actors, he inspired Robin Williams to shine as Mrs Doubt fire along with a generation of comedians.
Alastair Sim’s dual casting in the 1954 film The Belles of St Trinian’s – he played the head mistress in the film and her brother – gave Williams the idea for the dad who disguises himself as his children’s nanny in 1993’s Mrs Doubtfire film. Long before then, Edinburgh-born Sim had appeared in 61 films and 46 productions in London’s West End, epitomising an era when British humour was at its most charming and eccentric.
Now, as the 120th anniversary of Sim’s birth approaches and his films are being restored for Blu-Ray release, the actor’s daughter and granddaughter have spoken about the extraordinary quiet man who never gave interviews.
Sim was so quiet and unassuming that, during her early childhood, Rona McKendrick didn’t know her grandfather was famous or that she was related to him. Rona, who now works as a series producer on EastEnders, said: “Alastair died when I was seven. “My mum was a stage manager and, from the age of 16, she worked with my grandfather when he was in the theatre. He was either acting or directing or both. She didn’t want to call him dad because, obviously, he was in charge.
“So she called him Alastair from the age of 16 and then she would go home and call my grandmother Naomi.
“I was always taught that they were Naomi and Alastair. So I didn’t know he was an actor and, in fact, I didn’t actually know they were my grandparents.
“They were never ever referred to as granny and grandad. I don’t know what age I was when I found they were my grandparents. By then, it was too late to start calling them granny and grandad.
“They weren’t labelled in any way. But it meant I had a very close relationship with them.”
Sim became one of the most famous British actors of the 1940s and 50s, enjoying a string of lead roles, among them an iconic 1951 film adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, released as Scrooge.
Rona has fond memories of watching him in the film every Christmas.
She said: “I thought ever yone’s grandfather played Scrooge. I hadn’t realised it was just mine.
“I had no idea he was well known. He was just an old man in the family.
“Over time, I realised that he wasn’t just an actor. He was a comic genius and I’m incredibly proud to call him my grandfather. I’m over the moon and so lucky.”
His other f i lms included Al f red Hitchcock’s Stage Fright, The Green Man, Laughter In Paradise and the Ealing comedy Hue & Cry.
But Rona’s favourite films were his St Trinian’s ones.
She said: “Robin Wil liams said my grandad was an inf luence in his Mrs Doubtfire role. When people ask what else did my grandfather do, I tell them he played the headmistress in the St Trinian’s films and they do a double take.”
Before finding fame, Sim was Fulton lecturer in elocution at New College, Edinburgh University, from 1925 until 1930. He was the Rector of Edinburgh University from 1948 to 1951.
Though awarded a CBE in 1953, he turned down a knighthood and an OBE.
He also refused to sign autographs because he thought it was silly.
Rona said: “He didn’t accept a knighthood because he felt that if people started calling him ‘ Sir Alastair’, they would treat him differently and he didn’t want that so he declined a knighthood.
“He didn’t sign autographs because he didn’t think that his signature was worth anything. He preferred to shake people’s hands and talk to them.”
Rona’s mother Merlith McKendrick, 80, said that the great love of his life was his wife Naomi. They first met when they appeared together in a stage production of William Butler Yeats’ The Land Of Heart’s Desire. He was 27. She was 12. They married when Naomi turned 18.
Merlith said: “My mum was 12 when they met. Nothing happened until she was 18 and then they married and lived happily ever after. She didn’t die until she was in her 80s.
“It was much more than a love affair. She helped him with his work so much and he relied on her very much for her opinion.”
As well as proving himself as one of the greats of his genre, Sim unof f icial ly adoptedopted a young George Cole,ole, who co-starred alongsideide him in nine films, including luding as Flash Harry in the early St Trinian’s films.
He lived alongside gside the Sim family at their house, called Forrigan, igan, in Nettlebed, near Oxfordshi re, and found fame in later ater life as dodgy dealer ler
Arthur Daley in the he classic ITV series Minder. Merlith said: “George Cole lived with us. He had been adopted at birth but was semi-adopted by us and was part of the family.
“He was my older brother, really, and lived with us for most of his life.
“His Flash Harry in the St Trinian’s films became George’s character when he started doing Minder.”
Sim died from throat cancer, aged 75, in 1976.
Rona added: “I remember his death on the news on the radio in the morning. I think it was Radio 2 and I was surprised that they were announcing my grandfather’s death. I didn’t understand why. My mother explained to me that he was quite well known.
“I was about 12 or 13 when I realised who he was. I remember him watching me as a child playing. He was bald with tufty white hair either side and big gangly eyes and he was a very loving man. He was also a very private man. He wasn’t imposing. “I remember there being a lot of laughlaughter in the household. “WWe used to stay there most weekends and, although I had to go to bed earlier, listening to the laughter around the dining table driftingd up through the floorboardsfl is one of my happiesth memories. “Forrigan is the happiest placepla I’ve known.
“It is only over the years and hearing people talking aboutabo their admiration for him that you realise what an incrediblyin special person he was.”wa
When you hear people talking about him, you realise how special he was