Roland Bartrop

His father worked for Scotland Yards Special Branch but young Rowland decided to pursue a career in acting Born in Walthamstow on 21 December 1925 Rowland Thomas Bartrop joined the London Stage Academy in 1943 and was initially promoted for juvenile parts During the war he toured with NAAFI and ENSA in French Without Tears playing support to Rex Harrison and Anna Neagle He did a good deal of theatre work in both London and the provinces and performed in Shakespeare on records notably Coriolanus starring Richard Burton In the 1950s Bartrop moved to television and it was on the series Sword of Freedom 1957 that he became a good friend of Edmund Purdom The two actors decided to further their careers in Europe mainly in costume movies Bartrops memorable roles were Horatio Nelson in The Battle of Austerlitz 1960 and friendofthehero to Steve Reeves in The Son of Spartacus 1962 In Europe Bartrop who spoke several languages shortened his first name to Roland However when he played a German officer in two Italian films it was the idea of the producer as a little joke to bill him in the credits as Roland von Bartrop Bartrops death went largely unreported but his family believe that his early death at 43 was due to a suspected heart attack surprisingly since he kept himself extremely fit for action roles At the time of his death the actor was living in Switzerland His widow actress Colette Bartrop had appeared with him in Faces in the Dark 1960 IMDb Mini Biography By Jim Marshall