Bruce Belfrage

Bruce Belfrage was born in Marylebone, London, the son of Sydney Henning Belfrage and Frances Grace (née Powley).[1] His younger brother was the author and journalist Cedric Belfrage.[3] He was educated at Gresham's School before taking an honours degree in modern languages at St John's College, Oxford.[4]

Belfrage is reported as performing on stage in London with The Strolling Players in February 1923.[5] He played in a notable triumph—A Sleeping Clergyman—with Robert Donat in 1933 and in BBC radio plays in 1934.[6] He appeared in his first film in 1932.[2] He was a broadcaster in the early days of 2LO at Savoy Hill, and in 1935 joined the BBC as a casting director and later became a news reader and announcer.[1][7]

In a famous incident on 15 October 1940, the BBC's Broadcasting House took a direct hit from a delayed-action German bomb, which eventually exploded during the nine o'clock radio news read by Belfrage.[1][8] Seven people were killed, and Belfrage, covered with plaster and soot, carried on reading the news as if nothing had happened.[1][8] Listeners at home heard just a dull thud.[8] He enlisted in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1942, and was demobilized with the rank of lieutenant-commander.[1]

Belfrage was an unsuccessful Liberal candidate for the South Buckinghamshire division at the 1950 general election.[9] He polled 16.5%, and never contested another election.[1]

In September 1958, for health reasons, Belfrage migrated to Australia with his second wife Joyce, a TV producer.[10] They lived in Melbourne for seven months and transferred to Sydney in 1959.[11] Joyce Belfrage quit the ABC in 1962 to work in the advertising industry and initiate a programme of media studies at Macquarie University.[12]

Bruce Belfrage died in Sydney at the age of 73.[1] He was married to the actress Joan Henley, with whom he had a son, Julian Rochfort Belfrage.[13] After his divorce from Henley, Belfrage married Joyce Belfrage.[14]

• C.O.D.. (1932) - Philip[15]
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) - Pitt[16]
• Too Many Millions (1934)[17]
• Full Circle (1935) - Clyde Warren[18]
• War Front (1941) - Newspaper editor[19]
• Hue and Cry (1947) - BBC announcer[20]
• Man on the Run (1948) - BBC Newscaster[21]
• I Killed the Count (1948) - Viscount Sorrington[22]
• Corridor of Mirrors (1948) - Sir David Conway[23]
• Black Magic (1949) - Crown Prosecutor[24]
• Warning to Wantons (1949) - Archimandrite[25]
• Ten Little Niggers (1949) - Sir Lawrence Wargrave[26]
• The Case of Charles Peace (1949) - Prosecution Counsel[27]
• Miss Pilgrim's Progress (1950) - Manager[28]
• Mister Drake's Duck (1951) - Air Vice Marshal[29]
• Home to Danger (1951) - Solicitor[30]
• The Galloping Major (1951) - Himself/Radio Commentator[31]
• Never Look Back (1952) - Judge[32]

One Man In His Time, by Bruce Belfrage. Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1951[33]

• Bruce Belfrage at the National Portrait Gallery
• Bruce Belfrage at IMDb
• Audio of Bruce Belfrage reading the news