Life and career

Swift was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, the son of Lily Rebecca (née Greenman) and Abram Sampson Swift. His older brother, David Swift, was also an actor. Both brothers were educated at Clifton College and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where Clive read English literature. He was previously a teacher at LAMDA and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His family was Jewish.

In the 1970s, he appeared as Doctor Black in two of the BBC's M.R. James adaptations: The Stalls of Barchester and A Warning to the Curious. He portrayed Det.Insp Waugh of the CID in the 1970/71 TV series Waugh on Crime. He is most noted for his performance in Keeping Up Appearances, starring as Richard Bucket, the long-suffering husband of Hyacinth. He also starred in the BBC adaptation of The Barchester Chronicles and appeared in the Doctor Who story Revelation of the Daleks. On 25 December 2007, he appeared in a Doctor Who Christmas special as Mr Copper. He also played Sir Ector, the adoptive father of King Arthur in John Boorman's 1981 film Excalibur.

Swift was formerly married to novelist Margaret Drabble (1960-75). He is the father of one daughter, Rebecca, who runs the Literary Consultancy in London's Free Word Centre and two sons, Adam Swift, an academic, and Joe Swift, a TV gardener.

As well as acting, he is a songwriter. Many of his songs are included in his show, Richard Bucket Overflows: An Audience with Clive Swift, which toured the UK in 2007 and Clive Swift Entertains, performing his own music and lyrics, which toured the UK in 2009. He also played the part of the Reverend Eustacius Brewer in Born and Bred, which aired on BBC 1 from 2002 to 2005.

Film

• Catch Us If You Can (1965)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968)
• Frenzy (1972)
• Death Line (1972)
• The National Health (1973)
• Man at the Top (1973)
• The Sailor's Return (1978)
• Excalibur (1981)
• A Passage to India (1984)
• Gaston's War (1997)
• Othello (2004)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) as the painting of Sir Cadogan

Television

• Hustle as Yusef
• Romeo and Juliet (TV series) as Friar Lawrence (1976)
• The Old Guys as Roy
• Bless Me Father as art dealer
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1980) as Hastie Lanyon (TV Movie)
• Born and Bred as Reverend Brew
• Pack of Lies as Ellis (1987 American TV adaptation of Hugh Whitemore's play)
• Peak Practice as Norman Shorthose
• Aristocrats as King George II
• Keeping Up Appearances as Richard Bucket
• Heartbeat as Victor Kellerman
• Henry IV Part One - Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester
• Doctor Who
  • Revelation of the Daleks as Jobel
  • Voyage of the Damned as Mr Copper
• Waugh on Crime as Inspector Waugh
• Beasts - "The Dummy" as Bunny
• First Among Equals as Alec Pimkin
• Inspector Morse - "The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn" as Doctor Bartlett
• The Liver Birds - "Birds on strike" as Jim Royle
• Dead of Night - "The Exorcism" as Dan
• The Stalls of Barchester as Dr. Black
• Barchester Chronicles
• A Warning to the Curious
• South Riding (1974 adaption) as Alfred Huggins
• The Pickwick Papers (1985 adaption) as Tracy Tupman
• Tales of the Unexpected - "Stranger in Town" as Latham

Radio

• Oblomov as the Doctor
• The Right Time
• From Fact to Fiction - The Orchard as the Narrator
• Measure for Measure as Escalus
• "Jorrocks's Jaunts and Jollities" as Nash
• "The Price of Fear - Remains to be Seen" as Fred Trebor
• "Friday When It Rains" - BBC Radio 4 Drama as Dove

Stage

• Cymbeline (1962) as Cloten
• The Tempest (1966) as Caliban (Prospect Theatre Company)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]