Editing Alastair Sim (section)

==Starring roles==
{{Main|Alastair Sim on stage and screen}}
Sim returned to substantial stage roles at the last [[Malvern Festival (1929–39)|Malvern Festival]]; in [[James Bridie]]'s comedy ''What Say They?'' he played Professor Hayman, making him, as ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' put it, "baleful as a shaven [[John Knox]] and lean as a buzzard… a grand performance".<ref>"Malvern Festival: "Mr James Bridie's ''What Say They?''", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 8 August 1939, p. 11</ref> This was the start of an association between Sim and Bridie that lasted until the latter's death in 1951, with Sim starring in, and directing, ''Mr Bolfry'' (1943), ''The Forrigan Reel'' (1945), ''Dr Angelus'' (1947) and ''Mr Gillie'' (1950).<ref name=dnb/>

[[File:Sim-mills-mitchell-escapade.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|With [[John Mills]] and [[Yvonne Mitchell]] in the comedy-thriller ''[[Escapade (1955 film)|Escapade]]'', 1955]]
[[File:Sim-green-man.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|As Hawkins, the assassin, in ''[[The Green Man (film)|The Green Man]]'', 1956]]
By the mid-1940s, Sim was being cast in starring roles in films. His earliest successes as a leading man included the police detective in the thriller ''[[Green for Danger (film)|Green for Danger]]'' (1946); the headmaster of Nutbourne College, co-starring with [[Margaret Rutherford]], in the farcical comedy ''[[The Happiest Days of Your Life (film)|The Happiest Days of Your Life]]'' (1950); and a writer of lurid crime fiction in the comedy ''[[Laughter in Paradise]]'' (1951). His other films included ''[[Waterloo Road (film)|Waterloo Road]]'' (1944), ''[[London Belongs to Me]]'' (1948), [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''[[Stage Fright (1950 film)|Stage Fright]]'' (1950), ''[[Scrooge (1951 film)|Scrooge (A Christmas Carol)]]'' (1951), ''[[Folly to Be Wise]]'' (1953) and ''[[An Inspector Calls (1954 film)|An Inspector Calls]]'' (1954).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120711154610/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b9f475edb "Alastair Sim"], British Film Institute, retrieved 13 July 2014</ref>

Sim turned down the role of Joseph Macroon in ''[[Whisky Galore! (1949 film)|Whisky Galore!]]'' (1949), saying, "I can't bear professional Scotsmen".<ref>McArthur, p. 34</ref> An even more central role for which he was intended was the mad criminal mastermind Professor Marcus in ''[[The Ladykillers (1955 film)|The Ladykillers]]'' (1955). The role was written with him in mind but was finally taken by [[Alec Guinness]], who, in the words of Mark Duguid of the [[British Film Institute]], played it "with more than a hint of Sim about him", to the extent that according to Simpson many people thought then and still think that Sim played the part.<ref>Simpson, pp. 91–92</ref><ref>Duguid, Mark. [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/441533/ "Ladykillers, The (1955)"], British Film Institute, retrieved 12 July 2013</ref>

Sim's performance in ''Scrooge'' (1951) is considered by many to be the best portrayal of the title character on screen,<ref>[http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/509290/ "Scrooge" (1951)], Screenonline, retrieved 30 December 2015</ref> and it is among his best-known film roles, particularly in the U.S.{{refn|The American critic Greg Ferrara wrote, "Although there will always be dispute over which is Alastair Sim's finest screen performance, there's little doubt as to which is the best known. His 1951 characterisation of Charles Dickens' notorious curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge is ... generally regarded as definitive", and in 2002 John Corry of ''[[The American Spectator]]'' called the film "the gold standard by which all the other versions must be judged: the 1951 film in which Alastair Sim, as Scrooge, gives the performance of his career".<ref>Ferrara, Greg. [https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/453734 "A Christmas Carol (1951)"], [[Turner Classic Movies]], retrieved 30 December 2015</ref> In Sim's own country he was at least as celebrated for other film roles: in ''[[The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', [[Michael Gilbert]] identifies Sim's harassed headmaster in ''The Happiest Days of Your Life'' as "the fondest memory for many".<ref name=dnb/> and in 2005, Michael Brooke wrote in the [[British Film Institute]]'s ''[[Sight and Sound]]'', "The St Trinian's films may be the first we think of, but Alastair Sim was a vastly versatile actor without whom the landscape of British cinema's heyday would be a less joyful place." Brooke describes Sim's Scrooge as the "unimpeachably definitive" cinema portrayal.<ref name=bfi/>|group=n}} In the farcical ''[[The Belles of St. Trinian's]]'' (1954) he played the dual roles of Millicent and Clarence Fritton, the headmistress of [[St Trinian's]] and her shady brother. Having originally accepted the part of Clarence, Sim agreed to play in drag as Miss Fritton when [[Margaret Rutherford]] proved unavailable, and the director and co-producer, [[Frank Launder]] could find no suitable actress as an alternative.<ref>Simpson, pp. 121–22</ref> His "Burke and Hare" film ''The Anatomist'' debuted on British television (on "International Theatre") on 6 February 1956, and was later released theatrically in the U.S. in 1961, leading some reference sources to list it as a 1961 movie.<ref>"The Anatomist". British Film Institute. Retrieved 3 July 2014.</ref>

Sim was among the top British film stars of the early and mid 1950s,{{#tag:ref| For a number of years in the 1950s, British film exhibitors voted him among the top ten local stars at the box office in an annual poll for the ''Motion Picture Herald'': 1950 – equal eighth with [[Margaret Rutherford]];<ref>"Success of British Films", ''The Times'', 29 December 1950, p. 4</ref> 1951 – 6th;<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63397098 "Vivien Leigh Actress of the Year"], ''[[Townsville Daily Bulletin]]'', Queensland, 29 December 1951, p. 1</ref> 1952 – 2nd;<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18504988 "Comedian Tops Film Poll"], ''[[Sunday Herald (Australia)|Sunday Herald]]'', Sydney, 28 December 1952, p. 4</ref> 1953 – 4th; 1955 – 4th (8th overall).<ref>"The Dam Busters", ''The Times'', 29 December 1955, p. 12</ref>|group= n}} but his films of the late 1950s are considered by the critic Michael Brooke to be of lesser quality, because of poor scripts or lack of innovative direction.<ref name=bfi/> Sim made no films in the decade between 1961 and 1971; it is not clear whether this was, as Brooke suggests, because he found the scripts offered to him unacceptable or, as Simpson proposes, because film makers in the 1960s thought him unsuited to the [[Kitchen sink realism|kitchen sink]] dramas then fashionable.<ref name=bfi/><ref>Simpson, p. 162</ref>

After Bridie's death in 1951, Sim appeared in only two stage productions during the rest of the decade. The first was a revival of Bridie's ''Mr &nbsp;Bolfry'' in 1956, in which Sim moved from the role of the puritanical clergyman to that of the Devil.<ref>"Aldwych Theatre", ''The Times'', 31 August 1956, p. 5</ref> The second was [[William Golding]]'s ''[[The Brass Butterfly]]'', a 1958 comedy described by ''The Times'' as portraying the relations between an urbane Roman emperor (Sim) and a Greek inventor with wildly anachronistic scientific ideas ([[George Cole (actor)|George Cole]]).<ref>"The Brass Butterfly", ''The Times'', 18 April 1958, p. 3</ref>

In 1959, Sim sued the food company [[H. J. Heinz Company|H J Heinz]] over a television advertisement for its baked beans; the advertisement had a voiceover sounding remarkably like him, and he insisted that he would not "prostitute his art" by advertising anything.<ref>Simpson, pp. 150–51</ref>{{#tag:ref|The voice was that of the actor [[Ron Moody]], who regularly imitated Sim, along with many others, as part of Moody's stage act.<ref>Simpson, p. 151</ref> Sim evidently bore Moody no ill will, and they appeared together in the 1975 revival of ''The Clandestine Marriage''.<ref>Simpson, p. 187</ref>|group= n}} He lost the case and attracted some ridicule for his action, but he was conscious of the importance of his highly recognisable voice to his professional success. Brooke comments on Sim's "crowning glory: that extraordinary voice. Only [[John Gielgud|Gielgud]] rivalled his tonal control and sensitivity to the musicality of the English language."<ref name=bfi/>