Michael Gough

Francis Michael Gough (/ɡɒf/ GOF; 23 November 1916 – 17 March 2011) was a British actor who made more than 150 film and television appearances. He is known for his roles in the Hammer horror films, with his first role as Sir Arthur Holmwood in Dracula (1958), and for his recurring role as Alfred Pennyworth in the four Batman films directed by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher (1989—1997). He also appeared in Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999), and voiced Elder Gutknecht in Corpse Bride (2005) and the Dodo in Alice in Wonderland (2010).

Gough appeared extensively on British television. In 1957 he received a British Academy Television Award for Best Actor. In Doctor Who he played the titular villain in The Celestial Toymaker (1966) and Councillor Hedin in Arc of Infinity (1983), and in The Avengers episode "The Cybernauts" (1965) he played the automation-obsessed wheelchair user Dr. Armstrong.

At the National Theatre in London, Gough excelled as a comedian, playing a resigned and rueful parent in Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce (1977). When the comedy transferred to Broadway in 1978 he won a Tony Award. One of Gough's most well-received West End roles was as Baron von Epp in the 1983 revival of John Osborne's A Patriot for Me.