Jim Dale as The Narrator

Jim Dale MBE (born James Smith on August 15, 1935) is an English actor, singer, and songwriter who is best known for his roles in the Carry On films and as the narrator of the Harry Potter audiobook series in the United States. He was born in Rothwell, Northamptonshire.

As a songwriter Dale is best remembered as the lyricist for the movie theme Georgy Girl, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1966. The song (performed by The Seekers) reached number 2 in the US charts the following year. Several of his songs entered the UK singles chart including Be My Girl (1957)(UK # 2in 1957), Just Born (1958), Crazy Dream (1958) and Sugartime (1958). As a singer he became the first artist under the wing of Sir George Martin who produced many hit records for him. Dale also wrote the song Dick-a-Dum-Dum (King’s Road), which became a minor hit for Des O’Connor in 1969.

Dale appeared in eleven of the Carry On films, generally playing the romantic lead. His last appearance in the main series was in Carry On Again Doctor in 1969, however 23 years later he appeared in the title role in Carry on Columbus. He was in the noted silent short film The Plank, and played the young Spike Milligan in the film version of Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall. He appeared in Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World, which also featured Milligan. He had success as a comic villain in the Disney films Pete’s Dragon and The Spaceman and King Arthur aka Unidentifed Flying Oddball.

At the age of eighteen Dale became the youngest professional comedian in Britain, touring all the great Variety Music Halls. On stage he appeared in both straight and musical roles, and has been nominated for four Tony Awards, winning one for Barnum. In 2006, Dale performed on Broadway (at Studio 54) in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of The Threepenny Opera, as Mr. Peachum. He became “The Toast of Broadway” (N.Y.Times), when he created the flamboyant title role in the now world famous Cy Coleman musical Barnum winning him the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award.

In 1970, at the request of Laurence Olivier, he joined The National Theatre in London as a leading actor. Over the next two years he appeared in Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Merchant of Venice, The National Health, The Good Natured Man, The Captain of Kopenick, and a two hander play with Anthony Hopkins, The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria. At the Young Vic Theatre, he created the title role in Scapino, which he co-adapted with Frank Dunlop, and played Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew. His other West End theatre credits include The Wayward Way, The Card, A Midsummer Nights Dream, The Winters Tale, and most recently the part of Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh’s Oliver! at the London Palladium.

His Broadway successes include Scapino (Drama Desk Award/Outer Critics Award/Tony Award Nomination), Joe Egg (Outer Critics Award /Tony Award Nomination). Me And My Girl and Candide (Tony Award Nomination). Other credits Off-Broadway include Travels With My Aunt (Drama Desk Award / Lucille Lortel Award / Outer Critics Award), Privates On Parade, The Taming of the Shrew, The Invisible Man, The Music Man, Comedians (Drama Desk Award nomination and a Lucille Lortel Award nomination), A Christmas Carol – The Musical, Address Unknown and Three Penny Opera (Drama Desk Award / Outer Critics Award / The Rchard Seff Award and a Tony Award nomination). In November, 2006 Dale starred as “Charlie Baxter” in the Sherman Brothers’ musical, Busker Alley alongside Glenn Close.

To millions of fans in the United States Jim Dale is the voice of Harry Potter (In Britain the audiobooks are produced by Bloomsbury, and Stephen Fry reads them.). He has recorded all seven books in the Harry Potter series, and as a narrator he has won the Grammy Award 2000, four Grammy Nominations, seven Audie Awards including “Audio Book of the Year 2004”, “Best Narrator 2004/2005/ 2006,” “Best Children’s Audio Book 2005,” two Benjamin Franklin Awards and seven Audio File Earphone Awards. He also holds two Guinness World Records: one for having created and recorded 134 different character voices for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and one for occupying the first six places in the Top Ten Audio Books of America 2005.

Dale was awarded an MBE in 2003 for his work in promoting English children’s literature

He has lived in New York since 1980. He was married to Patricia from 1957 until their divorce in 1977. They had 4 children, one of whom, Murray Dale, was briefly an actor in the 1970s children’s television series Boy Dominic. In 1980, he married Julia Schafler, the owner of Madison Avenue’s prestigious “Julie: Artisan’s Gallery.”

Source: Wikipedia and IMDb

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