Don Warrington



Don Warrington, MBE (born May 23, 1951) is a Trinidadian British actor. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.

Early Life
Warrington was born in Trinidad but as a young child went with his mother to England, where he was raised in Newcastle upon Tyne. His father, Basil Kydd, was a Trinidadian politician who died in 1958. He trained as an actor at the Drama Centre London. He started acting in repertory theatre at the age of seventeen.

Career
Warrington is chiefly known for playing Philio Smith in Rising Damp, from 1974 to 1978, alongside Leonard Rossiter and Richatd Beckinsale. Warrington appeared in the crime drama C.A.T.S. Eyes, as government contact Nigel Beaumont; in Impact Earth (2007) playing General Harris; and in New Street Law as Judge Ken Winyard.

In 1993 Warrington played television reporter Graham Gaunt in To Play The King, the second part of the BBCs House Of Cards trilogy.

Currently Warrington is playing the lead role of Joe Keller, in an all-black revival of Arthur Miller's (The Crucible) tragedy, "All my Sons" at the Manchester Royal Exchange.

He has had smaller roles in many programmes including: Red Dwarf, Lovejoy, Manchild and Diamond Geezer. He portrayed the villainous founder of Time Lord society, Rassilon, in several Doctor Who episode "Rise of the Cybermen" (2006). Soon after, he recorded an abridged audio book of the Doctor Who novel The Art of Destruction by Stephen Cole.

Warrington has performed with the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Bristol Old Vic.

He is one of the interviewees on the BBC2 series Grumpy Old Men, and he appears in a series of Kenco coffee advertisements in the United Kingdom in which he plays an African coffee plantation owner. He regularly provides voice-overs for both BBC TV and radio.

He also starred in BBC1 sitcom The Crouches, which aired from 9 September 2003 until 2005. He played Bailey, who was Roly's boss at a London Underground station in South London. Roly was played by Robbie Gee. He played the role of the Hospital Chaplain in Casualty, assuming the role of Trevor. He also starred in the 2010 film It's a Wonderful Afterlife.

He has provided voiceover links, reading out the various methods of contacting the show on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2, which has been broadcast since 11 January 2010.

He also appeared as jazz musician Frederick J. Louden in a BBC radio production of The Devil's Music, written by Alan Plater. In 2011, Warrington played the father of a suspected terrorist in the last series of the BBC drama Waking the Dead. He is currently in the new BBC show Death in Paradise, playing a Caribbean police Commissioner.

Warrington competed in the sixth series of Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with the 2005 and 2006 British National Champion in Latin American dance, Lilia Kopylova. After Week 4, Warrington was joint seventh out of the remaining 12 contestants with an average of 24.5 points. In Week 5 he was eliminated, having lost the dance-off against Heather Small, with the first three judges all voting for Small over Warrington.

He joined the show in order to step out of his comfort zone, and he appreciated the opportunity to learn to dance.