Donald Sinden

Spitting Image (1984) created a puppet of him and he featured in several of their sketches. In one scene, he is in a restaurant and asks "Do you serve a ham salad?", to which the waiter replies "Yes, we serve salad to anyone".

He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1979 Queen's New Year Honours List and created a Knight Bachelor in the 1997 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama.

He was nominated for Broadway's 1976 Tony Award as Best Actor (Play) for "Habeas Corpus.".

The son of a country chemist, the British actor Donald Sinden intended to pursue a career in architecture but was spotted in an amateur theatrical production and asked to join a company that entertained the troops during World War II (Sinden was rejected for naval service because of asthma). Following a brief training at drama school, he established himself in theater, particularly as a Shakespearean actor. Having made his film debut in The Cruel Sea (1953), Sinden became a leading man in British films during the 1950s and then moved onto character roles later in his career.

He joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1946 despite having hated Shakespeare when he was at school.