British character actor John Horsley launched his film career in 1948. Horsley started out by playing a plethora of policemen, then specialized in portraying doctors, barristers and business executives. His characters were nearly always bespectacled, all the better for his trademarked baleful stares. One of his smallest parts was in one of his biggest films: 1959's Ben-Hur. PBS devotees will recognize John Horsley as Doc Morrisey in the British sitcom The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin (1975).