Actor Born March 2, 1937 Died January 18, 2009 Henry "Harry" Stamper, who has died aged 71, was an actor who was widely regarded as being among the leading impersonators of his generation.

On the stage, perhaps his greatest moment was when he performed a one-man show impersonating the poet Hugh MacDiarmid during the 1977 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, an event that earned him international plaudits, an Edinburgh Fringe First and, perhaps most impressively, the unstinting praise of the often thrawn MacDiarmid himself.

However, Stamper's bread and butter came from a long and highly focused career as a jobbing actor and writer. He was everywhere - turning up on Z Cars, The Saint, Dr Finlay's Casebook and Softly Softly.

He also wrote screen plays, lectured, acted in films, recorded CDs of his own short stories and, perhaps most amazingly, earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records by performing 56 parts in a radio play, They Came to Britain.

It was this ability to impersonate almost any regional dialect that brought him most admiration among fellow thespians, with renowned storyteller David Campbell observing: "In terms of that particular skill, he was nothing less than the best of his generation."

Stamper was born and brought up in a single end in Edinburgh's Hutchison district. The youngest of four sons, his soldier father left home when he was still in the crib, leaving his mother, a professional nanny in the richer parts of town, to bring up her four boys two to a bed, while she herself slept on the couch.

An incorrigible optimist, Mary would entertain her children the only way she knew how - by doing frequent performances of her impersonations of her stuck-up employers.

Harry loved these performances and soon emulated them at amateur dramatic clubs such as the Jason players, before graduating to Radio Scotland while still a youngster.

But money was invariably in short supply and his acting career was frequently interrupted by harrowing casual jobs, both in Britain and abroad. This was no easy lifestyle, particularly for a greatly talented perfectionist with a bit of a temper, and often he would take out his frustrations on himself and sometimes on others, too. On these occasions, drink often became his worst, though not only, enemy.

His private life was less stressed. He maintained loving and supportive relationships with his brothers and was lucky in his love life.

His first wife was Helen Redmond, daughter of Liam, whom he married in 1968 and divorced amicably around 10 years later.

His latter partner was Betty Huntley Wright, to whom he was devoted until her death in 1991, an event from which he never entirely recovered.

Stamper was a remarkable talent who overcame a very challenging background to carve out an impressive career. He brought much joy.