Actor and Hammer star

Born: February 28, 1927;

Died: November 5, 2016

JOHN Carson, who has died aged 89, was a prolific character actor who became known for sinister, velvety-voiced villains on television and in a number of the Hammer films.

He appeared in three Hammer films in all, including Taste the Blood of Dracula, one of Christopher Lee's Dracula films, and 1974's Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter, one of the last of the films Hammer produced before the studio's terminal decline.

However, Carson's finest work with Hammer was probably The Plague of the Zombies in 1966. It starred Andre Morell, who was most famous for playing Professor Bernard Quatermass, and featured Carson as an evil squire Clive Hamilton who uses voodoo to convert humans into zombies. The film is still considered one of the better Hammers and was said to have influenced the landmark film in the genre, Night of the Living Dead, which was made a couple of years later.

Carson also had considerable success on television, usually as villains in cult 60s shows such as The Avengers, Man in a Suitcase and Adam Adamant Lives! He also appeared in Ivanhoe, the 1950s TV series starring Roger Moore and was later reunited with Moore in The Saint. Carson also appeared in Hammer's television series in the 1980s.

He was born John Derek Carson-Parker to British parents in Ceylon where his father worked on tea and rubber plantations. He had originally intended to be a lawyer and, after serving as an artillery officer during the Second World War, came to Britain to study law at Queen's College, Oxford.

He realised, though, that law was not for him and switched to acting, working as a professional radio actor in New Zealand. He then joined the New Zealand Players theatre company before returning to Britain in the 1950s and finding work on television.

His big break was landing the part of a doctor on ITV's long-running hospital soap Emergency Ward 10. He appeared in several episodes in 1959 and it led to regular work on British television in the 1960s and 70s, including two Dickens adaptations Oliver Twist and Dombey and Son. He also appeared as Mr Knightley in the BBC's 1972 adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma.

He was still working regularly on television in the 1980s, appearing in a Doctor Who story called Snakedance which gave Martin Clunes one of his first TV roles, but for family reasons he then moved to South Africa, where he had to essentially start out again. While there, he appeared in the BBC's 1996 drama series based on the life of Cecil Rhodes. It was not always an easy life though: he and his wife Luanshya Greer, a scriptwriter, attracted the attention of the authorities during the days of apartheid and their phone was bugged.

By 2007, Carson was back in the UK and appeared in series such as Doctors for the BBC, Midsomer Murders and Poirot. He also appeared on stage during his career and was particularly proud of his part as Freddie in the premiere of Peter Nichols' play A Day in the Death of Joe Eigg in 1967. Thanks to the velvet voice, he was also in demand to do voice-overs for adverts and was the voice of Benson and Hedges cigars among many other products.

When asked about working for Hammer, Carson said it had been fun but the secret of making it work was taking it very seriously.

"To do Hammer in the time," he said, "you actually had to step up to the plate and do it. You couldn't fudge it, this kind of gothic horror." The material was often absurd, he said, but when it came to shooting, you had to take it seriously.

John Carson is survived by his wife Luanshya and his five children.