Richard Hurndall, a striking character actor of intense presence, began his acting career in 1930. He was educated at Scarborough College and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Initially, he acted in repertory theatre and later with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, taking on roles such as Orlando in "As You Like It", Bassanio in "The Merchant of Venice", and Laertes in "Hamlet".
His powerful voice and precise diction made him well-suited for radio work, and he was a member of the BBC radio drama repertory company from 1949 to 1952. He also hosted Radio Luxemburg's British version of Edward R. Murrow's "This I Believe" and played Sherlock Holmes in a BBC radio adaptation of "The Sign of Four".
Hurndall made sporadic television appearances from 1946, but didn't fully take to the medium until the mid-1960s. His versatility and ability to adopt diverse accents and dialects led to him being cast as doctors, magistrates, aristocrats, and authority figures of various ethnic backgrounds. He was equally effective as a debonair underworld figure, such as Henry Mackleson in Spindoe (1968).
He also appeared in a humorous episode of Steptoe and Son (1962),playing a campy antiques dealer, and had a memorable role as Carne, a German general, in the Ripping Yarns (1976) adventure "Whinfrey's Last Case".
