He appeared in dozens of films, most notably All at Sea 1936, School for Husbands 1937, Over the Moon 1939, Ten Days in Paris 1940, Blithe Spirit 1945, Anna and the King of Siam 1946, The Ghost and Mrs Muir 1947, The Constant Husband 1955, My Fair Lady 1964, Doctor Doolittle 1966 and the prince and the Pauper 1977.
In 1940 he played the part of Dickie Randall who was a spy codenamed Gus Bennett before imposing a senior German army officer in Night train to Munich which co-starred Margaret Lockwood – this film was considered a sequel to Hitchcock’s The lady Vanishes film as the film similarities also included Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne reprising their earlier parts of Charters and Caldicott.
In 1989 he was knighted by HM Majesty Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace whilst an orchestra played tunes from My Fair Lady.
He died in 1990.