Olaf Pooley

Oloe Krohn "Olaf" Pooley (13 March 1914 – 14 July 2015) was an English actor, screenwriter and painter.

Pooley was born to an English father and Danish mother in Parkstone, Dorset. He attended Dane Court preparatory school in Pyrford where his father was headmaster. He studied painting at Chelsea College of Arts and at the Académie Colarossi in Paris under the tutelage of Marcel Gromaire, before training at the Architectural Association School of Architecture to enable a more financially secure career option. His paternal uncle Sir Ernest Pooley, the future Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain, secured him a job as a set designer at Pinewood Studios. During World War II, Pooley registered as a conscientious objector and volunteered as a fireman; he was subsequently discharged on medical grounds and began his acting career on stage.

He wrote and appeared in the film The Corpse (released in the United States as Crucible of Horror), starring Michael Gough, and wrote, directed and appeared in The Johnstown Monster. He also wrote the screenplay for a film version of Bernard Taylor's novel The Godsend (1980). Beaumont directed the film. Pooley's other writing credits include the television film Falcon's Gold (1982) and being an uncredited writer on the sci-fi horror film Lifeforce (1985).

Pooley's TV guest appearances from the 1950s onwards include Dixon of Dock Green, Paul Temple, Jason King, MacGyver and Star Trek: Voyager. He played Professor Stahlman and his parallel Earth counterpart Director Stahlmann in the Doctor Who serial Inferno (1970). He also played Lars Torvik in the first episode of The Sandbaggers ("First Principles", 1978). His other appearances include the BBC Radio play Ambrose in Paris (1958) and Sebastian in a BBC Television Sunday Night Theatre production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1956). Pooley had a major career in West End theatre appearing in such notable productions as Noël Coward's Peace in Our Time and revivals of The Tempest and Othello. He was also a member of the BBC Radio repertory company.

In 1946, Pooley married actress Irlin Hall and together they had a daughter, the actress Kirstie Pooley (born 1954) and a son, comedian Seyton Pooley and later divorced. From 1982 to 1993, he was married to director Gabrielle Beaumont. The two had a daughter, Amanda Pooley, who died in 1989.

Pooley moved to the United States in 1986 and lived in Southern California, with an art studio in Santa Monica where he devoted his time to painting.^{[citation needed]} He turned 100 on 13 March 2014.

He died from congestive heart failure on 14 July 2015, aged 101, at his home in Santa Monica, California. Pooley was survived by his two children, Seyton and Kirstie, and four grandchildren.

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