Donald Eccles (born 26th April 1908 in Nafferton, Yorkshire, died 2nd February 1986 in Brighton) appeared in Coronation Street in February 1963 as Newton & Ridley area manager Fred Hamilton.
He began his working career as an insurance clerk but then moved into the acting profession. He appeared on Broadway in 1930 in The Last Enemy and in the West End in 1934 in Counsellor at Law. His career was interrupted by the Second World War when he served in the Royal Navy. When he returned to acting, a part of his career was spent as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
His television career began in 1939 at Alexandra Palace with the play Geneva. After the war he built up a long CV of television work with various one-off plays as well as series such as Boyd Q.C., The Arthur Askey Show, Out of This World, The Avengers, ITV Play of the Week, Z Cars, The Wednesday Play, Theatre 625, Adam Adamant Lives!, The Caesars, Softly Softly: Task Force, Doctor Who, The Pallisers, Special Branch, Public Eye, I, Claudius, Rumpole of the Bailey, Play for Today, Brideshead Revisited, Tales of the Unexpected, Minder, Crown Court, Fresh Fields, Never the Twain and Paradise Postponed.
His film parts include roles in The Wicker Man, A Private Function and Young Sherlock Holmes.
Other stage work includes productions of Heartbreak House, The Night of the Iguana, Murder in the Cathedral, The Chalk Garden, Suddenly at Home, A Family and a Fortune, Forty Years On, The Sorrows of Frederick and Pygmalion.
