This very gently-spoken gentleman's diction was matched by his equally gentle demeanour.

Harry Davenport, for it is he, was another much-loved Hollywood supporting actor of the Thirties and Forties.

He was marvellous as the gunsmith in Son Of Fury (1942), with Tyrone Power and George Sanders, and equally at home in light comedy, as in The Cowboy And The Lady (1938), with Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan (with teeth), Patsy Kelly and Merle Oberon.

Davenport was just as charming, too, as Grandpa in Meet Me In St Louis (1944), with Judy Garland and Tom Drake. He took a more serious role in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1939), with Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, Thomas Mitchell, George Zucco and a host of others. Producer and director Pandro S Berman did this one for RKO Pictures.

Talk about swings and roundabouts - Berman, assisted by choreographer Hermes Pan, did several Astaire and Rogers musicals. What a wonderful place Hollywood must have been then and how one thing still leads to another.

-Gordon Dean, St Luke's Road, Brighton