Jim Dale

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Jim Dale MBE (born James Smith on August 15, 1935) is a British singer, songwriter, and actor.

Several of his songs entered the UK singles chart:

"Be My Girl" (1957)
"Just Born" (1958)
"Crazy Dream" (1958)
"Sugartime" (1958)

He wrote the song "Dick-a-Dum-Dum (King's Road)," which became a minor hit for Des O'Connor in 1969, and his lyrics for the movie theme Georgy Girl were nominated for an Academy Award in 1966. The song (performed by The Seekers) reached number 1 in the US charts the following year.

Dale appeared in a number of the Carry On films, generally playing the romantic lead, in the noted silent short film The Plank, though he also had success as a comic villain in the Disney films Pete's Dragon and The Spaceman and King Arthur aka Unidentifed Flying Oddball. He is an accomplished stage actor (in both straight and musical roles) who has been nominated for four Tony Awards, winning one for Barnum. He is the narrator of the American edition of the Harry Potter audiobooks (Stephen Fry reads the UK versions), and also the Harry Potter DVDs.