Alan Norton Fletcher Webb (2 July 1906 – 22 June 1982) was an English actor. He was principally known as a stage performer, but made several film and television appearances. He seldom played leading roles, but was frequently cast in important character parts. He created roles in plays by A. A. Milne, Noël Coward, T. S. Eliot and other contemporary playwrights. Life and career Early years Webb was born in York on 2 July 1906, the elder of the two sons of Major Thomas Francis Albertoni Webb (1862–1955) and his wife Lili, née Fletcher. He was educated at Bramcote School, Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire and Royal Naval Colleges Osborne and Dartmouth. He decided against a Royal Navy career in favour of the theatre. Webb made his first professional appearance on the stage at the Century Theatre, Bayswater in April 1924, as Lawyer Hawkins in The Devil's Disciple with the Lena Ashwell Players, with whom he remained until 1926. After shorter spells with J.B. Fagan's Oxford Players (1926–28) and the Masque Theatre Company in Edinburgh and Glasgow (1928) he had small roles in three West End productions. He then joined the Liverpool Repertory Company under the direction of William Armstrong. There, between 1929 and 1931 he was cast in leading roles, including Mole in the world premiere of Toad of Toad Hall, and Astrov to Armstrong's Uncle Vanya. 1930s and 1940s Webb's last spells in provincial repertory were with the Croydon Rep in 1932 and 1933, interspersed with three engagements in London. From the mid-1930s for several years he was in a relationship with Noël Coward; John Gielgud called Webb "[Coward's] best critic, in my opinion . . . a very caustic and brilliant actor, much under-rated. He was one of the few who dared to oppose Noël. Short, masculine, a little rough but definitely camp". Webb appeared in several of the author's plays. He had supporting roles in nine of the ten short plays in the Tonight at 8.30 cycle (1936), played Ernest in the British premiere of Design for Living (1939) and took over from Nicholas Phipps as Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit (1945). In 1947, under the author's supervision, he directed the first production of Coward's Peace in Our Time. Long after their affair had finished, Coward cast him in the important role of Punalo Alani in South Sea Bubble in 1956. Webb made his Broadway début