Julian Burnlee Curry (8 December 1937 – 27 June 2020) was an English actor best known for playing Claude Erskine-Browne in ITV's legal comedy-drama Rumpole of the Bailey. Early life The son of William Burnlee Curry (1900-1962), headmaster of Dartington Hall School from 1930 to 1957, and Marjorie Graham (née McIldowie), Curry was educated at Dartington Hall School and King's College, Cambridge. Television appearances Curry made his first television appearance in 1965 in an episode of the series For Whom the Bell Tolls. Other TV appearances include roles in Pride and Prejudice (1967), Softly, Softly (1968), Nicholas Nickleby (1968), Z-Cars (1965 & 1975), The Floater (1975), The Way of the World (1975), Brassneck (1975), The Glittering Prizes (1976), Trilby (1976), The Onedin Line (1976), Campion's Interview (1977), Rumpole of the Bailey (1977–1992), The Life of Shakespeare (1978), Prince Regent (1979), The Vanishing Army (1980), Psy Warriors (1981), A Fine Romance (1982), the BBC Television Shakespeare production of King Lear (1982), The New Statesman (1984), Three Up, Two Down (1985), Lytton's Diary (1985–86), Death of a Son (1989), Around the World in 80 Days (1989), Sherlock Holmes (1991), Thatcher: The Final Days (1991), Inspector Morse (1993), Bugs – Assassins Inc (1995), It Might Be You (1995), Kavanagh QC (1997), The Wyvern Mystery (2000), Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (2001), The Hunt (2001), Prince William (2002), Stig of the Dump (2002), Midsomer Murders (2004), The Brief (2005), and The Queen's Sister (2005). Film roles Curry's film appearances included The Mini-Affair (1967), The Brontë Sisters (1979), Manions of America (1981), Escape to Victory (1981), The Missionary (1982), Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (1985), Fall From Grace (1994), Loch Ness (1996), Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996), (2000), and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004). Theatre work His appearances with the Royal Shakespeare Company included roles in Doctor Faustus (1969), Much Ado About Nothing (1969), The Hollow Crown (1976), Pleasure and Repentance (1976), The Winter's Tale, (1984), The Crucible (1984), Krapp's Last Tape (1984), The Danton Affair (1986), King John (1989), Henry VI (1989), The Merchant of Venice (1997), Talk of the City (1998), Back to Methuselah (2001) and Women Beware Women (2006). At the National Theatre he appeared in Measure for Measure (1973), The Bacchae (1973), and The Alchemist (2006). Other major stage appearances include roles in Hamlet (1971), The Black and White Minstrels (1973), Donkey's Years (1976), The Importance