Born in 1920, Richard Beale joined the Royal Navy aged 20 and served from 1940 until the end of the Second World War. Following his service in the Navy, he worked for his father's print firm for 10 years until worked as an actor until 2005, appearing in hundreds of TV series including such classics as Dr Finlay's Casebook, Z Cars, A Handful of Dust and more recently, Casualty and Teachers. His time in the navy gave him a love of sailing that he has pursued throughout his life, sailing and racing single-handedly until 2010.
