Ballard Blascheck (6 August 1904 â€" 16 January 1988), known
professionally as Ballard Berkeley,[a] was an English actor of stage
and screen. He played Major Gowen in the British television sitcom
Fawlty Towers.The son of Joseph and Beatrice Blascheck, he was born in
Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He served as a Special Constable with the
Metropolitan Police during the Second World War, witnessing the Blitz
at first hand, including the bombing of the Café de Paris nightclub.
For his service he received the Defence Medal and the Special
Constabulary Long Service Medal.[citation needed]Berkeley played the
role of the bumbling Major Gowen in the BBC TV comedy Fawlty Towers.
He had played a similar role in 1969 in the legal drama The Main
Chance. He portrayed another retired military man (Colonel Freddie
Danby) in BBC Radio 4's The Archers, taking over the role from Norman
Shelley. Ballard Berkeley Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter