Brian Glover; English Character Actor

Brian Glover, the robust English character actor who liked to joke about his hefty size, died Thursday of complications from a brain tumor, his agent said. He was 63.

Born in the Yorkshire town of Barnsley in the north of England, Glover began his career as a teacher and professional wrestler, turning to acting in his 30s.

He made his film debut in 1969 in the influential low-budget English film “Kes,” directed by Ken Loach, and went on to be a familiar, likable face on television, in movies and in the West End and subsidized theater.

Glover was familiar to American audiences particularly in the “Alien 3” motion picture, in which he played a brutal warden, and in PBS’ “Mystery!” series as the pugnacious valet of hero detective Albert Campion played by English actor Peter Davison.

Describing his place within the profession, the sturdy, balding Glover once said in a BBC radio interview that he wished he resembled Jeremy Irons. Instead, the actor said, he was “lumpen--that’s not a word that appeals to many, I suspect.”

“I wish I had hair,” he added.

Glover had supporting roles in such films as “Brannigan,” “The Great Train Robbery,” “An American Werewolf in London,” “The Company of Wolves,” “Kafka” and “Leon the Pig Farmer.”

He had a part in the yet-to-be-released satire “Stiff Upper Lips” with Peter Ustinov and Prunella Scales.

His other television appearances included “Coronation Street” and “All Creatures Great and Small.”

On stage, he had a career triumph playing God in a 1985 Royal National Theater version of the medieval mystery plays and appeared in West End runs of “La Cage Aux Folles,” “The Canterbury Tales” and as Chief Sitting Bull in “Annie Get Your Gun.”

In 1992, he took the role of Buckingham in a well-received touring production of Shakespeare’s “Richard III.”

He is survived by his second wife, Tara, two children and four grandchildren.