Roddy McMillan OBE (23 March 1923 – 9 July 1979) was a Scottish actor and playwright, possibly most famous for his comedy role as Para Handy for BBC Scotland's television series, The Vital Spark.^[1][2] He also played the lead role in Edward Boyd's private eye series, The View from Daniel Pike.^[3]

Biography

The Glasgow-born McMillan worked for a time in a glassworks. His theatre work began in the mid-1940s with the Glasgow Unity Theatre.^[4] Later that decade, he began acting with the Glasgow Citizen's Company before moving on to Edinburgh's Gateway Theatre in the mid-1950s.^[5]

His first play, All in Good Faith, about a Glasgow family which unexpectedly comes into possession of £15,000, was first staged in 1954.^[6] He performed in his second play, The Bevellers, which premiered at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh and achieved success at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow during 1973 and then as a televised Play for Today for the BBC.^[2][7] McMillan also played Detective Inspector "Choc" Minty in the late 1970s private eye series, Hazell, starring Nicholas Ball.^[8]

McMillan was awarded the OBE in the 1978 Queen's Birthday honours.

Death

Roddy McMillan died following a heart attack, aged 56, not long after completing filming on the second series of Hazell.^[9]

Filmography

Reviews

• Findlay, Bill (1980), review of All in Good Faith in Bold, Christine (ed.), Cencrastus No. 3, Summer 1980, pp. 43 & 44, ISSN 0264-0856.