Editing Donald Pleasence (section)

==Early life==
Pleasence was born in [[Worksop]], [[Nottinghamshire]], the son of Alice (née Armitage) and Thomas Stanley Pleasence, a railway station master.<ref name="ref1">{{cite book|last1=Ross|first1=Helen|first2=Lillian |last2=Ross|title= The Player: A Profile of an Art|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=1962|page=[https://archive.org/details/playerprofileofa00ross/page/256 256]|url=https://archive.org/details/playerprofileofa00ross|url-access=registration}}</ref> His grandfather was a railwayman, who lived at Portland Place in Worksop, where Donald developed an interest in cricket.

He received his formal education at Crosby Junior School, known as Doncaster Road School, in [[Scunthorpe]].<ref name=ST>[http://www.scunthorpetelegraph.co.uk/pictures/STAR-PUPILS-REVEALED-Famous-people-Scunthorpe/pictures-26690493-detail/pictures.html Star Pupils Revealed at Scunthorpe Telegraph] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151101161627/http://www.scunthorpetelegraph.co.uk/pictures/STAR-PUPILS-REVEALED-Famous-people-Scunthorpe/pictures-26690493-detail/pictures.html |date=1 November 2015 }}. Retrieved 9 July 2016</ref> He lived at 111 Frodingham Road for nine years. Aged seven he took part in his first play, in Scunthorpe called ''[[Passers By (play)|Passers By]]''.<ref>''Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph'' Saturday 1 August 1998, page 83</ref>

He was brought up as a strict [[Methodist]] in the small village of [[Grimoldby]], [[Lincolnshire]], from the age of nine.<ref name=ref09/> With his older brother Ralph, both went to Eastfield Road school in Louth.<ref>''Louth Standard'' Saturday 9 January 1932, page 10</ref><ref>''Louth Standard'' Saturday 2 July 1932, page 9</ref> He was in the local Scouts, the 4th United Methodist in Louth.<ref>''Louth Standard'' Saturday 27 August 1932, page 9</ref><ref>''Louth Standard'' Friday 12 December 1958</ref>
He produced the school Christmas concert, in Louth, in his early teens.<ref>''Louth Standard'' Friday 21 February 1964, page 16</ref><ref>''Lincolnshire Standard'' Friday 21 February 1964, page 16</ref><ref>''Sleaford Standard'' Friday 21 February 1964, page 14</ref><ref>''Louth Standard'' Friday 10 February 1995, page 4</ref><ref>''Lincolnshire Echo'' Thursday 2 February 1995, page 15</ref><ref>''Grimsby Evening Telegraph'' Wednesday 8 January 1997, page 16</ref>

His father was the stationmaster at [[Grimoldby railway station]] for five years, on the [[Mablethorpe loop railway]]. <ref>''Louth Standard'' Saturday 11 January 1947, page 6</ref> His parents were in the temperance society, as they were Methodists,<ref>''Louth Standard'' Saturday 6 December 1930, page 10</ref><ref>''Louth Standard'' Saturday 12 March 1932, page 16</ref> and his mother was in the Grimoldby and Manby WI.<ref>''Louth Standard'' Saturday 4 March 1933, page 14</ref>

By early 1934 he had moved from Lincolnshire, where his father had been the LNER stationmaster from around early 1929.<ref>''Nottingham Guardian'' Wednesday 5 July 1967, page 6</ref> His father was the stationmaster at Ecclesfield. His father would die aged 77 in around 1965, after moving to Teddington in the late 1950s.

He found his way into grammar school, at [[Ecclesfield School|Ecclesfield Grammar School]] near [[Sheffield]], which he said changed his life. Mr Clay was head of English, and with the headmaster, encouraged him, saying 'I owe virtually everything to them'. He developed his acting in Mr Clay's 'Wednesday Club' drama society. He has said that he was good at English but 'not much else'. Donald's father asked the headmaster to persuade his son to not choose to be an actor. A class friend Sam Hemingfield, would become a teacher, and later head of the sixth form at Ecclesfield School. Another friend was John Bertram, who would become a teacher, and head of English at [[Bradfield School]].

For eighteen months he worked as a booking clerk at  [[Swinton railway station (South Yorkshire)|Swinton railway station]],<ref>Obituary for Pleasence, 'The Independent', 2 February 1995.</ref> with LNER<ref>''Lincolnshire Standard'' Friday 17 July 1964, page 5</ref> and  decided that he wanted to be a professional actor, taking up a placement with the Jersey Repertory Company in 1939.<ref name=ref09>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/playeraprofileof002609mbp/playeraprofileof002609mbp_djvu.txt |title=Full text of "The Player A Profile Of An Art" |year=1961 |publisher=Simon And Schuster |access-date=2010-10-06}}</ref> His first professional play at the Playhouse, in Jersey in July 1939 was as assistant stage manager with the Kent-Naismith Rep Company, where he played Hareton Earnshaw in [[Wuthering Heights]].<ref>''Eckington and Staveley Express'' Saturday 15 July 1939, page 4</ref>

Until 1941, he worked in [[repertory theatre]]. Until leaving rep, he had a rebellious nature, and often upset theatre directors and managers, leading to him being dismissed.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}}