Simon Ward | 'Young Winston' star, 70

Simon Ward, 70, a car dealer's son who gave moviegoers an enduring image of Winston Churchill as a callow aristocrat, playing the British bulldog in the 1972 film

Young Winston,

died Saturday in London.

His death was announced by his family. No cause was given, though he had been receiving medical treatment since 2011, when illness forced him to drop out of rehearsals for a London stage production of Pygmalion.

Mr. Ward's archetypical Englishness made him Hollywood's go-to British actor for a time, the Hugh Grant of the early 1970s. Following the success of Young Winston, he was cast in leading roles in Hitler: The Last Ten Days and The Three Musketeers, both in 1973.

In 1975, he starred in All Creatures Great and Small, a TV movie based on the writing of the veterinarian James Herriot. Recently, he played Bishop Stephen Gardiner in the historical-fiction series The Tudors.

He is survived by his wife and three daughters.

- N.Y. Times News Service