Who could ever forget this dramatic scene from The Great Escape – where Archibald Ives played by Angus Lennie is shot dead by German guards as he attempts to scale the outer fence and escape : 
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=utjMzurvz3k
Angus Lennie, the diminutive Scottish actor who played the “tunnel man” known as the Mole in the 1963 prison-camp movie “The Great Escape,” died on Sunday September 14th 2014, in a London Nursing Home. He was 84.
Mr. Lennie, who was not quite five and a half feet tall, was born in Glasgow on April 18, 1930, and began his career in show business as a dancer and a stand-up comedian. As an actor he was known in Britain for his appearances in numerous television series, but especially as Shughie McFee, in the very popular English TV series Crossroads.
He later appeared on Television in Doctor Who – at that time being played by Patrick Troughton – and in more recent time in Monarch of the Glen.
Above – Angus Lennie and Noele Gordon in Crossroads.
I will never forget that moment in The Great Escape when he ran to the fence in a desperate attempt to break free. Such an iconic moment. RIP.
As you know Tony he was in Crossroads for years and that must have provided him with a regular income but as you say
it was this scene in The Great Escape that really puts him in the forefront of the film world. It was a good part – he probably never got another anywhere near as good – and I have to say he played it brilliantly resulting in the dramatic scene we remember. The Great Escape is a wonderful film
probably the best ever war film, and it seems to be one that you can watch over and over again.