Robert St Clair Grant (14 April 1932 – 8 November 2003) was an English actor and writer, best known for playing bus conductor Jack Harper in the television sitcom On the Buses, as well as its film spin-offs and stage version.

[1] Grant trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, working in his spare time as a frozen food salesman and also (coincidentally, in view of his later career) as a bus driver.

[13] In January of that year, Grant appeared as The Major in a six-part radio comedy drama The 17-Jewelled Shockproof Swiss-Made Bomb, featuring Peter Coke.

In 1975, he wrote and starred in a one-off pilot Milk-O alongside his On the Buses co-star Anna Karen, an attempt to reinvigorate his career by means of a similar character, a milkman who spent his time fighting off amorous housewives he was delivering to.

[15] In 1980, Grant played the title role in John Arden's BBC radio adaptation of Don Quixote, with Bernard Cribbins as Sancho Panza.

[16] In 1986, he played a cockney detective inspector in The Red Telephone Box, a comedy thriller by Ken Whitmore on BBC Radio 4.

[citation needed] He was in a relationship with On the Buses guest star Gaye Brown, until he broke up with her to date (and eventually marry) Kim Benwell.

When Grant married for the third time in 1971, with his On the Buses co-star Stephen Lewis as Best Man,[24] there were huge crowds outside the register office.

I left the house and thumbed a lift to Melton Mowbray, and then got a train to Birmingham New Street where I sat sobbing in a station buffet.

On the strength of the appeal, Grant eventually returned to England, where his absence had caused a small stir, which allowed him to gain a few more acting jobs.

Grant was discovered just in time, slumped over the steering wheel of his car, which was filled with exhaust fumes, and admitted to hospital for treatment.

This time he succeeded, dying in his fume-filled car in his garage with a hose attached to the exhaust pipe, and was found dead soon after.