Born in New Zealand, he served in the Royal Air Force and an expedition to Antarctica before winning a Paramount Pictures talent contest and moving to Hollywood.

He acted in a number of films before moving to Britain during the Second World War as a flight controller with the Royal Canadian Air Force.

[1][2] He was educated at Christ's College, Christchurch from 1918 to 1926,[1][3] and took part in the first of Richard Byrd's expeditions to Antarctica before moving to the United Kingdom and joining the Royal Air Force.

Tapley had the debonair good looks, voice and talent of a star, but he found his niche in playing character roles, and appeared in American and British films for more than 30 years without any real desire for movie stardom.

He wrote home enthusiastically to one of his brothers about his small part in The Scarlet Empress (1934), describing the long black beard and wonderful uniform that transformed him into the captain of the queen's bodyguard.

[1] He continued to work in some of the biggest movies of the 1930s, starring the likes of Cary Grant, Loretta Young, Ronald Colman and Gary Cooper.

After demobilisation in 1945, Tapley married Patricia (Patsy) Hambro Lyon, whom he had met during the war, and returned to his native New Zealand for the first time since 1933.

From 1954 to 1958, he appeared as a police inspector named Parker, working with his good friend Donald Gray, in the detective television series The Vise (later known as Saber of London).

[7] Patsy remained at their house in Coates until her death on 18 January 2000 survived by their second son Nigel Tapley, two granddaughters, and stepdaughter, Charlotte Ann Lyon, wife of the late shipping mogul Sir Kerry St.