He was born in Batley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England in 1926 and started his career in radio in Palestine.

Director Richard Lester later used him in both Superman films he directed: in the first, he plays a fisherman who is stunned to see General Zod walking on water and in the second, he appears as a pedestrian in a flat cap who upsets a display of toy penguins that triggers the slapstick chaos in the opening credits scene.

After a number of small parts in TV shows such as Z-Cars in the early 1960s, on 21 April 1964, he was the first presenter of BBC 2's daily programme for young children, Play School, alongside Virginia Stride.

Between 1966 and 1967 Rollings appeared as a storyteller in ten episodes of the BBC children's television show Jackanory, reading amongst others, stories of Worzel Gummidge.

He later narrated The Herbs, and as the character Arkwright with his small dog, Tonto, in the adverts for John Smith's Bitter.