He is most often remembered for the three Powell & Pressburger films in which he starred: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going!

Tall and broad with a mop of chestnut hair, Livesey used his highly distinctive husky voice, gentle manner and athletic physique to create many notable roles in his theatre and film work.

Samuel and Mary had a child of their own, Stella, who was both Roger's half sister (through their mother) and first cousin (through their fathers).

Instead he worked in an aircraft factory at Desford aerodrome near Leicester to "do his bit for the war effort".

Livesey was chosen by Michael Powell to play the lead in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) after Powell was denied his original choice, Laurence Olivier (Winston Churchill had objected to the film and the Fleet Air Arm refused to release Olivier, who had been a Hollywood film star before returning to England to take a Navy commission).

[5] The film was shown in New York and established Livesey's international reputation as a talented character actor.

He shares a memorial plaque with his wife Ursula Jeans in the actors' church St Paul's in Covent Garden.

In 1958, he, Judith Furse, Terry-Thomas, Rita Webb, Avril Angers and Miles Malleson, recorded Indian Summer of an Uncle, and Jeeves Takes Charge for the Caedmon Audio record label, (Caedmon Audio TC-1137).