Type-casting

There was an English actor who played in many films in the sixties and seventies whose name escapes me - frankly though, I never knew it. He had one of those faces that made you think: possibly a bit crooked or, if not a crook, a bit of a wheeler-dealer; a cheeky little face, the face of a barrow boy maybe. He was in "I'm allright Jack" where he played the part of a worker on the shop floor who helped the posh newcomer to learn how to use a fork-lift truck (so that you didn't stress yourself too much). He was also in "Privates on Parade" as a private soldier who did as little as possible. I saw him interviewed when he was getting on a bit and he said that when he was quite a young actor, a producer or director called him over and said to him "you'll never be out of work with your face", and he said he never was.
Of course he could never play Romeo or Hamlet, though he could have probably played Bottom or one of Falstaff's crew.
Another actor I met (who wanted to be a writer) told me that he was never out of work because he had the sort of face they liked for certain parts. He had a round head, a bit of a bullet head. "If they want a barrow boy type," he said, "they don't look further than me."
But of course the trouble being the sort who are typecast as barrow boys or shopfloor workers or private soldiers never are asked to do Hamlet or Romeo. Though they may grow old enough to play Falstaff.