A versatile supporting player, Wylie Watson (born John Wylie Robertson) is best remembered for a performance from near the beginning of his film career, that of Mr Memory in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935). Here he managed to invest a small role with considerable pathos, so that, when a dying Mr Memory finally recites the secret plans he has been hired to memorize and then asks 'Am I right, sir?', it is a genuinely moving moment. Later roles were less distinctive, but his repentant thief in Tawny Pipit (d. Charles Saunders, 1944) and his down-at-heel gangster in Brighton Rock (d. John Boulting, 1947) are worthy of mention. Peter Hutchings, Encyclopedia of British Film
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