Hare raising tails : number three

Cedric Ballantine is regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation. He will forever be remembered for his haunting portrayal of 4th crow from the left in Hitchcock's The Birds. A performance made all the more remarkable on account of Cedric's chronic vertigo which he had long suffered from along with an acute inability to actually fly! Cedric was also fondly remembered for his achingly realistic portrayal of the hunch to Lon Chaney's Hunchback in the silent classic. Cedric's tragic fall from grace has been well documented but little is known about the donkey involved. The traumatised beast was believed to have been relocated to Blackpool pleasure beach providing rides for young destitute orphans. What was not known at the time was that this particular donkey was in fact played by Cedric Ballantine himself, giving arguably his greatest and yet, until now, forgotten performance. Cedric Ballantine, who left the stage earlier this week.