- Decided to drop all other projects and continue to play in It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974). Because cancer was ravaging his body, he was unable to do more. He choose It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974) because he had become very popular as Rangi Ram.
- Was an officer in the Gurkhas. and served 4 years with them in Burma,.
- Spoke fluent Urdu.
- Served with the Chindits behind Japanese lines in Burma.
- Specialised in caricaturing inept or obtuse military types or policemen.
- He has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Patton (1970) and A Clockwork Orange (1971).
- Was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1948 till 1953.
- Was memorably described by Kenneth Cranham (to "The Oldie" magazine in 2017) as "a character actor who looked like a vicious Toby Jug.".
- Acted at the Connaught Theatre in 1947.
- The son of an Anglo-Indian civil servant.
- He had two sons, Rupert H. S. Bates (born 1956), Jolyon H. R. Bates (born 1962) and a daughter, Camilla R. Bates (born 1959) with his wife Margaret.
- Son of Harry Stuart (1893-1985) and Sarah (née Clarke) Bates (1896-1982).
- His father was a District Commissioner in India.
- He was a lifelong staunch supporter of the Conservative Party.
- Both of his parents outlived him.
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