The rugged appearance of this craggy-faced, Canadian-born actor made him a natural for tough guy roles, especially in British crime films of the 1950s. Beatty's voice became familiar to North American listeners as he described the WWII bombings of London for the BBC's Overseas News Service and, after the war, as detective Philip O'Dell on radio. Beatty was a prolific performer on TV as well as in film through the 80s and portrayed President Ronald Reagan in the 1987 PBS dramatization "Breakthrough at Reykjavik".