Britton was born in Erdington, Birmingham, the son of Doris Marguerite (née Jones) and Edward Leslie Britton. His father was landlord of the Trocadero public house on Temple Street in Birmingham.^[2] He attended Edgbaston Collegiate School, Birmingham and Thornbury Grammar School, Gloucestershire.^[2] During the Second World War he served in the Army and he also worked for an estate agent and in an aircraft factory. He joined an amateur dramatics group in Weston-super-Mare and then turned professional, appearing on stage at the Old Vic and with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He appeared in numerous British films from the 1950s onwards, including Operation Amsterdam (1959), Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) and The Day of the Jackal (1973). Britton won the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Actor in 1975 for The Nearly Man.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1977 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews outside London's Cafe Royal.^{[citation needed]}

From 1983 to 1990, he starred with Nigel Havers and Dinah Sheridan in the BBC sitcom Don't Wait Up, which became a highlight of his career.^[3] His other sitcom appearances included ...And Mother Makes Five, Father, Dear Father and as James Nicholls in Robin's Nest.

In September 2013 Sir Jonathan Miller directed a Gala Performance of William Shakespeare's King Lear at the Old Vic in London. Britton played the Earl of Gloucester.^[4]

Britton and his first wife Ruth (née Hawkins), to whom he was married from 1948 until divorcing in 1961, had two children, scriptwriter Cherry Britton and TV presenter Fern Britton.^[2] Cherry was married to children's TV presenter Brian Cant. Fern was married to Phil Vickery until 2020.

In 1962, Britton married Danish sculptor and wartime Danish resistance Eva Castle Britton (née Skytte Birkfeldt).^[2][5] They had one son, actor Jasper Britton.^[2]

Britton lived in Fiddington, Somerset, in his later years.^[2] He died in the London Borough of Hillingdon on 22 December 2019, at the age of 95.^[6][7][8]

• Waterfront (1950) as Deck-Hand (uncredited)
• Cage of Gold (1950) as Nicky (uncredited)
• Salute the Toff (1952) as Draycott
• The Man who Stroked Cats (1955) as Tom Meredith ( Dir. by Anthony Pelissier with Peggy Anne Clifford) (short)
• Loser Takes All (1956) as Tony
• The Birthday Present (1957) as Simon Scott
• Behind the Mask (1958) as Philip Selwood
• The Heart of a Man (1959) as Tony Carlisle
• Operation Amsterdam (1959) as Major Dillon
• The Rough and the Smooth (1959) as Mike Thompson
• The Last Winter (1960) as Stephen Burton
• Suspect (1960) as Robert Marriott
• The Break (1963) as Greg Parker
• Dr. Syn Alias the Scarecrow (1963) as Simon Bates
• There's a Girl in My Soup (1970) as Andrew Hunter
• Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) as George Harding
• Mr. Forbush and the Penguins (1971) as George Dewport
• The Day of the Jackal (1973) as Superintendent Brian Thomas
• Night Watch (1973) as Tony
• The People That Time Forgot (1977) as Captain Lawton
• Agatha (1979) as William Collins
• Countdown to War (1989) as Sir Nevile Henderson^[9]
• Run for Your Wife (2012) as Man on Bus (final film role)^[10]

• Melissa (1964)
• The Saint (1968)
• Marked Personal (1974)^[11]
• The Nearly Man (1975)^[11]
• ...And Mother Makes Five (1975)^[11]
• Robin's Nest (1977–1981)^[11]
• Don't Wait Up (1983–1990)^[11]
• Strangers and Brothers (1984)^[11]
• Don't Tell Father (1992)^[11]
• The Royal (2006)^[11]

• Tony Britton at IMDb
• Performances listed in Theatre Archive University of Bristol