RIP Lionel Jeffries
Feb. 19th, 2010 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angelophileSad news today - Lionel Jeffries, British character actor, film director and all round legend has has died in a nursing home near to my home at age 83. He died this morning after a long illness, according to the BBC.
He made his film debut in 1954 in "The Black Rider" and from then on became a familiar face in British cinema and TV, starring in such roles as Inspector Parker opposite Peter Sellers in "The Wrong Arm of the Law", King Pellinore in "Camelot", the Marquis of Queensbury in "The Trials of Oscar Wilde" and Gen. Sapt in "The Prisoner of Zenda" in 1979, as well as famously playing Dick Van Dyke's father in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", despite being six months younger than Van Dyke. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe in 1967 for his role in the musical comedy, "The Spy With the Cold Nose".
He also wrote and directed "The Railway Children," voted one of Britain's 100 best films by the British Film Institute in 1999.
Bernard Cribbins, who worked with him on a number of occasions, has described him as "a bloody good actor".
"He was an exceptionally fine character actor. Whatever I saw him in was always extremely polished and finished and complete.
I remember the films I made with him with great affection, and also the parties we used to have at Lionel's house which were fairly riotous.
I said to my wife when I heard the news, 'There'll be an awful lot of people all over the place who'll be sad today'."
He's not wrong.
He made his film debut in 1954 in "The Black Rider" and from then on became a familiar face in British cinema and TV, starring in such roles as Inspector Parker opposite Peter Sellers in "The Wrong Arm of the Law", King Pellinore in "Camelot", the Marquis of Queensbury in "The Trials of Oscar Wilde" and Gen. Sapt in "The Prisoner of Zenda" in 1979, as well as famously playing Dick Van Dyke's father in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", despite being six months younger than Van Dyke. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe in 1967 for his role in the musical comedy, "The Spy With the Cold Nose".
He also wrote and directed "The Railway Children," voted one of Britain's 100 best films by the British Film Institute in 1999.
Bernard Cribbins, who worked with him on a number of occasions, has described him as "a bloody good actor".
"He was an exceptionally fine character actor. Whatever I saw him in was always extremely polished and finished and complete.
I remember the films I made with him with great affection, and also the parties we used to have at Lionel's house which were fairly riotous.
I said to my wife when I heard the news, 'There'll be an awful lot of people all over the place who'll be sad today'."
He's not wrong.
