# Peter Bowles

Peter John Bowles (16 October 1936 – 17 March 2022) was an English screen and stage actor. He gained prominence for television dramas such as Callan: A Magnum for Schneider and I, Claudius. He is best remembered for his roles in sitcoms and television comedy dramas, including: Rumpole of the Bailey, Only When I Laugh, To the Manor Born, The Bounder, The Irish R.M., Lytton's Diary, Executive Stress and Perfect Scoundrels.

## Early life and education

Bowles was born in London, England. His father was Herbert Reginald Bowles, valet-companion and chauffeur to Drogo Montagu, son of the Earl of Sandwich, then a butler to the daughter of Lord Beaverbrook. His mother was Sarah Jane (née Harrison), from Scotland, who served as a nanny to the family of the Duke of Argyll before coming to England and working for Beaverbrook's family, which is where they met.
Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, Bowles's father was sent to Rolls-Royce Aero-engine factory in Hucknall, Nottingham, where the family lived in a small "two-up, two-down" house. Bowles attended the Nottingham High Pavement Grammar School, where he was taught English by the novelist Stanley Middleton, and won a scholarship to train as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where he won the Kendall Prize and later he became an associate.
He later lived at 32 Kersall Drive, off the B682 in Highbury Vale, directly opposite the Henry Mellish Grammar School He attended Co-op Arts Centre.

## Theatre

After RADA, Bowles began his career with the Old Vic Company in 1956 playing small parts in Shakespeare's Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Troilus and Cressida and Richard II, with Claire Bloom, Paul Rogers (actor) and John Neville (actor). After a season the company toured North America, concluding with a sell-out season at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway.
In March 1956, he was given a contract by the theatre company to take part on a 25-week tour of the US and Canada, from September 1956. He first appeared at the Nottingham Playhouse on Monday 2 December 1957, in Witness for the Prosecution, with Rosalie Westwater, Richard Mathews, Brian Spink, Gillian Martell, John Cater and producer John Rule.
Later in December 1957 he played the Wolf in a pantomime of Little Red Riding Hood, written by David Waller. In January 1958, the company put on Henry V, with him playing the Constable of France. In February 1958, the company put on The Perfect Woman and Three Sisters (play) by Chekhov. In March the company put on Our Town. From mid-April the company put on She Stoops to Conquer, where he played Sir Charles Marlow, and the production featured John Woodvine.
Bowles then joined the Bristol Old Vic Company for a season playing character parts and taking two Shakespeare productions to the Baalbeck Festival. This led to him being offered two plays by the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre, London in September 1960: Dr Copperthwaite in The Happy Haven written by John McGragh and directed by Bill Gaskell, and Kirill in Platanov by Checkov, directed by George Devine, which starred Rex Harrison.
In 1961, after appearing in J.B. at the Phoenix Theatre directed by Laurier Lister in September (which closed after four weeks on the day of his wedding), Bowles was cast in October of that year as Roger in Bonne Soupe, starring Coral Browne and directed by Eleanor Fazan at the Comedy Theatre and then Wyndhams Theatre.
Later, Bowles was in Alan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends, also starring Richard Briers, at the Garrick Theatre in 1975. Then came Tom Stoppard's Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land at the Arts Theatre in 1976. (Bowles had last played there in 1963 in Anthony Powell's Afternoon Men in a cast that also included James Fox, Alan Howard and the actress and pop artist Pauline Boty). In 1980 in starred in Born in the Gardens by Peter Nichols directed by Clifford Williams first at the Bristol Old Vic and then at the Globe.
Bowles's first starring role in the theatre after many years of TV successes was as Archie Rice in John Osborne's The Entertainer at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1986; he was the first actor to play the part in London since Laurence Olivier in 1957. In 1990 Bowles starred opposite Michael Gambon in Alan Ayckbourn's Man of the Moment at the Globe Theatre
The role of Vic Parkes was Bowles's first, but not last, performance as an East End gangster. After Running Late Sir Peter Hall began to offer Bowles a succession of leading roles in West End theatre, including Terence Rattigan's Separate Tables opposite Patricia Hodge. and George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara with Jemma Redgrave. George S. Kaufman's The Royal Family and Noël Coward's Hay Fever, both opposite Judi Dench at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, followed. In 1996 Bowles played Arnolphe in Molière's The School for Wives at the Piccadilly Theatre.
Another play for Hall, this time at the Theatre Royal, Bath, was Rattigan's The Browning Version. Bowles' last play for Hall was Sheridan's The Rivals in 2011, opposite Dame Penelope Keith, again at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. His other West End theatre plays include Coward's Present Laughter, Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth, Peter Nichols' Born in the Gardens, Frederick Knott's Wait Until Dark and in 2004, Simon Gray's The Old Masters. directed by Harold Pinter at the Comedy Theatre.
Then again at the Haymarket Theatre in Hutchinson's The Beau, opposite Richard McCabe, and Rattigan's In Praise of Love at the Apollo Theatre. In a South Bank Show special Melvyn Bragg interviewed George MacDonald Fraser, and Bowles played the part of Fraser's hero 'Harry Flashman'. Other parts include Higgins in Shaw's Pygmalion and the General in Jean Anouilh's The Waltz of the Toreadors, both at the Chichester Festival Theatre; and Judge Brack in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler (translation: Frank McGuinness) opposite Francesca Annis.
Bowles played the ultimate gangster in Mellis and Scinto's Gangster No 1 at the Almeida Theatre in 1995 for which he held the film rights; he raised money from Channel 4 Films and was executive producer for the film Gangster No. 1 (2000), starring Paul Bettany.
Bowles's final starring role was Father Merrin in The Exorcist at the Phoenix Theatre directed by Sean Mathias.

## Filmography

Bowles was warned by casting directors on leaving the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) that because of his swarthy looks he would never play an Englishman. Indeed, his early career in television consisted mostly of playing villains (usually foreign) in such shows as The Avengers (Bowles featured in four series), Danger Man, The Saint, The Persuaders! and The Prisoner (as 'A' in "A. B. and C.", 1967).
Bowles played Balor ("the most evil man in the universe") in an episode of Space: 1999. He also appeared as Caractacus in the TV adaptation of I, Claudius (1976). His first major English role was Guthrie Featherstone QC MP, whom he played in many series of Rumpole of the Bailey (1978–1992), while in 1975 he played David Grant, husband of Abby Grant in the BBC series Survivors; his character died in the first episode.
After playing his first comedy role on TV (Hilary) in an episode of Rising Damp, Bowles was often seen as a comedy actor and parts in comedy series such as To the Manor Born, Only When I Laugh, The Bounder, and Executive Stress followed; however, he turned down the role of Jerry in The Good Life.
The success of To the Manor Born, playing the part of Richard DeVere (a nouveau riche millionaire supermarket owner originally from Czechoslovakia) which had audiences of over 20 million for all twenty-one episodes, changed Bowles' life. After being told by the BBC his success in comedy meant he would never work in drama again, Bowles devised a drama series called Lytton's Diary, which he sold to ITV.
It was while starring in Lytton's Diary that he was offered the title role of Major Yeates in the television series The Irish R.M. for Channel 4. A headline in the Evening Standard after that series' success read "Bowles Saves Channel 4".
Much of Bowles' work was now being shown on American television, including PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, and he was very flattered to discover that admirers in America of his work included Stephen Sondheim, Quentin Tarantino and Marlon Brando. Following The Irish R.M., Bowles co-devised the comedy/drama series Perfect Scoundrels, which ran for three series on ITV.
In 1991, Bowles took an idea for a dramatic film to the BBC; it was accepted, and after being written and adapted by Simon Gray, became Running Late, a film in the Screen One series. This was to be Bowles' first performance on BBC Television since To the Manor Born a decade earlier. Bowles, besides starring, also co-produced with Verity Lambert. The film went on to win The Golden Gate Award in 1993 at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
From 2016 to 2019, Bowles played the recurring role of the Duke of Wellington in the award-winning ITV series Victoria.

## Personal life and death

Bowles married Susan Bennett on 8 April 1961. The couple lived in Barnes, south-west London and had three children together.
Bowles died aged 85, on 17 March 2022, from cancer.

### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1961 | Wings of Death | Williams | Short |
| 1962 | Live Now, Pay Later | Reginald Parker | |
| 1963 | The Informers | Peter the Pole | Uncredited |
| 1965 | Three Hats for Lisa | Pepper | |
| 1965 | Dead Man's Chest | Joe | Edgar Wallace Mysteries |
| 1966 | Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World | Paris Singer | TV film |
| 1966 | Blow-Up | Ron | |
| 1968 | The Charge of the Light Brigade | Paymaster Captain Duberly | |
| 1969 | The Assassination Bureau | Jealous lover of 'La Belle Amie' | Uncredited |
| 1969 | Laughter in the Dark | Paul | |
| 1969 | The Stiffkey Scandals of 1932 | Roland Oliver, KC | TV film |
| 1969 | Taste of Excitement | Guardi | |
| 1970 | Eyewitness | Victor Grazzini | |
| 1972 | A Day in the Death of Joe Egg | Freddie | |
| 1972 | Shelley | Byron | TV film |
| 1972 | Endless Night | Reuben | |
| 1973 | The Offence | Cameron | |
| 1973 | The Legend of Hell House | Hanley | |
| 1973 | Thinking Man As Hero | Frank Cordroy | TV film |
| 1977 | For the Love of Benji | Ronald | |
| 1977 | The Disappearance | Jefferies | |
| 1977 | Stigma | Peter | TV film |
| 1988 | Beryl Markham: A Shadow on the Sun | Lord Jack Carberry | TV film |
| 1989 | Try This One for Size | Igor | |
| 1993 | Passport to Murder | Inspector Bullion | TV film |
| 1995 | The Steal | Lord Childwell | |
| 1998 | Little White Lies | Oliver | TV film |
| 1999 | Tumbled | Mr Gilzean | Short |
| 2000 | One of the Hollywood Ten | Jack Warner | |
| 2001 | In Love and War | Melville | TV film |
| 2005 | Colour Me Kubrick | Cyril | |
| 2007 | Ballet Shoes | Sir Donald Houghton | TV film |
| 2008 | Freebird | The Chairman | |
| 2008 | The Bank Job | Miles Urquart | |
| 2011 | Love's Kitchen | Max Templeton | |
| 2014 | Lilting | Alan | |
| 2014 | Peterman | Old Boy | |
| 2015 | Meet Pursuit Delange: The Movie | Sir Edward Mead | |
| 2016 | Not Waving | Archie | Short |
| 2017 | We Are Tourists | William | |
| 2018 | Together | Philip | |
| 2021 | Off the Rails | Vicar | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1958 | Armchair Theatre | Simpson | Episode: "Underground" |
| 1959 | The Last Chronicle of Barset | Constable | Episode: "How Did He Get It?" |
| 1961 | Doctor Knock | First Countryman | Episode: "Act 2" |
| 1961 | Magnolia Street | Benny Edelman | Series regular |
| 1961 | ITV Play of the Week | Lieutenant Myers | Episode: "Conflict in the Sun" |
| 1962 | Armchair Theatre | Pete | Episode: "Thank You and Goodnight" |
| 1963 | It Happened Like This | Edwardes | Episode: "Superstitions" |
| 1963 | Crane | Nikkolai Drax | Episode: "Three Days to Die" |
| 1963 | The Avengers | Neil Anstice | Episode: "Second Sight" |
| 1964 | The Saint | Maurice Kerr | Episode: "Lida" |
| 1964 | Drama 61-67 | Captain Buckley | Episode: "The Crunch" |
| 1964 | The Protectors | Dr Fothergill | Episode: "The Bottle Shop" |
| 1964 | The Great War | Winston Churchill | Episode: "So Sleep Easy in Your Beds" |
| 1964 | ITV Play of the Week | Razumikhin | Episode: "Crime and Punishment" |
| 1964 | Danger Man | Gamal | Episode: "Fish on the Hook" |
| 1964 | Armchair Theatre | Morgan | Episode: "The Pretty English Girls" |
| 1964 | Armchair Theatre | Dermot Llewelyn | Episode: "A Certain Kind of Silence" |
| 1964 | No Hiding Place | Joe Bask | Episode: "Real Class" |
| 1965 | No Hiding Place | Machin | Episode: "A Fistful of Trouble" |
| 1965 | Public Eye | Freddy | Episode: "A Harsh World for Zealots" |
| 1965 | Love Story | Jack Everett | Episode: "Never Sup at Home" |
| 1965 | Crane | Vincent Morrow | Episode: "A Cargo of Cornflour" |
| 1965 | Edgar Wallace Mysteries | Joe | Episode: "Dead Man's Chest" |
| 1965 | Jury Room | Detective-Inspector | Episode: "The Side of Mercy" |
| 1965 | Six of the Best | Tom Brown | Episode: "Me and My Big Mouth" |
| 1965 | Famous Gossips | Garçon de café | Episode: "Oscar Wilde: Monsieur Sebastian Melmoth" |
| 1965 | Out of the Unknown | Policeman | Episode: "Some Lapse of Time" |
| 1965 | The Avengers | John Harvey | Episode: "Dial a Deadly Number" |
| 1966 | Emergency Ward 10 | Philip Royston | Recurring role |
| 1966 | Sunday Night | Melville | Episode: "The Quarry: Portrait of a Man as a Paralysed Artist" |
| 1966 | Redcap | Butros | Episode: "Buckingham Palace" |
| 1966 | The Informer | Jack Hart | 2 episodes |
| 1966 | The Baron | Jim Gaynor | Episode: "You Can't Win Them All" |
| 1966 | Armchair Theatre | Sergeant Howlett | Episode: "Don't Utter a Note" |
| 1967 | The Avengers | Thyssen | Episode: "Escape in Time" |
| 1967 | The Saint | Serge | Episode: "The Art Collectors" |
| 1967 | Armchair Theatre | Toby Meres | Episode: "A Magnum for Schneider" (Pilot of "Callan" series) |
| 1967 | Adam Adamant Lives! | D.K. Davies | Episode: "Another Little Drink" |
| 1967 | The Troubleshooters | Abbas Ramzi | Episode: "My Daughter Knows Her Way Around" |
| 1967 | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | Harvey Deacon | Episode: "Playing with Fire" |
| 1967 | The Prisoner | 'A' | Episode: "A. B. and C." |
| 1968 | Dr. Finlay's Casebook | Professor Baxter | Episode: "The Dynamizer" |
| 1968 | The Avengers | Ezdorf | Episode: "Get-A-Way!" |
| 1968 | Champion House | Degnos | Episode: "The Golden Fleece" |
| 1968 | Love Story | Brian | Episode: "The Egg on the Face of the Tiger" |
| 1968 | Sherlock Holmes | Joseph Harrison | Episode: "The Naval Treaty" |
| 1969 | Happy Ever After | Tony Bulstrode | Episode: "The Party Piece" |
| 1969 | Department S | Borowitsch | Episode: "Six Days" |
| 1969 | W. Somerset Maugham | Robert Crosbie | Episode: "The Letter" |
| 1969 | The Gold Robbers | Stockbroker | Mini-series |
| 1969 | Softly, Softly | Conn | Episode: "One Thing Leads to Another" |
| 1969 | Take Three Girls | Jeremy Mandl-Fry | 2 episodes |
| 1970 | Ryan International | Alain | Episode: "The Dead Live Longer" |
| 1970 | The Main Chance | Roger Lamb | Episode: "The Best Legal System in the World" |
| 1970 | Happy Ever After | Michael | Episode: "The Ambassador" |
| 1971 | Hadleigh | Robert Charlton | Episode: "Breakdown" |
| 1971 | The Ten Commandments | Tommy Radd | Episode: "Black Eye on Sunday" |
| 1971 | Brett | William Saxby | Series regular |
| 1971 | The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes | Inspector Saunders | Episode: "The Woman in the Big Hat" |
| 1971 | The Persuaders! | Mitchell | Episode: "Element of Risk" |
| 1971 | ITV Sunday Night Theatre | Jack Campbell-Barnes | Episode: "Who Killed Santa Claus" |
| 1972 | The Shadow of the Tower | Bernard de Vignolles | Episode: "A Fly in the Ointment" |
| 1972 | Alexander the Greatest | Paul Clutton-Browne | Episode: "Renata's Secret Affair" |
| 1972 | Harriet's Back in Town | Jack | 2 episodes |
| 1972 | The Protectors | Gregor Kofax | Episode: "Triple Cross" |
| 1973 | The Adventures of Black Beauty | Mr Duffield | Episode: "Wild Justice" |
| 1973 | Crown Court | Gerald Somerville | 3 episodes |
| 1973 | Cheri | Patron | 2 episodes |
| 1973 | Arthur of the Britons | Hecla | Episode: "Rowena" |
| 1973 | Omnibus | Oscar | Episode: "The Runaway" |
| 1973 | Murder Must Advertise | Major Todd Milligan | Mini-series |
| 1974 | Napoleon and Love | Captain Murat | Mini-series |
| 1974 | Special Branch | Igor | Episode: "Downwind of Angels" |
| 1974 | Good Girl | Colin Peale | Series regular |
| 1975 | Public Eye | Croxley | Episode: "They All Sound Simple at First" |
| 1975 | Thriller | Superintendent Lucas | Episode: "The Double Kill" |
| 1975 | Survivors | David Grant | Episode: "The Fourth Horseman" |
| 1975 | Churchill's People | Thistlewood | Episode: "Death of Liberty" |
| 1975 | Comedy Playhouse | Patrick | Episode: "Only on Sundays" |
| 1975 | Space: 1999 | Balor | Episode: "End of Eternity" |
| 1976 | The Crezz | Ken Green | Series regular |
| 1976 | I, Claudius | Caractacus | Mini-series |
| 1977 | A Roof Over My Head | Jack Askew | Episode: "A Roof Over My Head" |
| 1977 | Rising Damp | Hilary | Episode: "Stage Struck" |
| 1978 | BBC Play of the Month | Inspector Hounslow | Episode: "Flint" |
| 1978 | Pennies from Heaven | Prosecuting Counsel | Episode: "Says My Heart" |
| 1978 | The Sunday Drama | Prince Borodski | Episode: "The Marrying Kind" |
| 1978 | Bless Me, Father | Fred Bowlby | Episode: "The Doomsday Chair" |
| 1978–1992 | Rumpole of the Bailey | Guthrie Featherstone | Series regular |
| 1979 | Tales of the Unexpected | Major Haddock | Episode: "Neck" |
| 1979 | Turtle's Progress | Superintendent Percy Weston | 1 episode |
| 1979–1982 | Only When I Laugh | Archie Glover | Series regular |
| 1979–2007 | To the Manor Born | Richard DeVere | Series regular |
| 1980 | Nanny Knows Best | Billy Benson | |
| 1981 | Vice Versa | Paul Bultitude | Series regular |
| 1982–1983 | The Bounder | Howard Booth | Series regular |
| 1983 | Storyboard | Neville Lytton | Episode: "Lytton's Diary" |
| 1983–1985 | The Irish R.M. | Major Sinclair Yeates | Series regular |
| 1985–1986 | Lytton's Diary | Neville Lytton | Series regular |
| 1987–1988 | Executive Stress | Donald Fairchild | Series regular |
| 1990–1992 | Perfect Scoundrels | Guy Buchanan | Series regular |
| 1992 | Screen One | George Grant | Episode: "Running Late" |
| 2000 | Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) | Captain Graves | Episode: "The Best Years of Your Death |
| 2003 | Holby City | Bernie Farraday | Episode: "Love Nor Money" |
| 2005 | Jericho | Fleming | Mini-series |
| 2008 | Agatha Christie's Poirot | Sir Roderick Horsfield | Episode: "Third Girl" |
| 2010 | Masterpiece Mystery | Sir Roderick Horsfield | Episode: "Hercule Poirot, Series X: Third Girl" |
| 2011 | The Sarah Jane Adventures | Lionel Carson | Episode: "The Man Who Never Was" |
| 2015 | Citizen Khan | Lord Anstruther | Episode: "Farley Manor" |
| 2016 | The Life of Rock with Brian Pern | Brian Pern's Father | Episode: "The Thotch Reunion" |
| 2016 | Murder | Greville Cotterall | Mini-series |
| 2016–2019 | Victoria | Duke of Wellington | Series regular |

## Awards and honours

* RADA Scholarship (1954)
* Madge Kendal Prize (1955)
* Male Comedy Star Award (1983)
* ITV Personality of the Year (1984)
* The Golden Gate Award (San Francisco International Film Festival, 1993)
* Hon. Doctor of Literature, for contributions to the theatre, television drama and entertainment. (Nottingham Trent University, 2002)

## Books

* Autobiography: Ask Me if I'm Happy (Simon & Schuster, 2010)
* Behind the Curtain: The Job of Acting (Oberon Masters Series, 2012)