Richard Vernon

Richard Vernon (1925-1997) was an English character actor specializing in dotty professors and eccentrics, perhaps best remembered for portraying Slartibartfast in the radio and television versions of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He played the king in The StoryTeller episode "A Story Short" and appeared in the Creature Shop film Loch Ness as an aged professor (his final screen role).
Playing elderly types even in his younger years, Vernon was usually typecast as doddering aristocrats or detached officials. His film credits include the James Bond entry Goldfinger, A Hard Day's Night (annoyed by The Beatles on a train), two Hammer films, The Pink Panther Strikes Again (with Peter Sellers), Village of the Damned, the musical remake of Goodbye, Mr. Chips (with Peter O'Toole), Oh! Heavenly Dog (with Benji), Evil Under the Sun (with Peter Ustinov), and Gandhi. 
On TV, while he played the calm spymaster C on The Sandbaggers (1978-1980), he mostly stuck to type, recurring as titled eccentrics on Yes Minister and its sequel (banker Sir Desmond), Paradise Postponed (1986, with Michael Hordern), and Class Act (1994-1995, as father to Joanna Lumley). He guest starred on Upstairs, Downstairs, Ripping Yarns (opposite Joan Sanderson as his domineering wife), The Saint (with Roger Moore), Rumpole of the Bailey, and Lovejoy (with Ian McShane).
On radio, Vernon portrayed the absent minded P.G. Wodehouse character Lord Emsworth in multiple serials, from 1985 to 1992. 
==External links==
*IMDb
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Category:StoryTeller Actors
Category:Creature Shop Movie Actors