Actor and To The Manor Born star Peter Bowles has died from cancer at the age of 85.
Bowles was best known for his role as self-made businessman Richard DeVere, starring alongside Dame Penelope Keith for the shows’ duration from 1979 to 1981.
A statement confirming the tragic news said: “The actor Peter Bowles has sadly passed away at the age of 85 from cancer.
“Starting his career at the Old Vic Theatre in 1956, he starred in 45 theatrical productions ending at the age of 81 in The Exorcist at the Phoenix Theatre.
“He worked consistently on stage and screen, becoming a household name on TV as the archetypal English gent in To The Manor Born, Only When I Laugh, The Bounder and Lytton’s Diary, which he devised himself.
“He leaves his wife of over 60 years, Sue, and their three children Guy, Adam and Sasha.”
Bowles was born in 1936 in London but grew up in Nottingham. Growing up, his parents were servants of nobility – his father was a valet and chauffeur to one of the sons of the Earl of Sandwich, his mother a nanny employed by the heir of the Duke of Argyll in Scotland, the Mirror UK reports.
During the Second World War his father worked as an engineer at Rolls-Royce and when Bowles was six the family moved to one of the poorest working-class districts of Nottingham. Their house had an outside toilet and no bath.
“We were in a Coronation Street environment but everyone was extremely friendly and there were lots of kids. It was terrific,” he previously said.
He won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before trying his hand on stage with the Old Vic Company.
After moving into TV, Bowles played villains in both The Avengers and The Saint. However, To The Manor Born was where he became best known, starring alongside Dame Penelope for audiences of 20 million.
Other TV credits include Only When I Laugh, Lytton’s Diary, The Bounder, Perfect Scoundrels and Victoria.
Bowles starred in The Irish R.M., a 1983 co-production between RTE and Channel 4. The show was set in the west of Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century. Bowles played Major Yeates, an Englishman who found it difficult to adapt to the slow pace of life in rural Ireland.
Speaking about his success in sitcoms, he told PA news agency in 2010: “If you have a great popular TV success, particularly in comedy, people don’t think you can act on stage.
“People thought I was just a sitcom actor and the BBC told me I’d never work in drama again. I didn’t realise there were two worlds. It was new to me. I found it very odd and frustrating.”
He starred in a number of films throughout his career, including The Bank Job, Eyewitness, Colour Me Kubrick and The Steal.
