Obituary: Peter Jeffrey

ONE OF Britain's most prolific screen actors, Peter Jeffrey was seen most often in roles of authority , from Philip II of Spain in Elizabeth R and a police commissioner in Our Friends in the North on television to the headmaster in Lindsay Anderson's classic Sixties film If . . . . However, Jeffrey's first home was the stage and he enjoyed 30 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Born in Bristol in 1929, Jeffrey followed education at Harrow and Pembroke College, Cambridge, by joining the repertory company at Chorlton-cum-Hardy, in Lancashire, and making his debut in Never Get Out (1951). He then toured in Shakespearean productions with the Elizabethan Theatre Company (1953- 55), previously known as the Oxford and Cambridge Players.

Jeffrey appeared on the London stage for the first time in Julius Caesar (Westminster Theatre, 1953), in both the title role and as Dardanius. After two years of combining the classics and modern productions such as The Entertainer at the Bristol Old Vic company (1957-59), he joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre company at Stratford under Peter Hall, who was about to take it into a glorious new era there and at its new London home, the Aldwych Theatre.

For the RSC at Stratford in 1960, Jeffrey played Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew (alongside Peter O'Toole and Peggy Ashcroft), Agamemnon in Troilus and Cressida and Paulina's Steward in The Winter's Tale. Moving to the Aldwych, he acted Delio in The Duchess of Malfi (1960) and both de Cerisay and Laubardement in The Devils (1961).

Back at Stratford in 1962, Jeffrey took the roles of Banquo in Macbeth, Escalus in Measure for Measure and the Duke of Albany in King Lear (1962), repeating the final role at the Aldwych in the same year. In 1963, he played Christ in an RSC production at Southwark Cathedral.

He also acted in the company's modern plays, taking the roles of Stomil in the Polish dramatist Slawomir Mrozek's metaphor of freedom and authority, Tango (Aldwych, 1966), and the garrison commander, Percy, in Charles Wood's Jingo (Aldwych, 1975), set among the British army in Singapore in 1941.

It was not until 1985 that Jeffrey won his best roles with the RSC, playing a humorous Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Ulysses in Troilus and Cressida. Five years later, he acted Gloucester in King Lear. He was seen by London West End audiences as Buckle in Donkey's Years (Globe Theatre, 1966), was Penelope Keith's husband in Moving (Queen's Theatre, 1981) and played the Inquisitor in George Bernard Shaw's St Joan (Strand Theatre, 1994).

With the National Theatre company, he played Wilfred Cedar in For Services Rendered and Henry Ormonroyd in When We Are Married (both 1979). He also toured in the title role of Macbeth for Prospect Productions (1966) and acted Malvolio in Twelfth Night, alongside Vanessa Redgrave (Shaw Theatre, 1972).

From the early Sixties, Jeffrey found himself in great demand for character parts in some of television's most popular programmes. He played two roles in The Saint (1964, 1965), three in The Avengers (1966, 1967 1968) and was both Pilot (1967) and Count Grendel (1978) in the long-running series Doctor Who.

One of the early parts for which he became known to viewers was as Inspector Carter in Dixon of Dock Green, the gentle police series starring Jack Warner. Although Jeffrey took a wide variety of roles, he was often cast as policemen on television, also acting DCS Pigott in New Scotland Yard (1973), DS Nuttall in Juliet Bravo (1982) and Commissioner Sir Colin Blamire in Our Friends in the North (1996).

He occasionally played comedy, although only ever as a guest star, taking the role of "Napper" Wainwright in Porridge (1975), alongside Ronnie Barker, and Ambrose in Rising Damp (1978), with Leonard Rossiter. More seriously, on the small screen Jeffrey acted Sicinius Velutus in The Spread of the Eagle (1963), Philip II of Spain in the Emmy award-winning Elizabeth R (1971), Talleyrand in Napoleon and Love (1974), Cromwell in By the Sword Divided (1983), Mr Peabody in Granada Television's acclaimed The Jewel in the Crown (1984), based on Paul Scott's "Raj Quartet" of novels, Lord Curzon in The Last Place on Earth (1985), Henry in Quartermain's Terms (1987) and Nicholas Bulstrode in Andrew Davies's pounds 6m adaptation of Middlemarch (1994).

Jeffrey's other notable television roles included Maurice Webb in the vets drama One by One (1984-85), Nicholas Cliff Snr in the mini-series Lace II (1985), Colonel Harry Bernwood in the Dennis Potter comedy Lipstick on Your Collar (1993) and Dr Maxwell in The Tale of Sweeney Todd (1998).

One of Jeffrey's earliest feature film roles was as the Baron in Becket (1964), based on Jean Anouilh's bitter stage comedy. After playing Mauron in Morecambe and Wise's disappointing 1966 picture That Riviera Touch, he became noted for playing officialdom and aristocracy on the big screen.

The director Lindsay Anderson cast him as the headmaster in the writer David Sherwin's boarding school allegory If . . . . (1968), the dual role of the Factory Chairman and Prison Governor in Sherwin's O Lucky Man! (1973), about the rise and fall of a coffee salesman, and Sir Geoffrey in the satirical Britannia Hospital (1982).

Last January, when the producers of the popular ITV drama Where the Heart Is took the drastic decision to reshoot scenes for the first episode of its new series, they turned to Jeffrey and the actress Judy Flynn to take over the roles of an elderly businessman dying of cancer and the daughter to whom he would not reveal the severity of his illness. The producer Avon Harpley said, "After watching the original, we felt the casting wasn't quite right and didn't portray what we needed. Peter and Judy came in and hit absolutely the right note. Episode 1 is always crucial and, if you get it wrong, you've lost it for the whole series."

Peter Jeffrey, actor: born Bristol 18 April 1929; married first Yvonne Bonnamy (marriage dissolved; one son, four daughters), secondly Jill Jowett; died Oxhill, Warwickshire 25 December 1999.