Mar 17, 2022
RIP Peter Bowles (16.10.1936 - 17.3.2022)
"[Aspiring actors must] understand that they are really unique, there is nobody like them. Don’t try and please the director and please everybody - try and believe, honestly, in what you are doing, totally. Also to be true, as much as you possibly can, to the playwright. All of the most successful actors I have ever known have been like that. They’ve done it their way and the directors liked it or not. I remember Albert Finney saying when we were young, 'just learn the lines and walk on. If you don’t like it, leave.' Eighty percent of talent is confidence."
#peter bowles#rip#death ment tw#character actors#the avengers#callan#to the manor born#the bounder#danger man#space: 1999#the sarah jane adventures#rumpole of the bailey#lytton's diary#only when i laugh#survivors#public eye#special branch#napoleon and love#the offence#the rivals of sherlock holmes#the main chance#the gold robbers#the prisoner#and many countless others. latterly well established as an icon of the small screen sitcom‚ Peter was perfectly adept at playing straight#specialising in either louche upper classes or sinister villains. in a long and enviable career there were many notable roles on small#screen and big‚ as well as a healthy stage career. one of The Avengers most consistent guest stars (appearing once in each of the last four#series); he was the first ever Toby Meres in the Armchair Theatre play that acted as the Callan pilot; he was a wonderfully dense Joachim#Murat in Napoleon and Love opposite Ian Holm; the sole voice of awkward reason and polite discomfort in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg#and a myriad of other immortal roles. a true british institution who worked steadily for 65 years and amassed credits that would be the#envy of anyone. condolences to his family‚ may his memory be a blessing
