Geoffrey Palmer (actor)

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This article is about the actor. For other uses, see Geoffrey Palmer.
Geoffrey Palmer
Born 4 June 1927 (1927-06-04) (age 81)
London, England
Occupation Actor, Presenter
Years active 1958 - present
Spouse(s) Sally Green (1963 - present)

Geoffrey Dyson Palmer, OBE (born 4 June 1927) is an English actor known for his role as Lionel Hardcastle in the British television series As Time Goes By.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Career

Having been demobilised from the Royal Marines, Palmer drifted into theatre, joining a local amateur dramatics society because of a girlfriend. He became assistant stage manager at the Q Theatre, by Kew Bridge, then the Grand Theatre in Croydon. He spent several years touring with a repertory company and was a mainly theatre actor, coming to television and public prominence late in his career. An early television role was as a property agent in Cathy Come Home, a highly influential drama documentary shown on British TV in 1966.

Getting a major break in John Osborne's West of Suez at the Royal Court with Ralph Richardson, he then acted in major productions at the Royal Court and the Royal National Theatre. Many of his television parts were as a stuffy, middle class buffoon, or known for deadpan drollery. Two sitcom roles brought him major attention in the 1970s: the hapless brother-in-law of Reggie Perrin in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, and the phlegmatic Ben Parkinson in Carla Lane's Butterflies. He has continued to appear in productions written by Perrin creator David Nobbs, the latest being the radio comedy The Maltby Collection.

He starred opposite Judi Dench for over a decade in the situation comedy As Time Goes By; it has been rerun extensively in the U.S. on PBS and BBC America and may thus be the role for which American audiences remember him the most. In 1997 Palmer once again had the chance to star opposite his close friend and colleague Dench in the James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies where he portrayed the British admiral, Admiral Roebuck and in the film Mrs. Brown as Queen Victoria's scheming Private Secretary Sir Henry Ponsonby.

His distinctive voice has led to a career in advert and television voiceovers, most notably Grumpy Old Men. He also narrated the audiobook version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, released in 2005 as a podcast by Penguin Books.

In 2007 he teamed up with Silksound Books to record The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith as an online audiobook.

In December 2007, Palmer appeared in the role of the Captain in "Voyage of the Damned", 2007 Christmas special of the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who.[1]

[edit] Personal life

Palmer was born in London, England, the son of Norah Gwendolen (née Robins) and Frederick Charles Palmer, who was a chartered surveyor.[2] Palmer lives near Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. He married Sally Green in 1963 and they have two children, Charles and Harriet.[3]

[edit] Awards and recognition

In the New Year's Honours List published 31 December 2004 he was created an OBE for services to drama.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Television

[edit] Film

[edit] References

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2007)
  1. ^ ""Kylie Boards Titanic!"", BBC, 2007-07-11. Retrieved on 2007-07-11. 
  2. ^ http://www.filmreference.com/film/71/Geoffrey-Palmer.html
  3. ^ Levy, Andrew (2007). Bride is the SIXTH in her family to wear 100-year-old wedding dress. Daily Mail. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.

[edit] External links