Suave until the end: How Porsche-loving actor Peter Bowles who has died at 85 made his named on a BBC sitcom but once walked out of a party for being described as a TV actor, lifted weights daily into his 80s and turned down role as Jerry in The Good Life
To The Manor Born star Peter Bowles has died from cancer at the age of 85, his agent has revealed today, after an astonishing 66-year career where he became Britain's most famous and loved 'archetypal English gent'.
The actor starred in the BBC hit show from 1979 to 1981, playing Richard DeVere alongside Penelope Keith in the smash-hit sitcom, which had audiences of more than 20million for all of its twenty-one episodes. 27million watched the final show - a record only eclipsed by Only Fools and Horses in 1996.
Announcing his death in a statement, his agent 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.'
Mr Bowles' big breakthrough on To The Manor Born came more than 20 years after his career began with RADA at the Old Vic, with the sitcom about an upper-class woman and her nouveau riche businessman husband making him a household name overnight. He reprised the role of Mr DeVere during an hour long 2007 special, in which the two charters celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, and he and his co-star were lifelong friends.
Famously, in 1974, he had turned down the role of Jerry in The Good Life, which made stars of Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Paul Eddington and Ms Keith, claiming that he didn't want to be 'tied down' to a BBC series.
Mr Bowles built a reputation for being a suave leading man, often with a trademark moustache and wooing ladies. He also played smooth villains in several TV series, including The Avengers and The Saint. He was still working until before the pandemic, starring in a stage production of The Exorcist aged 81, declaring proudly at the time he was the 'oldest man to star above the title in British theatrical history'.
Handsome and always impeccably dressed, even in his later years, he put his good health down to 20 minutes of weight-training every day into his 80s.
But away from stage and screen his great love was his wife Sue, who he met in the theatre in the late 1950s when she was a chorus girl. They married in 1961, living together in Barnes, south-west London.
Mr and Mrs Bowles were married for 61 years and 11 months, with three children together - two sons and a daughter - and six grandchildren. He said in 2018: 'Love love love love love love!. That's what makes it work. No competition, no ups and downs — I've never looked at anyone else.'
He also once revealed how he had stormed out of a party with Susan in a 'huff' after being introduced as a 'TV actor'. 'I'd starred in about 14 plays in the West End!' he told the Daily Mail during a sit-down interview in 2018.
Legendary director Sir Peter Hall described him as 'the greatest speaker of verse in the English language' and away from work drove a Rolls-Royce, a succession of Porsches, smoked heavily and often went drinking with his actor friends, but admitted in 2018: 'They're all dead now'.
He said: 'I trained to be a leading Shakespearean actor. The voice! The presence! The size! But I never had a lead." In 2013 he was offered King Lear, but he explained it came too late: "I turned it down - I was too old!'
Born in London in 1936, he grew up in Nottingham and won a scholarship to the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) before cutting his teeth on stage with the Old Vic Company.
He played villains in several TV series, including The Avengers and The Saint, but it was with a moustache in To The Manor Born, co-starring Dame Penelope and commanding audiences of 20 million, that he became most well known for.
His role as DeVere came in his 40s but his other TV credits include such shows as Only When I Laugh, Lytton's Diary, The Bounder and Perfect Scoundrels, with reports also saying he had previously turned down a role in The Good Life.
Speaking about his success in sitcoms, he told the 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.'
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.
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 said previously.
After appearing in amateur plays in Nottingham, when he won his Rada scholarship, he lost his northern accent and was thrown into a melting pot of talent with his peers including names like Alan Bates, Peter O'Toole and Sian Phillips, and he shared a flat with fellow student Albert Finney.
He was reunited with Dame Penelope in a regional tour of Sheridan's The Rivals, directed by Sir Peter Hall, in 2010.
Throughout his career, he featured in many films including 1970's Eyewitness, 1995's The Steal, 2005's Colour Me Kubrick, and 2008's The Bank Job.
He also starred in BBC Two series Murder in 2016, which delved into the psyches of everyone involved in a murder case through testimony delivered straight to camera by each character.
He recently starred alongside Jenna Coleman in the popular ITV series Victoria, playing the role of the Duke of Wellington.
Bowles was married to actress Susan Bennett and the couple had three children.
Source : https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10623175/To-Manor-Born-star-Peter-Bowles-dies-cancer-age-85.html
