Geoffrey Sumner(1908-1989)

Mustachioed, latterly balding British comic character actor of solid pipe-smoking, plummy-voiced comportment. The son of Edmund and Kathleen Marion (née Brook), he was educated at Clifton College and made his debut on the London stage in a 1931 production of Sport of Kings. Rarely out of work for the remainder of the decade, he also sidelined as a newsreel commentator for British Movietone News and segued into screen acting with ABPC Elstree in 1938. Sumner's specialty act was the archetypal bumbling 'silly ass', which included a staple of supercilious army officers and clubroom types. Best of these caricatures was his utterly inept Major Upshott-Bagley of I Only Arsked! (1958) and the resulting spin-off series The Army Game (1957). Between 1958 and 1962, Sumner took on a new line of work as writer and producer of documentaries. In 1973, he headlined on Broadway in the comedy play The Jockey Club Stakes as Lord Coverly de Beaumont. He retired from acting in 1980 and died nine years later on the island of Alderney.