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IMDbPro

Peter Bowles(1936-2022)

  • Actor
  • Writer
  • Producer
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
Peter Bowles
A husband fights to be with his wife after she is hospitalized and taken to a nursing home.
Play trailer2:29
Together (2018)
36 Videos
47 Photos
Though he had a long and varied career on stage and screen, Peter Bowles achieved his greatest popular success on mainstream TV as the debonair nouveau riche tycoon Richard De Vere, head of a supermarket and catering chain, forever matching wits with Audrey Fforbes-Hamilton (Penelope Keith) in To the Manor Born (1979). From then on, the London-born actor's stock-in-trade tended to be charming, likeable rogues, rakish lotharios and flamboyant or snobbish posh types. While on screen the very ideal of style and cultivation, Bowles himself came from a relatively humble working class background, the son of Herbert Reginald Bowles (valet, chauffeur and, eventually, butler to English aristocracy) and Scottish-born Sarah Jane Harrison (who worked as a nanny for the Duke of Argyll). His parents met while employed by the family of Lord Beaverbrook. Both worked hard to send their 16 year-old son to drama school at RADA, his mother even taking on night time work at a hospital to pay for his fees. Considered a bright youngster, Bowles graduated with ease. Having made his theatrical debut at the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre in 1953, he joined the Old Vic company three years later to play small parts in Shakespearean plays.

Considered by casting directors to be either too tall or 'too swarthy' to play Englishmen on screen, Bowles spent much of the 60s as a minor TV villain, essaying an assortment of shady characters with names like Borowitsch, Mendez, Butros or Gamal. By the time he hit the jackpot with To the Manor Born, Bowles was in his 40s. At last, he was wisely employed on television, generally cast as characters who would walk that fine line between elegant heroics and raffish villainy. From the early 70s, he starred or co-starred in more than a few series, some dramas, some comedies, most of them gems: Napoleon and Love (1974) (as Murat), the hospital sitcom Only When I Laugh (1979) (Archie Glover), The Bounder (1982) (roguish ex-convict Howard Booth, a part specially written for Bowles by Eric Chappell), The Irish R.M. (1983) (Major Sinclair Yeates), Lytton's Diary (1985) (a series Bowles himself created, playing Fleet Street gossip columnist Neville Lytton) and Perfect Scoundrels (1990) (very much in character as the consummate grifter Guy Buchanan). He also played the ambitious Guthrie Featherstone Q.C. in 17 installments of Rumpole of the Bailey (1978). His final recurring role of note was as the Duke of Wellington in the popular period drama Victoria (2016).

An intelligent and versatile actor, Bowles disliked being labeled as a sitcom star and latterly lamented the fact that major classical roles on stage had eluded him, saying "... the classics are done by the big companies or by the directors from the big companies and for reasons best known to them I have never been asked." If not Shakespeare or Chekhov, Bowles nonetheless headlined in a number of prestigious plays, many of them produced by Peter Hall (including The Browning Version, Sleuth and Wait Until Dark). He also played the bogus Major Angus Pollock in a 1993 revival of Terence Rattigan's Separate Tables, Professor Higgins in Pygmalion at the Chichester Festival Theatre and (in a special performance) George MacDonald Fraser's colourful arch cad Harry Flashman.

Bowles was married for more than sixty years to the former actress Susan Bennett with whom he had three children. The iconic actor passed away from cancer on March 17 2022 at the age of 85.
BornOctober 16, 1936
DiedMarch 17, 2022(85)
BornOctober 16, 1936
DiedMarch 17, 2022(85)
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
  • Awards
    • 1 nomination total

Photos47

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Known for

Jason Statham in Braquage à l'anglaise (2008)
Braquage à l'anglaise
7.2
  • Miles Urquart
  • 2008
David Hemmings in Blow-Up (1966)
Blow-Up
7.4
  • Ron
  • 1966
To the Manor Born (1979)
To the Manor Born
7.4
TV Series
  • Richard DeVere
The Irish R.M. (1983)
The Irish R.M.
7.7
TV Series
  • Maj. Sinclair Yeates

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Actor



  • We Are Tourists (2024)
    We Are Tourists
    • William
    • 2024
  • Kelly Preston, Sally Phillips, Jenny Seagrove, and Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips in Off the Rails (2021)
    Off the Rails
    5.3
    • Vicar
    • 2021
  • Victoria (2016)
    Victoria
    8.2
    TV Series
    • Duke of Wellington
    • 2016–2019
  • Peter Bowles and Sylvia Syms in Together (2018)
    Together
    7.5
    • Philip
    • 2018
  • Murder (2016)
    Murder
    5.4
    TV Mini Series
    • Greville Cotterall
    • 2016
  • Simon Day in The Life of Rock with Brian Pern (2014)
    The Life of Rock with Brian Pern
    8.0
    TV Series
    • Brian Pern's Father
    • 2016
  • Peter Bowles in Not Waving (2016)
    Not Waving
    Short
    • Archie
    • 2016
  • Citizen Khan (2012)
    Citizen Khan
    6.3
    TV Series
    • Lord Anstruther
    • 2015
  • Meet Pursuit Delange: The Movie (2015)
    Meet Pursuit Delange: The Movie
    6.8
    • Sir Edward Mead
    • 2015
  • Peterman (2014)
    Peterman
    5.8
    • Old Boy
    • 2014
  • Lilting ou la délicatesse (2014)
    Lilting ou la délicatesse
    7.2
    • Alan
    • 2014
  • John Leeson, Elisabeth Sladen, Yasmin Paige, Daniel Anthony, Tommy Knight, Sinead Michael, and Anjli Mohindra in The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007)
    The Sarah Jane Adventures
    7.4
    TV Series
    • Lionel Carson
    • 2011
  • Claire Forlani and Dougray Scott in Love's Kitchen (2011)
    Love's Kitchen
    5.3
    • Max Templeton
    • 2011
  • Kenneth Branagh, Alan Cumming, Vincent Price, Rufus Sewell, David Warner, Rosalind Ayres, Dennis Burgess, Andrew Cruickshank, Joanna David, Anthony Dutton, Peter Dyneley, John Flanagan, James Hayter, Joan Hickson, Alison Key, Cyril Luckham, Ferdy Mayne, Julia McKenzie, Ben Miles, Kenneth More, Ronald Pickup, Gene Shalit, David Suchet, Gwen Watford, Martin Compston, Caterina Murino, Cosima Shaw, and Kimberley Nixon in Mystery! (1980)
    Mystery!
    8.9
    TV Series
    • Sir Roderick Horsfield
    • 2010
  • David Suchet in Hercule Poirot (1989)
    Hercule Poirot
    8.6
    TV Series
    • Sir Roderick Horsfield
    • 2008

Writer



  • Perfect Scoundrels (1990)
    Perfect Scoundrels
    6.5
    TV Series
    • original idea
    • 1990–1992
  • Lytton's Diary (1985)
    Lytton's Diary
    6.8
    TV Series
    • based on an original idea by
    • 1985–1986
  • Nichola McAuliffe and Bill Nighy in Storyboard (1983)
    Storyboard
    7.1
    TV Series
    • original idea
    • 1983

Producer



  • Paul Bettany in Gangster Number One (2000)
    Gangster Number One
    6.7
    • executive producer
    • 2000
  • Screen One (1985)
    Screen One
    6.8
    TV Series
    • associate producer
    • 1992

Videos36

Trailer
Trailer 2:29
Trailer
Lilting
Trailer 1:45
Lilting
Lilting
Trailer 1:45
Lilting
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
Trailer 3:08
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
The Irish R.M.: The Complete Collection
Trailer 1:41
The Irish R.M.: The Complete Collection
Three Hats for Lisa
Trailer 3:02
Three Hats for Lisa
Love's Kitchen
Trailer 1:42
Love's Kitchen

Personal details

Edit
  • Alternative name
    • PeterBowles
  • Height
    • 1.89 m
  • Born
    • October 16, 1936
    • London, England, UK
  • Died
    • March 17, 2022
  • Spouse
    • Susan BennettApril 8, 1961 - March 17, 2022 (his death, 3 children)
  • Children
      Sasha
  • Parents
      Herbert Reginald Bowles
  • Other works
    Plays "David Bliss" in "Hay Fever", a play by Noël Coward (Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, England, UK).
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Print Biography
    • 2 Interviews
    • 2 Articles
    • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    He published his autobiography, "Ask Me if I'm Happy. An Actor's Life", in April 2010.
  • Trademark
      Crooked front tooth

FAQ

Powered by Alexa
  • When did Peter Bowles die?
    March 17, 2022
  • How did Peter Bowles die?
    Cancer
  • How old was Peter Bowles when he died?
    85 years old
  • When was Peter Bowles born?
    October 16, 1936
  • Where was Peter Bowles born?
    London, England, UK

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