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James Michael Hyde Villiers (29 September 1933 – 18 January 1998) was an English
character actor A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to b ...
. He was particularly known for his plummy voice and ripe articulation. He was a great-grandson of the 4th Earl of Clarendon.


Early life

Villiers was born on 29 September 1933 in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, the son of Eric Hyde Villiers and Joan Ankaret Talbot; he was educated at
Wellington College, Berkshire Wellington College is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in the village of Crowthorne, Berkshire, England. Wellington is a registered charity and currently educates roughly 1,200 pupils, between the ages of 13 and ...
and the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Sen ...
, graduating in 1953. 'Gentleman Jim' Villiers (pronounced ''Villers'') was from an upper-class background, the grandson of Sir Francis Hyde Villiers and great grandson of
George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon, (12 January 180027 June 1870) was an English diplomat and statesman from the Villiers family. He served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs three times as part of a distinguishe ...
; his mother was descended from
Earl Talbot Earl Talbot is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Great Britain. This branch of the Talbot family descends from the Hon. Sir Gilbert Talbot (died 1518), third son of John Talbot, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury. His great-great-great- ...
. His aristocratic ancestry was often reflected in casting, he performed roles such as King Charles II in the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
series ''
The First Churchills ''The First Churchills'' is a BBC serial from 1969 about the life of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and his wife, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. It stars John Neville as the duke and Susan Hampshire as the duchess, was writt ...
'' (1969), the Earl of Warwick in ''Saint Joan'' (1974), and on stage as Lord Thurlow in ''
The Madness of George III ''The Madness of George III'' is a 1991 play by Alan Bennett. It is a fictionalised biographical study of the latter half of the reign of George III of the United Kingdom, his battle with mental illness, and the inability of his court to handle h ...
''. Through his father, Villiers was a relative of
Thomas Hyde Villiers Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the ...
,
Charles Pelham Villiers Charles Pelham Villiers (3 January 1802 – 16 January 1898) was a British lawyer and politician from the aristocratic Villiers family. He sat in the House of Commons for 63 years, from 1835 to 1898, making him the longest-serving Member of Parl ...
, Henry Montagu Villiers and the former
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a w ...
Theresa Villiers Theresa Anne Villiers (born 5 March 1968) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chipping Barnet since 2005, having previously served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2005. A member of the ...
. Through his mother, he was distantly related to
Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 22nd Earl of Shrewsbury Charles Henry John Benedict Crofton Chetwynd Chetwynd-Talbot, 22nd Earl of Shrewsbury, 22nd Earl of Waterford, 7th Earl Talbot, (born 18 December 1952), styled Viscount Ingestre until 1980, is an English nobleman and the Lord High Steward of ...
.


Career

Villiers made his film début in 1958 and appeared in many British productions, including
Joseph Losey Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American theatre and film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Blackliste ...
's '' The Damned'' (also known as ''These Are the Damned''), shot in 1961 but not released until 1963;
Seth Holt Seth,; el, Σήθ ''Sḗth''; ; "placed", "appointed") in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. Ac ...
's ''
The Nanny ''The Nanny'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from November 3, 1993, to June 23, 1999, starring Fran Drescher as Fran Fine, a Jewish fashionista from Flushing, Queens, New York, who becomes the nanny of three chi ...
'' (1965), ''
Joseph Andrews ''The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams'', was the first full-length novel by the English author Henry Fielding to be published and among the early novels in the English language. Appearing in 1742 ...
'' (1977), '' For Your Eyes Only'' (1981), ''
The Scarlet Pimpernel ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' is the first novel in a series of historical fiction by Baroness Orczy, published in 1905. It was written after her stage play of the same title (co-authored with Montague Barstow) enjoyed a long run in London, having ...
'' (1982), '' Mountains of the Moon'' (1990) and ''
The Tichborne Claimant The Tichborne case was a legal ''cause célèbre'' that captivated Victorian England in the 1860s and 1870s. It concerned the claims by a man sometimes referred to as Thomas Castro or as Arthur Orton, but usually termed "the Claimant", to be t ...
'' (1998), along with numerous other projects. He often specialised in portraying cold, somewhat effete villains. He portrayed the role of Colonel Hensman in the television adaptation of ''
Brendon Chase ''Brendon Chase'' is a children's novel by Denys Watkins-Pitchford, writing as 'BB'. It was published in 1944 but is set at an earlier date. The novel is about three boys living wild in an English forest. It was later made into a 13-part TV ser ...
'' and was heard on
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
as the voice of
Roderick Spode Roderick Spode, 7th Earl of Sidcup, often known as Spode or Lord Sidcup, is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of English comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. In the first novel in which he appears, he is an "amateur dictator" and the ...
in ''
The Code of the Woosters ''The Code of the Woosters'' is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 7 October 1938, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York. It was previously serialised in ''The Sa ...
'' and several other adaptations of the Jeeves stories of
P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...
, which starred
Michael Hordern Sir Michael Murray Hordern Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (3 October 19112 May 1995)Morley, Sheridan"Hordern, Michael Murray (1911–1995)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online e ...
and
Richard Briers Richard David Briers (14 January 1934 – 17 February 2013) was an English actor whose five-decade career encompassed film, radio, stage and television. Briers first came to prominence as George Starling in ''Marriage Lines'' (1961–66), but ...
. In the 1978 television adaption of ''
The Famous Five ''The Famous Five'' is a series of children's Adventure fiction, adventure novels and short stories written by English author Enid Blyton. The first book, ''Five on a Treasure Island'', was published in 1942. The novels feature the adventures ...
'', Villiers featured strongly in the two-part pilot in which he played the antagonist, a rogue bureaucrat known only as Johnson.


Personal life

Nicholas Whittaker Nicholas Whittaker (born 1953) is a British writer of non-fiction books on popular culture, often incorporating autobiographical extracts from his own life. He was born in Shrewsbury and lived in Burton upon Trent until 1975. Whittaker has worked ...
, author of ''Platform Souls'' and ''Blue Period'', worked in the Belsize Tavern in 1979 and 1980 and claims to recall Villiers' visits to the pub in the company of local actor Ronald Fraser. After closing time, the pair would often be found in the beer and curry restaurant opposite.
Rupert Everett Rupert James Hector Everett (; born 29 May 1959) is an English actor, director and producer. Everett first came to public attention in 1981 when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film '' Another Country'' (1984) as a gay pupi ...
also claims to have encountered him in an Indian restaurant, some time in 1985, "leglessly drunk, booming orders and insults to the poor long-suffering waiter in a strange breathy vibrato that was pitched for the upper circle". Elsewhere, Villiers is described as a "big drinker" who entered into drinking competitions with his friend
Peter O'Toole Peter Seamus O'Toole (; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was a British stage and film actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic ...
. Villiers was married twice: in 1966 to Patricia Donovan (marriage dissolved 1984), and in 1994 to Lucy Jex; his second marriage lasted until his death. He and his first wife adopted a son, Alan Michael Hyde Villiers (born Alan Donovan).


Death

Villiers died on 18 January 1998 in
Arundel Arundel ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Arun District of the South Downs, West Sussex, England. The much-conserved town has a medieval castle and Roman Catholic cathedral. Arundel has a museum and comes second behind much large ...
,
Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
, of cancer.


Selected filmography

* ''
Carry On Sergeant ''Carry On Sergeant'' is a 1958 British comedy film about National Service starring William Hartnell, Bob Monkhouse and Eric Barker; it is the first in the series of ''Carry On'' films, with 31 entries released from 1958 to 1992. The film was ...
'' (1958) as Seventh Recruit * ''
Edgar Wallace Mysteries The ''Edgar Wallace Mysteries'' is a British second-feature film series mainly produced at Merton Park Studios for Anglo-Amalgamated. There were 48 films in the series, which were released between 1960 and 1965. The series was screened as ''The E ...
'' -''( The Clue of the New Pin)'' (1961) as Tab Holland * ''
Bomb in the High Street ''Bomb in the High Street'' is a 1963 British drama film directed by Peter Bezencenet and Terry Bishop. It stars Ronald Howard, Terry Palmer, and Suzanna Leigh. Premise A gang of villains carry out a bank robbery disguised as soldiers, creati ...
'' (1961) as Stevens * ''
Petticoat Pirates ''Petticoat Pirates'' is a 1961 British comedy film directed by David MacDonald and starring Charlie Drake, Anne Heywood, Cecil Parker, John Turner and Thorley Walters Thorley Swinstead Walters (12 May 1913 – 6 July 1991) was an English c ...
'' (1961) as English Lieutenant * ''
Operation Snatch ''Operation Snatch'' is a 1962 British comedy film starring Terry-Thomas and George Sanders and directed by Robert Day. Plot The story takes place in Gibraltar, and is based on a local legend: if the resident Barbary apes were ever to le ...
'' (1962) as Lt. Keen * ''
Eva Eva or EVA may refer to: * Eva (name), a feminine given name Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Eva (Dynamite Entertainment), a comic book character by Dynamite Entertainment * Eva (''Devil May Cry''), Dante's mother in t ...
'' (1962) as Alan McCormick – a screenwriter * '' The Damned'' (1963) as Captain Gregory * '' Murder at the Gallop'' (1963) as Michael Shane * ''
Girl in the Headlines ''Girl in the Headlines'' (AKA ''The Model Girl Murder Case'') is a 1963 British detective film directed by Michael Truman and starring Ian Hendry, Ronald Fraser, Jeremy Brett, and Jane Asher. It is based on the 1961 novel ''The Nose on my Fac ...
'' (1963) as David Dane * '' Father Came Too!'' (1963) as Benzil Bulstrode * '' Nothing But the Best'' (1964) as Hugh * '' King & Country'' (1964) as Captain Midgely * '' Repulsion'' (1965) as John * ''
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines ''Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines; Or, How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours and 11 Minutes'' is a 1965 British period comedy film that satirizes the early years of aviation. Directed and co-written by Ken Annakin, the film ...
'' (1965) as Yamamoto (voice, uncredited) * ''
The Alphabet Murders ''The Alphabet Murders'' is a 1965 British detective film directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Tony Randall as Hercule Poirot. It is based on the 1936 novel ''The A.B.C. Murders'' by Agatha Christie. Plot Albert Aachen, a clown with a unique ...
'' (1965) as Franklin * '' You Must Be Joking!'' (1965) as Bill Simpson * ''
The Nanny ''The Nanny'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from November 3, 1993, to June 23, 1999, starring Fran Drescher as Fran Fine, a Jewish fashionista from Flushing, Queens, New York, who becomes the nanny of three chi ...
'' (1965) as Bill Fane * ''
The Wrong Box ''The Wrong Box'' is a 1966 British comedy film produced and directed by Bryan Forbes from a screenplay by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove, based on the 1889 novel '' The Wrong Box'' by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne. It was made by ...
'' (1965) as Sydney Whitcombe Sykes * ''
Sword of Honour The ''Sword of Honour'' is a trilogy of novels by Evelyn Waugh which loosely parallel Waugh's experiences during the Second World War. Published by Chapman & Hall from 1952 to 1961, the novels are: ''Men at Arms'' (1952); ''Officers and Gentl ...
'' BBC TV (1967) as Ian Kibannock * ''
Half a Sixpence ''Half a Sixpence'' is a 1963 musical comedy based on the 1905 novel ''Kipps'' by H. G. Wells, with music and lyrics by David Heneker and a book by Beverley Cross. It was written as a vehicle for British pop star Tommy Steele. Background The ...
'' (1967) as Hubert * '' The Touchables'' (1968) as Twyning * ''
Some Girls Do ''Some Girls Do'' is a 1969 British comedy spy film directed by Ralph Thomas. It was the second of the revamped Bulldog Drummond films (following 1967's ''Deadlier Than the Male'') starring Richard Johnson as Drummond, made following the success ...
'' (1969) as Carl Petersen * ''
Otley Otley is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at a bridging point on the River Wharfe, in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically a part of the West Ridi ...
'' (1969) as Hendrickson * ''
A Nice Girl Like Me ''A Nice Girl Like Me'' is a 1969 British comedy film directed by Desmond Davis. Plot The plot revolves around a girl who lives with her shrewd aunts, goes on a trip, gets pregnant, and must lie to her aunts that the baby is not hers. Cast * B ...
'' (1969) as Freddie * ''
Blood from the Mummy's Tomb ''Blood from the Mummy's Tomb'' is a 1971 British horror film starring Andrew Keir, Valerie Leon, and James Villiers. It was director Seth Holt's final film, and was loosely adapted from Bram Stoker's 1903 novel ''The Jewel of Seven Stars''.G ...
'' (1971) as Corbeck * '' The Ruling Class'' (1972) as Dinsdale Gurney * ''
Asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea ...
'' (1972) as George (segment: "Lucy Comes to Stay") * '' Follow Me!'' (1972) as Dinner Guest (uncredited) * ''
The Amazing Mr. Blunden ''The Amazing Mr. Blunden'' is a 1972 British family mystery film involving ghosts directed by Lionel Jeffries. It was based on the 1969 novel ''The Ghosts'' by Antonia Barber. It stars Laurence Naismith, Lynne Frederick, Garry Miller, Rosaly ...
'' (1972) as Uncle Bertie * ''
Ghost in the Noonday Sun ''Ghost in the Noonday Sun'' is a 1974 British comedy film directed by Peter Medak starring Peter Sellers, Anthony Franciosa and Spike Milligan. The film suffered a difficult production due to Sellers's erratic behavior and was not theatrically ...
'' (1973) as Parsley-Freck * ''
Seven Nights in Japan ''Seven Nights in Japan'' is a 1976 Anglo-French drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Michael York, Charles Gray, and Hidemi Aoki. Story The film is about seven days in the life of Prince George, who is travelling in Japan for the ...
'' (1976) as Fin * ''
Spectre Spectre, specter or the spectre may refer to: Religion and spirituality * Vision (spirituality) * Apparitional experience * Ghost Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Spectre'' (1977 film), a made-for-television film produced and writ ...
'' (1977) as Sir Geoffrey Cyon * ''
Joseph Andrews ''The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams'', was the first full-length novel by the English author Henry Fielding to be published and among the early novels in the English language. Appearing in 1742 ...
'' (1977) as Mr. Boody * ''
Saint Jack ''Saint Jack'' is a 1973 novel by Paul Theroux that was adapted into a 1979 film of the same name. It tells the life of Jack Flowers, a pimp in Singapore. Feeling hopeless and undervalued, Jack tries to make money by setting up his own bordello ...
'' (1979) as Frogget * ''
The Music Machine The Music Machine was an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1966. Fronted by chief songwriter and lead vocalist Sean Bonniwell, the band cultivated a characteristically dark and rebellious image reflected in an untamed mus ...
'' (1979) as Hector Woodville (uncredited) * '' For Your Eyes Only'' (1981) as Bill Tanner * ''
The Scarlet Pimpernel ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' is the first novel in a series of historical fiction by Baroness Orczy, published in 1905. It was written after her stage play of the same title (co-authored with Montague Barstow) enjoyed a long run in London, having ...
'' (1982) as Baron de Batz * ''
Under the Volcano ''Under the Volcano'' is a novel by English writer Malcolm Lowry (1909–1957) published in 1947. The novel tells the story of Geoffrey Firmin, an alcoholic British consul in the Mexican city of Quauhnahuac, on the Day of the Dead in Novemb ...
'' (1984) as Brit * ''
Running Out of Luck ''Running Out of Luck'' is a 1985 American adventure film directed by Julien Temple and starring Mick Jagger. Plot Mick (Mick Jagger) is in Rio shooting a video. He is with his wife/girlfriend played by Jerry Hall. Mick performs Half a Lo ...
'' (1987) * ''
Scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...
'' (1989) as Conservative M.P. * '' Mountains of the Moon'' (1990) as Lord Oliphant * ''
King Ralph ''King Ralph'' is a 1991 American comedy film written and directed by David S. Ward and starring John Goodman, Peter O'Toole, and John Hurt. The film is about an American who becomes the unlikely King of the United Kingdom after an electrical ac ...
'' (1991) as Prime Minister Geoffrey Hale * ''
Let Him Have It ''Let Him Have It'' is a 1991 British drama film directed by Peter Medak and starring Christopher Eccleston, Paul Reynolds, Tom Courtenay and Tom Bell. The film is based on the true story of Derek Bentley, who was convicted of the murder of a ...
'' (1991) as Cassels * '' Uncovered'' (1994) as Montegrifo * ''
The Tichborne Claimant The Tichborne case was a legal ''cause célèbre'' that captivated Victorian England in the 1860s and 1870s. It concerned the claims by a man sometimes referred to as Thomas Castro or as Arthur Orton, but usually termed "the Claimant", to be t ...
'' (1998) as Uncle Henry


References


External links

* *
Obituary in ''The Independent''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villiers, James 1933 births 1998 deaths 20th-century English male actors Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art English male film actors English male stage actors English male television actors Male actors from London People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire
James Villiers James Michael Hyde Villiers (29 September 1933 – 18 January 1998) was an English character actor. He was particularly known for his plummy voice and ripe articulation. He was a great-grandson of the 4th Earl of Clarendon. Early life Villie ...