Peter Clowe Hughes (20 May 1922 – 5 February 2019) was an English actor with a career spanning five decades. He was an actor, founder and director of theatre, but was best known for his film and television roles.

Early life and theatre

Hughes was born in

Kensal Rise Kensal Green, also known as Kensal Rise, is an area in north-west London, and along with Kensal Town, it forms part of the northern section of North Kensington. It lies north of the canal in the London Borough of Brent, and also to the south, ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, an only child of a single mother. He was partly raised in foster institutions, and initially trained as a draughtsman designing car chassis, before moving to

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

after his mother died in 1939 where he took a post designing armoured cars. After helping establish the Talisman Theatre in 1942, he trained as an actor, making his professional debut in 1949, in a production of

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...

's '' Fallen Angels''. His West End debut would occur four years later in 1953, after which he would establish a long association with both the Richmond Theatre and the

Watford Palace Theatre Watford Palace Theatre, opened in 1908, is an Edwardian Grade II listed building in Watford, Hertfordshire. The 600-seat theatre on Clarendon Road was refurbished in 2004. It houses its own rehearsal room, wardrobe, cafe and bar. History The ...

Film and television

In television, Hughes would play the recurring role of a bank manager in the BBC series '' Bergerac''. Other notable roles include an English tourist in ''

Love Is a Splendid Illusion ''Love is a Splendid Illusion'', also known as ''Bed and Don't Tell'', Simon Sheridan, ''Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema'', Titan Books 2011 p 67-68 is a 1970 British sex comedy film directed by Tom Clegg and starring Sim ...

'' (1970) and a harried golfer in the ''

Last of the Summer Wine ''Last of the Summer Wine'' is a British sitcom set in Yorkshire created and written by Roy Clarke and originally broadcast by the BBC from 1973 to 2010. It premiered as an episode of ''Comedy Playhouse'' on 4 January 1973, and the first seri ...

'' episode "Foggie's Niblick." He appeared in '' An Englishman's Castle'' in 1978, a serial of alternative history in which the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

have won the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Another appearance in 1978 was as the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

crime boss William Henry (Bill) Hayden in an episode of the hard-hitting British police drama '' The Professionals'', the episode entitled ''When the Heat Cools Off''. Hughes also featured as a maitre d' in ''

The Great Muppet Caper ''The Great Muppet Caper'' is a 1981 musical heist comedy film directed by Jim Henson (in his feature directorial debut) and the second theatrical film featuring the Muppets. The film stars Muppet performers Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Jerr ...

'' (1981); the P&O manager in

David Lean Sir David Lean (25 March 190816 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor, widely considered one of the most important figures of Cinema of the United Kingdom, British cinema. He directed the large-scale epi ...

's '' A Passage to India'' (1984) and a policeman in the John Boorman film '' Hope and Glory'' (1987). TV miniseries included ''

Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer who was active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also ...

'' (1988) starring

Michael Caine Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, 14 March 1933) is a retired English actor. Known for his distinct Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films over Michael Caine filmography, a career that spanned eight decades an ...

in which Hughes played Mr. Poulson, the proprietor of a news agency. He played General Franco in

Alan Parker Sir Alan William Parker (14 February 1944 – 31 July 2020) was an English film director, screenwriter and producer. His early career, beginning in his late teens, was spent as a copywriter and director of television advertisements. After abo ...

's film adaptation of '' Evita'' in 1996.

Personal life

Hughes and his wife Erica were the parents of cricketer and journalist Simon Hughes (born 1959) and historian and broadcaster

Bettany Hughes Bettany Mary Hughes (born May 1967) is an English historian, author, and broadcaster, specialising in classical history. Her published books cover classical antiquity and myth, and the history of Istanbul. She is active in efforts to encourag ...

(born 1967). He retired in 1999 and died in February 2019 at the age of 96.

Filmography

References

External links

* 1922 births 2019 deaths English male film actors English male television actors {{England-screen-actor-stub