Peter Bowles

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Peter Bowles (born 16 October 1936) is an English actor.

Bowles was born in London, England, the son of SarahJane (née Harrison) and Herbert Reginald Bowles.^[1] He became famous in the late 1970s and 1980s for portraying upper class characters typically caught in hilarious situations. Having appeared in three episodes of The Avengers in the 1960s, he then starred in television comedies including Only When I Laugh, The Irish R.M., The Bounder, To the Manor Born and Perfect Scoundrels. Bowles also appeared as a regular in the first few series of Rumpole of the Bailey as Guthrie Featherstone, QC, MP, Horace Rumpole's social-climbing head of chambers. In later seasons the character became a judge and left Rumpole's chambers, but a disgruntled Rumpole still found himself appearing occasionally before Mr Justice Featherstone, usually once per season. In 1966 he co-starred with Vivian Pickles in the BBC TV film Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World directed by Ken Russell. He later co-starred with Penelope Keith in To the Manor Born and the mid-80's BAFTA-award winning Executive Stress on ITV.

Bowles also played the agent known as 'A' in The Prisoner episode "A. B. and C.", and the alien Balor in the Space: 1999 episode "End of Eternity". He also appeared as Carolyn Seymour's husband in the first episode of Survivors; and in four episodes of The Avengers.

He continues to work regularly in theatre, including London's West End. While appearing at the Chichester Festival Theatre in The Waltz of the Toreadors^[2] in June 2007 he forgot his lines,^[3] finally walking off stage mumbling "I'm going to put the cat out.".

It was announced that he would have a role in Sweeney Todd as a ballad soloist and one of Todd's murder victims. However, when Tim Burton omitted the chorus numbers, his character, as well as the characters of 7 other actors, were dropped from the film.^[4]

Bowles will be appearing in The Browning Version at the Theatre Royal Bath in June 2009^[5].

Partial filmography

• Wings of Death (1961)
• The Informers (1963)
• Three Hats for Lisa (1965)
• Blowup (1966)
• The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968)
• The Assassination Bureau (1969)
• Laughter in the Dark (1969)
• Eyewitness (1970)
• The Offence (1972)
• For the Love of Benji (1977)
• The Disappearance (1977)
• Try This One for Size (1989)
• The Steal (1995)
• Tumbled (1999)
• Ballet Shoes (2007)
• Freebird (2008)
• The Bank Job (2008)

References

External links

• Peter Bowles at the Internet Movie Database
• Peter Bowles biography at the British Film Institute's Screenonline