Geoffrey Palmer

Known for ActingBorn 1927-06-04Died 2020-11-05Finchley, Middlesex, England, UK

Geoffrey Dyson Palmer, OBE (4 June 1927 - 5 November 2020) was an English actor known for his roles in British television sitcoms playing Jimmy Anderson in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–79), Ben Parkinson in Butterflies (1978–1983) and Lionel Hardcastle in As Time Goes By (1992–2005). His film appearances include A Fish Called Wanda (1988), The Madness of King George (1994), Mrs. Brown (1997), and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Geoffrey Dyson Palmer was born on 4 June 1927 in North Finchley, Middlesex. He was the son of Frederick Charles Palmer, who was a chartered surveyor, and Norah Gwendolen (née Robins). He attended Highgate School from September 1939 to December 1945. He served as a corporal instructor in small arms and field training in the Royal Marines during his national service from 1946 to 1948, following which he briefly worked as an unpaid trainee assistant stage manager. Palmer's early television appearances included multiple roles in episodes of The Army Game (Granada Television), two episodes of The Baron and as a property agent in Cathy Come Home (1966). After a major break in John Osborne's West of Suez at the Royal Court with Ralph Richardson, he acted in major productions at the Royal Court and for the National Theatre Company and was directed by Laurence Olivier in J. B. Priestley's Eden End. Palmer found the play so dull, however, that he was deterred from a stage career. Two BBC sitcom roles brought him attention in the 1970s: the hapless brother-in-law of Reggie Perrin in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–79), and the phlegmatic dentist Ben Parkinson in Butterflies (1978–1983). In 1978, Palmer appeared as organized crimelord Simon Sinclair in London Weekend Television's hard-hitting police drama The Professionals, the episode entitled "Where the Jungle Ends". Palmer played Doctor Price in the Fawlty Towers episode "The Kipper and the Corpse" (1979), determined to have breakfast amidst the confusion caused by the death of a guest and Fawlty's inept way of handling the emergency. In 1986, Palmer appeared as Donald Fairchild in the first series of an ITV sitcom, Executive Stress, alongside Penelope Keith. He later left, and was replaced by Peter Bowles. Palmer later starred opposite Judi Dench for over a decade in another BBC sitcom, As Time Goes By (1992–2005). In 1997, he also appeared with Dench in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, in which he portrayed Admiral Roebuck to Dench's M, and Mrs Brown, playing Sir Henry Ponsonby to Dench's Queen Victoria. Palmer married Sally Green in 1963. They had a daughter, Harriet, and a son, Charles, a television director. Palmer was a longtime resident of Lee Common in the Chiltern Hills, Buckinghamshire, and enjoyed fly fishing in his spare time. At the time of his death, he resided in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. Palmer died peacefully at his home on 5 November 2020, aged 93.Read more

Movies & web series

Queen Victoria's Last Love: Abdul Karim

A Story to Frighten the Children

Only Make Believe

Six Days of Justice

The Chequers Manoeuvre

Season's Greetings

Goodbye

The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag

The Uninvited

The Expert

No Place Like Earth

Detective

Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened

Absurd Person Singular

Agatha Christie's Poirot

Fawlty Towers

The 1940s House

The Legacy of Reginald Perrin

The Strange World of Gurney Slade

The Human Jungle

Blackadder

Ashes to Ashes

Inspector Morse

The Sweeney

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

Michael Regan

Frost on Sunday

Absolute Power

He Knew He Was Right

Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned

The Hollow Crown

The Odd Man

Doctor Who

As Time Goes By

The Avengers

The Further Adventures of the Musketeers

The Professionals

Paddington

The Battle of Billy's Pond

Colditz

The Goodies

Natural World

Grumpy Old Men

Peter Pan

Softly, Softly

Scorpion Tales

To Olivia

Screen One