R.I.P. Hugh Latimer

[Reza]

London Telegraph

(Filed: 24/06/2006)

Hugh Latimer, who has died aged 93, was a handsome, unambitious actor familiar to West End playgoers and television viewers for several decades before he concentrated on making jewellery and toys.

With a cheery talent for portraying clean-cut young men ready for tennis, he was a firm favourite with The Daily Telegraph's critics from the late 1940s onwards.

W A Darlington liked his rich young man in Jane Steps Out and the gentlemanly policeman in A Lady Mislaid, both by Kenneth Horne; and Patrick Gibbs enjoyed his troubled troubadour in the medieval romp Sing Cuckoo by Judy Campbell.

In parallel with his busy stage career, Latimer appeared in the wireless series PC 49 and Mrs Dale's Diary, playing Bob Dale in the latter.

He was in television's Dixon of Dock Green and The Adventures of Robin Hood, Warship and Hunter's Walk, as well as The Dickie Henderson Show and Two in Clover, with Sid James.

After making his film debut in Corridor of Mirrors (1946) he appeared in Stranger at the Door (1951), The Last Man to Hang (1956) and the crime story The Gentle Trap (1960).

Such was Latimer's reputation for modesty and reliability that he was a favourite choice for an understudy in the West End.

He gave a memorable performance as the middle-aged husband on taking over from Kenneth More in The Secretary Bird for a month.

When he once stepped in for Rex Harrison, a newspaper pointed out that there could be a problem if anything happened to John Gregson, for whom he was also understudying, though Latimer pointed out that both productions were owned by the same management.

The son of a teak merchant and a direct descendant of Bishop Hugh Latimer, who was burnt at the stake in 1555, Hugh Alexander Forbes Latimer was born on May 12 1913 at Haslemere, Surrey. At Oundle he showed a talent for woodwork and metalwork.

On going up to Caius College, Cambridge, young Hugh joined Footlights, then briefly went to the Central School for Drama, before appearing in White Cargo at the Brixton Theatre in 1936.

The following year he made his West End debut as Mr Bingley in Pride and Prejudice, and then appeared in Thank You, Mr Pepys and Rope.

After being called up in 1940 Latimer was commissioned into 34th Light AA Regiment and sent to the Middle East and then India.

On reporting at 7am to his new commanding officer, Major Jack Hawkins, in Bombay, he was greeted with: "How rude of me to be in bed. Have you had a cup of coffee?"

When the troops complained about the films sent out from England, they organised a production of While the Sun Shines, a popular show in London, employing a cast made up of an RAF officer, an American soldier and members of ENSA, which was playing in Calcutta as the war ended.

Lambert's wife, the actress Sheila Gairns, had wisely bought a Georgian house on the edge of Hampstead Heath for £2,000.

But when he arrived in Euston Station at 4 am in February 1946, and gave the address to a taxi driver, the response was: "I'm not f***ing going there."

"I have come 6,000 miles in a ship, which broke down," replied Latimer. "Then I came 400 miles in a train from Glasgow, which broke down. I am now four miles from a wife I have not seen for four years, and you're not f***ing going there?"

A large policeman standing nearby looked at them both, then gently said: "I think he will."

When the cab arrived at the door, the driver took Latimer's luggage up the drive and said: "Madam, may I introduce you to your husband?"

Returning to the stage, Latimer now took a delight in making toys for their two daughters, such as an ark, full of animals, and a spider that sang Humpty Dumpty.

He created a remote-controlled duck which chased real ducks on the heath, and built model boats and steam engines.

A Japanese bank commissioned 150 silver goblets from him. But Latimer was more interested afterwards in creating necklaces for his female acquaintances, who all wore them at his funeral.

Although he gave up the stage Hugh Latimer, who died on June 11, never lost the desire to entertain.

He would ocasionally take a No 9 bus near his home in Kensington, not to go anywhere, but to enjoy making the passengers laugh at his jokes.