R.I.P. Geoffrey Palmer

[Reza]

As Time Goes By actor Geoffrey Palmer dies aged 93


by Hannah J Davies (The Guardian) 11/6/2020


Geoffrey Palmer, the actor best known for roles in sitcoms including The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, As Time Goes By and Butterflies has died aged 93.

Palmer began his TV career with roles in shows including The Avengers and ITV’s The Army Game, and Ken Loach’s TV play Cathy Come Home. Following stage roles in productions including Laurence Olivier’s imagining of JB Priestley’s Eden End, Palmer returned primarily to television, where he would find acclaim in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and Butterflies, gaining a reputation for portraying world-weary characters.

Between 1992 and 2005, Palmer and Judi Dench starred in the sitcom As Time Goes By, playing former lovers Lionel and Jean, who reconnected later in life.

Other TV roles included Fawlty Towers and Doctor Who. Palmer also appeared alongside Dench in the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997, and John Madden’s Mrs Brown, also released in 1997. On film, he also appeared in A Fish Called Wanda, Clockwise and The Madness of King George. He also lent his distinctive voice to a number audiobooks, adverts and podcasts, and the narration of BBC series Grumpy Old Men.
Born in London, Palmer served in the Royal Marines between 1946 and 1948, prior to his acting career.

He largely stayed out of the public eye, though he did campaign against the HS2 railway plan in 2013 which he said would destroy the countryside around his home in the Chilterns in Buckinghamshire, describing it as a “vanity project” in an interview with the BBC.

Leading the tributes online, director Edgar Wright said: The flight path gag wiping out the lines of Reggie Perrin’s brother in law is one of my favourite in comedy. RIP to the brilliantly funny Geoffrey Palmer”.

He is survived by his wife Sally and children Charles and Harriet.