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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
June 4, 1927
Died
November 5, 2020
Place of Birth
Finchley, Middlesex, England, UK
Also Known As
- Geoffrey Dyson Palmer
Geoffrey Palmer
1.1 Popularity
Biography
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
Known For
6.9
To Olivia
2021
7.1
Head Geographer
Paddington
2014
🎬
0.0
Narrator
Walrus: Two Tonne Tusker
2013
6.2
Charles Burnell
Bert & Dickie
2012
7.3
Lord Chief Justice
The Hollow Crown
2012
3.9
Man on Toilet
Run For Your Wife
2012
10.0
Narrator
Queen Victoria's Last Love: Abdul Karim
2012
6.8
Dr. Clarence
Lost Christmas
2011
6.3
Stanley Baldwin
W.E.
2011
8.0
Self / Dr Price
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
2009
Credits
To Olivia
2021
6.9
Paddington
as Head Geographer
2014
7.1
🎬
Walrus: Two Tonne Tusker
as Narrator
2013
0.0
Bert & Dickie
as Charles Burnell
2012
6.2
The Hollow Crown
as Lord Chief Justice
2012
7.3
Run For Your Wife
as Man on Toilet
2012
3.9
Queen Victoria's Last Love: Abdul Karim
as Narrator
2012
10.0
Lost Christmas
as Dr. Clarence
2011
6.8
W.E.
as Stanley Baldwin
2011
6.3
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
as Self / Dr Price
2009
8.0
The Pink Panther 2
as Joubert
2009
5.7
🎬
Chateau Monty
2008
0.0
Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley
as Sir John Crowder
2008
6.8
Ashes to Ashes
as Lord Scarman
2008
7.7
Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned
as Captain Hardaker
2007
7.6
🎬
The Alan Titchmarsh Show
as Self
2007
3.7
The One Show
as Self
2006
4.5
🎬
The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag
as Corbett's Ghost
2005
8.0
🎬
Pope John Paul II: 1920 - 2005
as Narrator
2005
7.0
Piccadilly Jim
as Bayliss
2004
6.5
He Knew He Was Right
as Sir Marmaduke Rowley
2004
7.8
The Young Visiters
as Minnit
2003
5.4
Peter Pan
as Sir Edward Quiller Couch
2003
7.2
Absolute Power
2003
7.5
Grumpy Old Men
as Narrator
2003
7.2
Dickens
2002
0.0
Stig of the Dump
as Robert
2002
6.3
The Savages
as Donald
2001
6.0
The 1940's House
as Narrator (voice)
2001
6.0
Rat
as The Doctor
2000
6.1
Anna and the King
as Lord John Bradley
1999
6.8
Alice Through the Looking Glass
as White King
1998
5.1
Mr. Men & Little Miss: The Christmas Letter
as Narrator / Santa
1998
0.0
🎬
Reckless: The Sequel
as Robert Crane
1998
0.0
Stiff Upper Lips
as His Butler's Voice
1998
5.6
Tomorrow Never Dies
as Admiral Roebuck
1997
6.4
Mrs Brown
as Henry Ponsonby
1997
6.8
The Legacy of Reginald Perrin
1996
8.0
🎬
Look at the State We're In!
as The Ruler
1995
0.0
The Madness of King George
as Warren
1994
6.8
Stalag Luft
as The Kommandant
1993
6.8
As Time Goes By
as Lionel Hardcastle
1992
7.6
A Question of Attribution
as Donleavy
1991
6.6
Smack and Thistle
as Sir Horace Wimbol
1991
0.0
Agatha Christie's Poirot
as Vice Admiral Hamling
1989
8.2
🎬
Christabel
as Mr. Burton
1988
5.5
Hawks
as SAAB Salesman
1988
5.8
A Fish Called Wanda
as Judge
1988
7.2
Inspector Morse
as Matthew Copley-Barnes
1987
7.8
Season's Greetings
as Bernard
1986
0.0
Executive Stress
1986
5.7
Clockwise
as Headmaster
1986
6.2
The Insurance Man
as The Angry Doctor
1986
6.2
Hot Metal
1986
5.8
A Zed & Two Noughts
as Fallast
1985
7.1
Absurd Person Singular
as Ronald Brewster-Wright
1985
8.0
Inside Rooms: 26 Bathrooms, London & Oxfordshire
as Narrator
1985
6.1
Oxbridge Blues
as Fred
1984
5.0
🎬
Fairly Secret Army
as Major Harry Truscott
1984
5.0
Natural World
as Narrator
1983
7.1
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
as Jimmy Anderson
1983
0.0
The Honorary Consul
as British Ambassador
1983
5.6
Blackadder
as Field Marshal Haig
1983
8.0
Dalgliesh
as Edwin Lorrimer
1983
6.9
🎬
The Houseboy
as Eric
1982
0.0
Whoops Apocalypse
1982
7.2
The Kenny Everett Television Show
as Various
1982
7.0
Mr. Kershaw's Dream System
as Psychiastrist
1982
0.0
A Midsummer Night's Dream
as Quince
1981
5.0
The Last Song
1981
0.0
Bergerac
as Nigel Carter
1981
6.7
Safe at Work?
as Narrator
1980
0.0
The Outsider
as Col. Wyndham
1979
5.6
The BBC Television Shakespeare
as Quince
1978
6.0
Butterflies
as Ben Parkinson
1978
7.1
An Audience with...
as Self
1978
5.3
The Professionals
as Avery
1977
7.4
The Professionals
as Simon Sinclair
1977
7.4
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
as Jimmy Anderson
1976
8.0
Bill Brand
as Malcolm Frear
1976
6.3
🎬
Loyalties
as Graviter
1976
0.0
A Story to Frighten the Children
as Det. Chief Insp. Harris
1976
0.0
The Battle of Billy's Pond
as First Policeman
1976
6.7
Fawlty Towers
as Dr. Price
1975
8.3
Angels
1975
3.7
Edward the Seventh
as Sir Edward Clarke
1975
6.9
Goodbye
as Jack
1975
10.0
The Sweeney
as Commander Watson
1975
7.7
Mr. Men and Little Miss
1974
0.0
O Lucky Man!
as Examination Doctor/Basil Keyes
1973
6.9
Only Make Believe
as Richard Nicholls
1973
0.0
Colditz
as Doc
1972
7.3
Crown Court
as Kenneth Eden
1972
5.4
Van der Valk
as Head of Faculty
1972
5.8
Doctor Who: The Mutants
as Administrator
1972
7.5
Michael Regan
as Chief Superintendent
1971
0.0
The Goodies
1970
7.5
The Goodies
as School Headmaster
1970
7.5
Play for Today
1970
6.3
Play for Today
as Detetective Chief Inspector Harris
1970
6.3
Play for Today
as Jack Buckett
1970
6.3
🎬
The High Game
as Man at the Clinic
1970
0.0
Doctor Who and the Silurians
as Masters
1970
7.3
Doomwatch
as Major Sims
1970
6.0
The Expert
as Asst. Chief Constable Rogers
1968
10.0
🎬
The Revenue Men
as Bill Mitchell
1967
1.0
Cathy Come Home
as Property Agent
1966
7.0
Mystery and Imagination
1966
5.5
Softly, Softly
1966
5.0
Out of the Unknown
as Chief Officer
1965
7.0
🎬
No Place Like Earth
as Chief Officer
1965
0.0
The Troubleshooters
as Jeremy Martin
1965
5.0
The Man In Room 17
as Ian McWatt
1965
5.3
🎬
The Joe Baker Show
1965
0.0
Gideon's Way
as Jeff Grant
1965
6.8
The Wednesday Play
as Property Agent
1964
4.5
Ring of Spies
as Police Officer (uncredited)
1964
6.9
Doctor Who
as Administrator
1963
7.9
Doctor Who
as Masters
1963
7.9
The Human Jungle
as Williams
1963
8.2
A Prize of Arms
as Cpl. Myers
1962
6.6
The Saint
as Pete Ferguson
1962
7.3
🎬
Bulldog Breed
1962
0.0
The Avengers
1961
7.7
The Avengers
as Paul Manning
1961
7.7
The Avengers
as Martin Smythe
1961
7.7
No Hiding Place
1959
3.7
The Army Game
1957
5.0
Best Of Enemies
N/A
8.3