Tuesday, 8 May 2012

Jonathan Cecil


Jonathan Cecil: 

1939-2011

Despite being descended from the aristocratic line of Lord Salisbury, and educated at Eton and Oxford (his father was the famous Oxford literary scholar Lord David Cecil), he has spent his whole career playing idiotic fops, upper-crust nincompoops, and society dimwits. Perhaps best-known on TV as Poirot's slow-witted sidekick, Captain Hastings, he has mainly appeared in a lot of fairly low-brow and kid's stuff, including 'The Goodies', 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum', 'Worzel Gummidge', 'Kenny Everett', 'Doctor In The House', 'Romany Jones' and the like. 'Wodehouse Playhouse', 'Dad's Army' and 'Alice In Wonderland' (1986) were rare treats, but he's a great character actor who always brightens the screen when he appears.

[Sadly we have lost Jonathan Cecil since I originally posted this in October 2010]   

Jonathan Cecil - imdb profile

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this on my uncle Jonathan, a man even more hilarious in real life than he was on film.
    Perhaps his most celebrated role (outside that of raconteur in the French House, Soho) was as the camp Captain in Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, who gets his clothes stolen in a slightly naughty scene.
    We all miss him!
    Yours respectfully, David Cecil

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you, David. I'm glad that you noticed my small salute to your uncle. It is most sincerely felt.

    ReplyDelete