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Ian Carmichael OBE (born 18 June 1920) is an English film, stage, television and radio actor.

Early life

Carmichael was born in Hull, Yorkshire.^[1] His father was an optician and he was educated at Scarborough College and Bromsgrove School, before training as an actor at RADA. He made his stage debut as a robot at the People's Palace in Mile End, East London in 1939, but with the outbreak of World War II his acting career was interrupted by military service in Europe with the Royal Armoured Corps, as a commissioned officer in the 22nd Dragoons.

Career

He portrayed serious characters in Betrayed (1954), starring Clark Gable and Lana Turner, and in The Colditz Story (1955), but he made his name playing in a series of films for the Boulting Brothers, including Private's Progress (1956), Brothers in Law (1957) and I'm All Right Jack (1959), as well as similar films for other producers, for example School for Scoundrels (1960). He also appeared in the "Pride" segment of The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971).

During the 1960s and 1970s, he enjoyed success in television, including the sitcom, Bachelor Father, based on the story of a real-life bachelor who took on several foster children. On television he enjoyed great popularity as Bertie Wooster, opposite Dennis Price as Jeeves, in several series of The World of Wooster, based on the works of P. G. Wodehouse. In later years, he was heard on BBC radio as Galahad Threepwood, another Wodehouse creation. In the 1970s, he played Lord Peter Wimsey in several drama series based on the mystery novels by Dorothy L. Sayers.

More recently, notably in the ITV series The Royal as the Hospital Secretary T.J. Middleditch (2003–2006, 2007, 2009). In 1999, he appeared in the BBC serial Wives and Daughters. He was appointed an OBE in the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Personal life

Ian Carmichael has been married twice:

1. Pym McLean (1943–1983 widower); two daughters, Lee and Sally.
2. Kate Fenton (1992–present), novelist.

Partial filmography

• Bond Street (1948)
• Trottie True (1949)
• Dear Mr. Prohack (1949)
• Ghost Ship (1952)
• Time Gentlemen Please (1952)
• Miss Robin Hood (1952)
• Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953)
• Betrayed (1954)
• The Colditz Story (1955)
• Storm Over the Nile (1955)
• Simon and Laura (1955)
• Private's Progress (1956)
• Lucky Jim (1957)
• Brothers in Law (1957)
• Happy is the Bride (1958)
• The Big Money (1958)
• Left Right and Centre (1959)
• I'm All Right Jack (1959)
• School for Scoundrels (1960)
• Light Up the Sky! (1960)
• Double Bunk (1961)
• The Amorous Prawn (1962)
• Heavens Above! (1963)
• Hide and Seek (1963)
• Ih, du forbarmende (1965)
• Smashing Time (1967)
• The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971)
• From Beyond the Grave (1973)
• The Nine Tailors (1973)
• The Lady Vanishes (1979)
• The Wind in the Willows (1983) (voice)
• Diamond Skulls (1989)

See also

• The Lord's Taverners

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Will the real Ian Carmichael– : an autobiography, London: Macmillan, 1979, (400 pp.), ISBN 0-333-25476-7

External links

• Jeeves and Wooster on Television
• Ian Carmichael at the Internet Movie Database
• BBC Humber feature on Ian Carmichael