James Villiers
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Villiers in The Avengers: Small Game for Big Hunters (1966)
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| Born | James Michael Hyde Villiers (1933-09-29)29 September 1933
London, England
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| Died | 18 January 1998(1998-01-18) (aged 64)
Arundel, Sussex, England
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| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1958–1998 |
| Spouses | Patricia Donovan
(m. 1966; dissolved 1984)Lucy Jex (m. 1994) |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Villiers family |
James Michael Hyde Villiers (29 September 1933 – 18 January 1998)[1] was an English character actor. He was particularly known for his plummy voice and ripe articulation.[1]
He was a great-grandson of the 4th Earl of Clarendon.
Villiers was born on 29 September 1933 in London, the son of Eric Hyde Villiers and Joan Ankaret Talbot. He was brought up in Shropshire and at Ormeley Lodge, Richmond-upon-Thames, later the home of James Goldsmith. At his prep school he was considered its best actor and continued his education at Wellington College, Berkshire. Stage-struck, after leaving school he applied unsuccessfully to Colchester Repertory to be taken on in any capacity and then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1953.[1][2]
Villiers (pronounced Villers) was from an upper-class background, the grandson of Sir Francis Hyde Villiers and great grandson of George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon; his mother was descended from Earl Talbot. His aristocratic ancestry was often reflected in casting, he performed roles such as King Charles II in the BBC series The First Churchills (1969), the Earl of Warwick in Saint Joan (1974), and on stage as Lord Thurlow in The Madness of George III.[1]
Through his father, Villiers was a relative of Thomas Hyde Villiers, Charles Pelham Villiers, Henry Montagu Villiers and the former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Theresa Villiers. Through his mother, he was distantly related to Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 22nd Earl of Shrewsbury.
Villiers made his film début in 1958 and appeared in many British productions, including Joseph Losey's The Damned (also known as These Are the Damned), shot in 1961 but not released until 1963; Seth Holt's The Nanny (1965), Joseph Andrews (1977), For Your Eyes Only (1981), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982), Mountains of the Moon (1990) and The Tichborne Claimant (1998), along with numerous other projects. He often specialised in portraying cold, somewhat effete villains.[3]
He portrayed the role of Colonel Hensman in the television adaptation of Brendon Chase and was heard on BBC Radio 4 as the voice of Roderick SpodeinThe Code of the Woosters and several other adaptations of the Jeeves stories of P. G. Wodehouse, which starred Michael Hordern and Richard Briers.[4] In the 1978 television adaption of The Famous Five, Villiers featured strongly in the two-part pilot in which he played the antagonist, a rogue bureaucrat known only as Johnson.
In 1966, at Maidstone, Kent, Villiers married Patricia Donovan.[1][5] They adopted a son, Alan Michael Hyde Villiers (born Alan Donovan), and the marriage lasted until 1984, when it was dissolved.[1] In 1994, at Worthing, Villiers married secondly Lucinda Jex;[5] they were still together at the time of his death.[1]
Nicholas Whittaker, author of Platform Souls and Blue Period, worked in the Belsize Tavern in 1979 and 1980 and claimed to recall Villiers' visits to the pub in the company of local actor Ronald Fraser. After closing time, the pair would often be found in the beer and curry restaurant opposite. Rupert Everett also claims to have encountered Villiers in an Indian restaurant, some time in 1985, "leglessly drunk, booming orders and insults to the poor long-suffering waiter in a strange breathy vibrato that was pitched for the upper circle".[6] Elsewhere, Villiers is described as a "big drinker" who entered into drinking competitions with his friend Peter O'Toole.[7]
Villiers died on 18 January 1998 in Arundel, Sussex, of cancer.[1]
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