Lionel Jeffries

Lionel Jeffries
Born June 10, 1926(1926-06-10) (age 82)
Forest Hill, London, England, UKAwards won Other Awards Hollywood Gold Medal Award (For The Railway Children)

Lionel Charles Jeffries (born June 10, 1926 in Forest Hill, London, England) is a British actor, screenwriter and film director.

Life and work

He attended the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wimborne and then trained at RADA after his World War II service, for which he was awarded the Burma Star. He then went into repertory at the David Garrick Theatre, Lichfield for 2 years and appeared in early British television plays.

He built a successful career in British films mainly in comic character roles and as he was prematurely bald he often played characters older than himself. For example, he played the role of father to Caractacus Potts (played by Dick Van Dyke) in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), although Jeffries is actually 6 months younger than Van Dyke. His acting career reached a peak in the 1960s with leading roles in other films like Two-Way Stretch (1960), The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), First Men in the Moon (1964) and Camelot (1967).

In the 1970s he turned to writing and directing children's films, including the celebrated 1970 version of The Railway Children. He belongs to the British Catholic Stage Guild, formerly headed by the late actress Patricia Hayes.

His roles in television are far less as it was reported he did not like the medium. However in 1985 he appeared in the Central Television situation-comedy (for ITV) Roll Over Beethoven, alongside Nigel Planer and Liza Goddard. Since then he appeared in a few further television roles.