Geoffrey Palmer

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

Lord John Bradley

Anna and the King

Judge

A Fish Called Wanda

Admiral Roebuck

Tomorrow Never Dies

Warren

The Madness of King George

Masters

Doctor Who and the Silurians

Fallast

A Zed & Two Noughts

To Olivia

Joubert

The Pink Panther 2

White King

Alice Through the Looking Glass

Narrator

Walrus: Two Tonne Tusker

Henry Ponsonby

Mrs Brown

Dr. Clarence

Lost Christmas

Narrator

Inside Rooms: 26 Bathrooms, London & Oxfordshire

Stanley Baldwin

W.E.

Minnit

The Young Visiters

Sir John Crowder

Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley

Robert Crane

Reckless: The Sequel

Donleavy

A Question of Attribution

Charles Burnell

Bert & Dickie

Administrator

Doctor Who: The Mutants

Bernard

Season's Greetings

The Kommandant

Stalag Luft

Sir Horace Wimbol

Smack and Thistle

Psychiastrist

Mr. Kershaw's Dream System

British Ambassador

The Honorary Consul

Man on Toilet

Run For Your Wife

Self / Dr Price

Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened

Narrator

Safe at Work?

The Angry Doctor

The Insurance Man

The Doctor

Rat

Cpl. Myers

A Prize of Arms

Head Geographer

Paddington

Narrator / Santa

Mr. Men & Little Miss: The Christmas Letter

Man at the Clinic

The High Game

Corbett's Ghost

The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag

Graviter

Loyalties

Eric

The Houseboy

Headmaster

Clockwise

Chief Officer

No Place Like Earth

SAAB Salesman

Hawks

Property Agent

Cathy Come Home

First Policeman

The Battle of Billy's Pond

Narrator

Pope John Paul II: 1920 - 2005

His Butler's Voice

Stiff Upper Lips

Narrator

Queen Victoria's Last Love: Abdul Karim

Bayliss

Piccadilly Jim

Captain Hardaker

Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned

Sir Edward Quiller Couch

Peter Pan

Quince

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Det. Chief Insp. Harris

A Story to Frighten the Children

Richard Nicholls

Only Make Believe

Chief Superintendent

Michael Regan

Col. Wyndham

The Outsider

Police Officer (uncredited)

Ring of Spies

Examination Doctor/Basil Keyes

O Lucky Man!

Jack

Goodbye

Ronald Brewster-Wright

Absurd Person Singular

Jimmy Anderson

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

Dr. Tanfield

Incident at Midnight

Basil Mallard

Drama '63: A Well Dressed Man

Jimmy Anderson, Ben Parkinson

The Funny Side of Christmas

Glyn Bryce

Radio Pictures

Professor Wybrow

The Chequers Manoeuvre