Geoffrey Chater obit

Geoffrey Chater, polished and charming character actor acclaimed as Polonius opposite Jonathan Pryce’s Hamlet – obituary

He brought an air of effortless naturalism to middle-class types, and he was suitably stiff-upper-lip as the chaplain in if....

 

He was not on the list.

Geoffrey Chater, who has died aged 100, was a character actor of quiet authority, affable assurance and polished charm for more than half a century in plays, films and on television.

What gave Chater’s acting its distinction was an effortless poise. Whether in the classics or in contemporary drama, he never seemed to have to strive for effect. He brought such an air of naturalism to either period or modern parts that sometimes he did not seem to be acting at all.

If his doctors or clerics, dukes or baronets, peers or landowners rarely stole the limelight, Chater, who saw acting as a means of serving the author before his own ambition, was too well-mannered to think of doing so. Best remembered for a friendly face, reassuring smile and mature manner, Chater was usually cast as likeable nonentities or amusing fuddy-duddies from the vulnerable middle class – though sometimes less respectable than they seemed.

One of his more remarkable stage performances was as Polonius to Jonathan Pryce’s Prince of Denmark (1980): modest, honest, sincere and no man’s fool, for all the efforts of Hamlet to make a fool of him. An often subtle player, especially on television, Chater had but to raise an eyebrow or clear his throat to bring a character to warm and human life.

Geoffrey Michael Chater Robinson was born at Barnet, which was then in Hertfordshire, on March 23 1921; his mother was the actress Gwendoline Gwynne. Geoffrey went to Marlborough and then served in the Army from 1940 to 1946.

Back in civilian life, having dropped Robinson from his stage name, he began in the theatre as an assistant stage manager at the Theatre Royal, Windsor. He made his first professional appearance there in 1947 in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, his West End debut coming in 1952 as the Constable in a thriller, Master Crook (Comedy Theatre).

After a year in small parts at the Old Vic (1954-55), Chater acted Bildad in Archibald MacLeish’s J.B. (Phoenix, 1961) and joined Peter Hall’s newly formed Royal Shakespeare Company at its experimental branch, the Arts Theatre Club, in 1962.

He was cheery as the stockbroker ready to collude in a murder to hush up a local, profitable scandal in Giles Cooper’s black comedy of suburban corruption, Everything in the Garden (which transferred to the Duke of York’s); and a bewigged, voluptuous and oily Duke of Florence in Thomas Middleton’s 17th-century drama, Women Beware Women.

Chater played Ingrid Bergman’s husband, the estate-owner Yslaev, in Michael Redgrave’s revival of Turgenev’s A Month in the Country (Cambridge, 1965). After a spring tour in 1971 as Lord Lumbercourt in the Prospect Theatre Company’s revival of Charles Macklin’s The Man of the World (1781), Chater returned to the Royal Court for two plays.

First he joined a company of six who between them played 34 parts in N F Simpson’s first full-length play for seven years, Was He Anyone? (Theatre Upstairs); and then in the main house he was a Tory victim of a terrorist plot to blow him up in Howard Brenton’s Magnificence (1973).

He was not as busy in the cinema, making around a dozen films; he debuted inauspiciously in 1958 in the sci-fi horror The Strange World of Planet X (which later attained something approaching cult status). In 1971 he played Christmas Humphreys, the barrister who secured the wrongful conviction of Timothy Evans, in 10 Rillington Place, and four years later he was a doctor in Stanley Kubrick’s period classic Barry Lyndon.

He was suitably starchy as the school chaplain and CCF commander in Lindsay Anderson’s if… (1968), last seen handing out rifles to repel the rooftop revolutionaries led by Malcolm McDowell.

Chater worked well into his nineties, and as recently as 2017 was giving readings of poetry.

Geoffrey Chater married, in 1949, Jennifer Hill. They had a daughter and two sons.

 

In 1976 Chater played Dr Frobisher in Rattigan’s The Browning Version (King’s Head, Islington) and Dr Bradman in Harold Pinter’s revival for the National Theatre Company of Coward’s Blithe Spirit (Lyttelton).

After returning to the RSC as the very English Henry in Cousin Vladimir (Aldwych 1978), David Mercer’s play comparing Britain and Soviet Russia, Chater went back to the Royal Court for Hamlet in 1980.

He was hyperactive on the small screen, amassing around 150 credits, beginning in 1950 with the drama Double Exit. Among his most notable roles was as a British Consul in North Africa in Brideshead Revisited in 1981, and his final part came in 2005 in Midsomer Murders.

Filmography

Film

 

    The Strange World of Planet X (1958) - Gerard Wilson

    Battle of the V-1 (1958) - Minister of Defence

    Wonderful Things! (1958) - Solicitor

    The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) - Pat Holroyd

    Two Letter Alibi (1962) - Inspector Warren

    If.... (1968) - Chaplain: Staff

    One of Those Things (1971) - Falck

    10 Rillington Place (1971) - Old Bailey: Christmas Humphreys

    Endless Night (1972) - Coroner

    The Best Pair of Legs in the Business (1973) - Reverend Thorn

    O Lucky Man! (1973) - Bishop / Vicar

    Barry Lyndon (1975) - Doctor Broughton

    Gandhi (1982) - Government Advocate

    Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990) - Doctor Archibald

 

Television

 

    Sherlock Holmes (1951) - Unknown

    Jan at the Blue Fox (1952) - Mr. Trevor

    The Birdcage Room (1954, TV film) - Mr. Blackfoot

    ITV Television Playhouse (1955) - Dusty

    ITV Play of the Week (1955-1963) - Various roles

    My Friend Charles (1956) - Doctor George Kimber

    Motive for Murder (1957) - Harry Manners

    Armchair Theatre (1958-1971) - Various roles

    The Third Man (1959) - Lord Farset

    Scotland Yard (1960) - Detective Superintendent Lawrie

    Saturday Playhouse (1960) - Raymond

    On Trial (1960) - A.J. Newton

    Walk a Crooked Mile (1961) - Arnold Hedges

    Storyboard (1961) - Duroc

    Family Solicitor (1961) - Mr. Tyler

    Echo Four Two (1961) - Acting Superintendent Dean

    Probation Officer (1961) - Sir Giles Enton

    Drama 61-67 (1962-1963) - Various roles

    No Hiding Place (1962-1965) - Various roles

    Crying Down the Lane (1962) - Superintendent Lambe

    Z Cars (1963) - Robson

    The Plane Makers (1963) - Simon Stride

    Ghost Squad (1963-1964) - Various roles

    BBC Sunday-Night Play (1963) - The Captain

    The Human Jungle (1963) - Householder

    The Scales of Justice (1963) - Mr. Soames

    Detective (1964) - Tony Garnish

    Espionage (1964) - Colonel Gregory

    Festival (1964) - Kindred

    Story Parade (1964) - Prosecutor

    The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling (1964) - Major Vansuythen

    Victoria Regina (1964) - Doctor Clark

    Theatre 625 (1965-1967) - Various roles

    Front Page Story (1965) - Bosley Morton

    Emergency-Ward 10 (1965) - Commander Boyle RN

    The Troubleshooters (1966-1967) - Charles du Cros

    Vendetta (1966) - Don Gino

    Adam Adamant Lives! (1967) - Commissioner Hobson

    The Wednesday Play (1967) - Richard Browning

    Softly, Softly (1967) - Framley

    Sexton Blake (1967) - William Passer

    The Avengers (1967-1968) - Jarvis/Seaton

    City '68 (1967-1968) - Wainwright

    ITV Playhouse (1967-1980) - Various roles

    The Champions (1968) - Forster

    The Saint (1968) - Carl Howard

    The Expert (1968-1969) - Tom Caldicott

    The Power Game (1969) - Arthur Stilton

    ITV Sunday Night Theatre (1969) - Toby Pears

    Department S (1969) - Peck

    Rogues' Gallery (1969) - Sir Richard Manningham

    W. Somerset Maugham (1969) - Mr. Grey

    The Main Chance (1969-1975) - Roger Chapman

    Big Brother (1970) - Sir Michael Clarke

    Callan (1970-1972) - Bishop

    Steptoe and Son (1970) - Peregrine

    Biography (1970) - Hoppner

    Fraud Squad (1970) - Brigadier Wildblood

    Doomwatch (1971) - Mullery

    Paul Temple (1971) - Sir Harold Malyon

    Justice (1971) - Lord Rush

    Jason King (1971) - Mr. Horner

    Dad's Army (1972) - Colonel Pierce

    The Dick Emery Show (1972-1975) - Various roles

    Ooh La La! (1973) - Landernau

    Orson Welles' Great Mysteries (1973) - Donald Cosgrove

    Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973) - Bank manager

    Thriller (1973-1975) - Various roles

    Special Branch (1974) - Sir Gerald Pastor

    Fall of Eagles (1974) - Charles

    General Hospital (1974) - Mr. Hillier

    Shoulder to Shoulder (1974) - Holloway Prison Governor

    Father Brown (1974) - Leonard Smythe

    Moll Flanders (1975) - George Mace

    Thriller (1975) Episode: "The Next Voice You See" - Sir Peter Hastings

    Jackanory Playhouse (1975) - Chancellor

    Village Hall (1975) - Leonard Beamish

    The Poisoning of Charles Bravo (1975) - Mr. Gorst

    Hogg's Back (1975) - Inspector

    Crown Court (1976) - Professor Stuart Adams

    Hadleigh (1976) - David Ringham

    The Howerd Confessions (1976) - Mr. Parsley

    Within These Walls (1976) - Judge Lionel Hunt

    Romance (1977) - Sir Charles Verdayne

    Devenish (1977) - Admiral Sir Percival Wallow

    The Upchat Line (1977) - Mr. Peabody

    The Cedar Tree (1978) - Walter Henderson

    Strangers (1979) - Barker

    Rings on Their Fingers (1979) - Mr. Lowther

    Penmarric (1979) - Doctor Ormott

    Prince Regent (1979) - Henry Addington

    Play for Today (1979-1981) - Various roles

    Premiere (1980) - Superintendent

    Agony (1981) - Mr. Lucas

    Bognor (1981) - Sir Erris Beg

    The Good Soldier (1981) - Bagshawe

    Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981) - Lord Hailsham

    Brideshead Revisited (1981) - Consul

    Othello (1981) - Brabantio

    Troilus & Cressida (1981) - Nestor

    Shelley (1982) - Mr. Fairbass

    The Agatha Christie Hour (1982) - Canon Parfitt

    Harry's Game (1982) - Colonel George Frost

    The Further Adventures of Lucky Jim (1982) - Magistrate

    Tales of the Unexpected (1982) - James Hamilton

    Nanny (1983) - Major Fancombe

    The Cleopatras (1983) - Perigenes

    A Married Man (1983) - Sir Peter Craxton

    The Aerodrome (1983) - Dr. Faulkner

    Shackleton (1983) - Sir Clements Markham

    Foxy Lady (1984) - Mr. Molyneux

    Strangers and Brothers (1984) - Thomas Bevill

    Blott on the Landscape (1985) - Minister

    Mapp and Lucia (1985-1986) - Mr. Algernon Wyse

    Screen Two (1985-1987) - Various roles

    Indiscreet (1988) - Finley

    A Taste for Death (1988) - Frank Musgrave

    The Dog It Was That Died (1989) - Wren

    Anything More Would Be Greedy (1989) - Sir William Crome

    Chelworth (1989) - Rafe Holingsworth

    Norbert Smith, a Life (1989) - Cyril Freebody

    Saracen (1989) - Alan Ross

    The New Statesman (1990) - Justice Saunders

    Harry Enfield's Television Programme (1990) - Mr. Dickinson

    Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming 1990) - Lawyer

    Bergerac (1990) - Sir Matthew Osterson

    Brass (1990) - Air Vice Marshal Plunkett-Downe

    One Foot in the Grave (1990) - Reverend Croker

    Rumpole of the Bailey (1991) - Gregory Fabian

    Harry Enfield and Chums (1994) - Headmaster

    The House of Eliott (1994) - Wilkinson

    The Rector's Wife (1994) - The Bishop

    Pie in the Sky (1994) - Doctor Lonsdale

    The Detectives (1995) - Sutton Frobisher

    The Thin Blue Line (1995) - Carol Singer

    The Bill (1998) - Edward Robbins

    In the Red (1998) - Mr Justice Frimlington

    Heartbeat (1999) Hal Clifford

    Heartbeat (2003) - Sir Henry Bing

    Foyle's War (2003) - Professor Phillips

    Midsomer Murders (2005) - Brother Robert