Peter John Bowles (16 October 1936 – 17 March 2022)[1] was an English screen and stage actor, best known for playing Richard DeVere in To the Manor Born, as well as Guthrie Featherstone in Rumpole of the Bailey and Archie Glover in Only When I Laugh.
Bowles was born in London, England.[2] His father was Herbert Reginald Bowles, valet-companion and chauffeur to Drogo Montagu, son of the Earl of Sandwich, then a butler to the daughter of Lord Beaverbrook.[3] His mother was Sarah Jane (née Harrison), from Scotland, who served as a nanny to the family of the Duke of Argyll before coming to England and working for Beaverbrook's family, which is where they met.[3]
Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, Bowles's father was sent to the Rolls-Royce Aero-engine factory in Hucknall, near Nottingham, where the family lived in a small "two-up, two-down" house. Bowles attended the Nottingham High Pavement Grammar School, where he was taught English by the novelist Stanley Middleton, and won a scholarship to train as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where he won the Kendall Prize and later he became an associate.[3]
In March 1956, he was given a contract by the theatre company to take part on a 25-week tour of the US and Canada, from September 1956.[6] He first appeared at the Nottingham Playhouse on Monday 2 December 1957, in Witness for the Prosecution, with Rosalie Westwater, Richard Mathews, Brian Spink, Gillian Martell, John Cater and producer John Rule.[7]
Later in December 1957 he played the Wolf in a pantomime of Little Red Riding Hood, written by David Waller. In January 1958, the company put on Henry V, with him playing the Constable of France. In February 1958, the company put on The Perfect Woman and Three Sisters (play) by Chekhov. In March the company put on Our Town. From mid-April the company put on She Stoops to Conquer, where he played Sir Charles Marlow, and the production featured John Woodvine.[8]
Bowles then joined the Bristol Old Vic Company for a season playing character parts and taking two Shakespeare productions to the Baalbeck Festival.[9] This led to him being offered two plays by the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre, London in September 1960: Dr Copperthwaite in The Happy Haven written by John McGragh and directed by Bill Gaskell,[10] and Kirill in Platanov by Checkov, directed by George Devine, which starred Rex Harrison.
In 1961, after appearing in J.B. at the Phoenix Theatre directed by Laurier Lister in September[11] (which closed after four weeks on the day of his wedding[3]), Bowles was cast in October of that year as Roger in Bonne Soupe, starring Coral Browne and directed by Eleanor Fazan at the Comedy Theatre and then Wyndhams Theatre.[12]
Bowles played the ultimate gangster in Mellis and Scinto's Gangster No 1 at the Almeida Theatre[30] in 1995 for which he held the film rights; he raised money from Channel 4 Films and was executive producer for the film Gangster No. 1 (2000), starring Paul Bettany.[3][31]
Bowles's final starring role was Father Merrin in The Exorcist at the Phoenix Theatre directed by Sean Mathias.[32]
Bowles played Balor ("the most evil man in the universe") in an episode of Space: 1999. He also appeared as Caractacus in the TV adaptation of I, Claudius (1976). His first major English role was Guthrie Featherstone QC MP, whom he played in many series of Rumpole of the Bailey (1978–1992), while in 1975 he played David Grant, husband of Abby Grant in the BBC series Survivors; his character died in the first episode.
The success of To the Manor Born, playing the part of Richard DeVere (a nouveau riche millionaire supermarket owner originally from Czechoslovakia) which had audiences of over 20 million for all twenty-one episodes, changed Bowles' life. After being told by the BBC his success in comedy meant he would never work in drama again,[citation needed] Bowles devised a drama series called Lytton's Diary, which he sold to ITV.
It was while starring in Lytton's Diary that he was offered the title role of Major Yeates in the television series The Irish R.M. for Channel 4. A headline in the Evening Standard after that series' success read "Bowles Saves Channel 4".
Much of Bowles' work was now being shown on American television, including PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, and he was very flattered to discover that admirers in America of his work included Stephen Sondheim, Quentin Tarantino and Marlon Brando. Following The Irish R.M., Bowles co-devised the comedy/drama series Perfect Scoundrels, which ran for three series on ITV.
In 1991, Bowles took an idea for a dramatic film to the BBC; it was accepted, and after being written and adapted by Simon Gray, became Running Late, a film in the Screen One series. This was to be Bowles' first performance on BBC Television since To the Manor Born a decade earlier. Bowles, besides starring, also co-produced with Verity Lambert. The film went on to win The Golden Gate Award in 1993 at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
From 2016 to 2019, Bowles played the recurring role of the Duke of Wellington in the award-winning ITV series Victoria.
Personal life and death
Bowles married Susan Bennett on 8 April 1961.[33] The couple lived in Barnes, south-west London[34] and had three children.
Bowles died aged 85, on 17 March 2022, from cancer.[35][36][37][1]
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