Peter John Bowles (16 October 1936 – 17 March 2022) 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.
He gained prominence for television dramas such as Callan: A Magnum for Schneider and I, Claudius, before becoming recognised for his roles in sitcoms and television comedy dramas, such as The Bounder, The Irish R.M., Lytton's Diary, Executive Stress and Perfect Scoundrels.
Contents
Early life and education
Bowles was born in Kensington, London, England. Much of his early life was spent on an estate in Northamptonshire and later in Nottingham. 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. 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.
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). There he won the Kendall Prize and later he became an associate.
He later lived at 32 Kersall Drive, off the B682 in Highbury Vale, directly opposite the Henry Mellish Grammar School He attended Co-op Arts Centre.
Theatre
After RADA, Bowles began his career with the Old Vic Company in 1956 playing small parts in Shakespeare's Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Troilus and Cressida and Richard II, with Claire Bloom, Paul Rogers and John Neville. After a season the company toured North America, concluding with a sell-out season at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway.
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. 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.
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.
Bowles then joined the Bristol Old Vic Company for a season playing character parts and taking two Shakespeare productions to the Baalbeck Festival. 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, 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 (which closed after four weeks on the day of his wedding), 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.
Later, Bowles was in Alan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends, also starring Richard Briers, at the Garrick Theatre in 1975. Then came Tom Stoppard's Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land at the Arts Theatre in 1976. (Bowles had last played there in 1963 in Anthony Powell's Afternoon Men in a cast that also included James Fox, Alan Howard and the actress and pop artist Pauline Boty). In 1980 in starred in Born in the Gardens by Peter Nichols directed by Clifford Williams first at the Bristol Old Vic and then at the Globe.
Television
Bowles was warned by casting directors on leaving the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) that because of his swarthy looks he would never play an Englishman. Indeed, his early career in television consisted mostly of playing villains (usually foreign) in such shows as The Avengers (Bowles featured in four series), Danger Man, The Saint, Department S, The Persuaders! and The Prisoner (as 'A' in "A. B. and C.", 1967).
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.
After playing his first television comedy role, Hilary, in an episode of Rising Damp, Bowles was often seen as a comedy actor and parts in comedy series such as To the Manor Born, Only When I Laugh, The Bounder, and Executive Stress followed; however, he turned down the role of Jerry in The Good Life.
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, 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 the success of the series, 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.
Personal life and death
Bowles married Susan Bennett on 8 April 1961. The couple lived in Barnes, south-west London and had three children.
Bowles died aged 85, on 17 March 2022, from cancer.
Filmography
Awards and honours
RADA Scholarship (1954)
Madge Kendal Prize (1955)
Male Comedy Star Award (1983)
ITV Personality of the Year (1984)
The Golden Gate Award (San Francisco International Film Festival, 1993)
Hon. Doctor of Literature, for contributions to the theatre, television drama and entertainment. (Nottingham Trent University, 2002)
Books
Autobiography: Ask Me if I'm Happy (Simon & Schuster, 2010)
Behind the Curtain: The Job of Acting (Oberon Masters Series, 2012)
