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Derek Stanley Royle (7 September 1928 – 23 January 1990) was a British actor. His face was probably better known than his name to British viewers, but he acted in films and TV from the early 1960s until his death.[1] He had a supporting role in the Beatles' film Magical Mystery Tour in 1967, as well as a minor one with Cilla Black in the film Work Is a Four-Letter Word a year later.[2]
Derek Royle | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 September 1928 |
| Died | 23 January 1990 (aged 61) London, England |
| Years active | 1959–1989 |
| Spouse |
Jane Short (m. 1953) |
| Children | Amanda Royle Carol Royle |
Most of his film appearances were in comedy films such as Tiffany Jones (1973), Don't Just Lie There, Say Something! (1974) and Confessions of a Sex Maniac (1974).[1]
He appeared in a children's TV comedy series, Hogg's Back (1975) as Doctor Hogg, an eccentric general practitioner (GP); in 2016, this series appeared on Talking Pictures TV.[3] Royle acted with Wendy Richard and Pat Coombs over two series.[4] Hog's Back is a ridge of hills in Surrey.[5] Royle played the hotel guest who dies in his room in the Fawlty Towers episode "The Kipper and the Corpse".[6] He also was the first actor to portray Monsieur Ernest Leclerc in the sixth series of 'Allo 'Allo! (replacing Jack Haig, who had portrayed Ernest's brother Roger),[7] and had a supporting role in a remake of Indiscreet (1988) and a new BBC version of a Lord Peter Wimsey story.[8][9] As a stage actor he was a mainstay of Brian Rix's Whitehall farces company.[10] He specialised in absent minded characters and used his acrobatic skills to fall down stairs and immediately get up again as if nothing had happened.[11] Theatre critic Michael Coveney called him "simply one of the funniest men on the English stage".[12]
Derek Stanley Royle was born in Reddish on 7 September 1928, and graduated from RADA in 1950.[13][14][15] He was married to make-up artist Jane Royle (née Short) and their daughters Amanda and Carol Royle became actresses.[12]
Royle died from cancer at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London on 23 January 1990, aged 61.[16]
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