Jonathan Cecil

Jonathan Hugh Gascoyne-Cecil (22 February 1939 – 22 September 2011), known as Jonathan Cecil, was an English actor.

Early life Cecil was born on 22 February 1939, in Westminster, the son of Lord David Cecil and the grandson of the 4th Marquess of Salisbury.

Brought up in Oxford, where his father was Goldsmith Professor of English, Cecil was educated at Eton, where he played small parts in school plays, and at New College, Oxford, where he read modern languages, specialising in French, and continued with amateur acting in the Oxford University Dramatic Society. In a production of Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, he played a lunatic called Troubadour and a woman who sells pigs. He was Captain Cadbury in the Dad's Army episode "Things That Go Bump in the Night" (1973) and Mr Herbert in all six episodes of Oh Happy Band! (1980), both produced by David Croft, Bertie Wooster in Thank You, P. G. Wodehouse (1981), Ricotin in Federico Fellini's And the Ship Sails On (1983), and Captain Hastings (to Peter Ustinov's Hercule Poirot) in Thirteen at Dinner (1985), Dead Man's Folly and Murder in Three Acts (both 1986). In 2009 he appeared in an episode of Midsomer Murders. He has been called "one of the finest upper-class-twits of his era". and The Brightonomicon. He also appeared in The Next Programme Follows Almost Immediately, playing characters with foreign accents. Additionally, he stood in for Derek Nimmo in the role of the Bishop's Chaplain, the Reverend Mervyn Noote, in the second series of the radio episodes of the ecclesiastical sitcom All Gas and Gaiters, which ran for twenty episodes.

He narrated audio books of many of P. G. Wodehouse's books, performing voice characterisations for each character. He might have been more strongly identified with narration of the series than any other actor.

Cecil wrote occasionally for The Spectator and The Times Literary Supplement. In one piece he noted

He also admitted that "most of my experience has been in comedy, that's the way life has taken me ... if I have any regrets, it's that I didn't do parts with more depth". In 1976, Cecil married secondly the actress Anna Sharkey, whom he had met while appearing at the Mermaid Theatre in 1972.

Filmography

Nothing But the Best (1964) – Guards Officer (uncredited) The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1964) – Giles Jinkson The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964) – Young Man (uncredited) The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966) – Man (uncredited) Otley (1968) – Young Man at Party The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (1970) – Spot Lust for a Vampire (1971) – Biggs To Catch a Spy (1971) – British Attaché Up the Front (1972) – Captain Nigel Phipps Fortescue Dad's Army (1973) – Captain Cadbury Are You Being Served (1975) – Customer Barry Lyndon (1975) – Lt. Jonathan Fakenham Under the Doctor (1976) – Rodney Harrington-Harrington / Lord Woodbridge Joseph Andrews (1977) – Fop One Rising Damp (1980) – Boutique Assistant History of the World, Part I (1981) – Poppinjay (The French Revolution) Farmers Arms (1983) – Mr. Brown And the Ship Sails On (1983) – Ricotin The Wind in the Willows (1983) – Reggie (voice) Thirteen at Dinner (1985) – Captain Hastings Dead Man's Folly (1986) – Captain Hastings Murder in Three Acts (1986) – Captain Hastings The Second Victory (1987) – Capt. Lowell Little Dorrit (1987) – Magnate on the Bench Hot Paint (1988) – Earl of Lanscombe The Fool (1990) – Sir Martin Locket A Fine Romance (1992) As You Like It (1992) – Lord Late Flowering Lust (1994) – Mr. Fairclough Day Release (1997) RPM (1998) – Lord Baxter Fakers (2004) – Dr Fielding Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj (2006) – Provost Cunningham