Graham Armitage

English actor (1936–1999)

Graham Armitage
in The Avengers: Quick-Quick Slow Death (1966)
Born	Edgar Harvey Armitage (1936-04-24)24 April 1936 Blackpool, Lancashire, England
Died	6 March 1999(1999-03-06) (aged 62) Johannesburg, South Africa
Alma mater	RADA
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1952-1999 (Film and TV)

Graham Armitage (24 April 1936 – 6 March 1999) was an English stage, film and television actor.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Armitage was born in Blackpool in Lancashire,^[3] the son of Albert Edward Armitage (1908–1959) and Isabel W. née Bailes (1909–). In 1947 Harvey left the UK with his family, flying to South Africa and eventually settling in Cape Town where he attended Sea Point Boy's High School and then the Christian Brothers College. In early 1951 Harvey and his family moved to Salisbury, in Southern Rhodesia where he attended Prince Edward School. During 1952 Harvey wrote the entrance exam for late entry to Dartmouth Naval College. Whilst his Maths and Geography results were outstanding he had not studied the same syllabus for English Literature and History so failed to obtain entrance. In 1955 he married Carole Shirley England (1934–2017) at the Anglican Cathedral in Salisbury, Rhodesia. The couple had three children. He graduated from RADA in 1952^[4] following which he made his début in the BBC television play Without The Prince, which was transmitted live. For the next twenty years Armitage regularly appeared on screen, mainly on television. He had roles in such shows as The Saint, The Avengers and made several appearances on The Dick Emery Show. In 1973 Armitage went to South Africa to appear in the Noël Coward revue Cowardy Custard and decided to stay there, becoming a familiar face on local television and stage.^[5]

In 1974 Olivia Manning adapted two of Arnold Bennett's works (The Card and The Regent) into an eight part BBC Radio play: Denry - The Adventures Of A Card. Armitage portrayed the eponymous Denry with Ursula O'Leary as the beautiful Countess of Chell.^[6] From 1979 to 1985 he portrayed Sherlock Holmes for Springbok Radio.^[7]^[8] His last appearance was in 1999 as a vicar in the South African family film Alec to the Rescue.

Graham Armitage died in Johannesburg in South Africa in 1999. His ashes were buried in the grounds of Manchester Crematorium in the UK.

Selected filmography

Film

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) - Pawson (uncredited)
The Fiction-Makers (1968) - Carson
Battle of Britain (1969) - Radar Officer (uncredited)
The Fifth Day of Peace (1970) - Mark
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) - Wiggins (uncredited)
Scrooge (1970) - Party Guest (uncredited)
The Music Lovers (1970) - Prince Balukin
Games That Lovers Play (1971) - Mr. Adams
The Devils (1971) - Louis XIII of France
The Boy Friend (1971) - Michael
Take Me High (1973) - Boardman
The New Spartans (1975)
Spanish Fly (1975) - Perkins
Zulu Dawn (1979) - Capt. Shepstone (uncredited)
Game for Vultures (1979) - Harken
Flashpoint Africa (1980) - Don
The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) - The Reverend (voice, uncredited)
Die Groen Faktor (1984) - William Honiball
Wie Laaste Lag... (1986) - Heart attack businessman
Going Bananas (1987) - Gen. Smythe-Paget
Jane and the Lost City (1987) - Cake Waiter
Code Name Vengeance (1987) - Forrest (uncredited)
Diamonds High (1988) - Bank manager
Merchants of War (1989) - Gordon
Circles in a Forest (1989) - Commissioner
That Englishwoman: An Account of the Life of Emily Hobhouse (1990) - Minister
Oddball Hall (1990) - The Grand Noble Master
River of Diamonds (1991) - Judge
Fei zhou he shang (1991) - Auctioneer
Sweet 'n Short (1991) - Bryce Williams
Fleshtone (1994) - Dr. Sydney Frye
Cry, the Beloved Country (1995) - Judge
Alec to the Rescue (1999) - Vicar (final film role)

Television

Theatre 625 (1966) - Monsieur Bernard
The Avengers (1966-1967) - Algernon 'Algy' Wynche / Huggins
Doctor Who (1967) - Barney
The Saint (1968) - Carson
The First Churchills (1969) - Earl of Rochester
Randall and Hopkirk (1970) - Young Stage Director
From a Bird's Eye View (1971) - Johnstone
Seven of One (1973) - Arthur (Episode "My Old Man")
The Naked Civil Servant (1975) - Mr. Dunsmore
Open All Hours (1976) - Man from Matlock Mutual Protection Society

References

^ Ross p.183
^ Wearing, J. P. (16 September 2014). The London Stage 1950-1959: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780810893085 – via Google Books.
^ ^a ^b "Graham Armitage". BFI. Archived from the original on 21 March 2017.
^ Fabrique. "Graham Armitage — RADA". www.rada.ac.uk.
^ Actor and Actress Index - Who's Who in Randall and Hopkirk Database
^ Sutton Elms BBC Radio Plays from 1974 Retrieved 2021-12-15.
^ III, Harris M. Lentz (24 October 2008). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 1999: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. McFarland. ISBN 9780786452040 – via Google Books.
^ "Graham Armitage - The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia". www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.