Friday, February 19, 2010

Lionel Jeffries - Rest in Peace

Grew up watching Lionel Jeffries in such films as Two Way Stretch, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, First Men in the Moon he also provided the voice for Fred Bassett in the TV animation and directed and wrote the screenplay for The Railway Children with Jenny Agutter in 1970.



The Rada-trained star, who was associated with a number of children’s classics, was 83.Jeffries was an instantly recognisable figure and became a familiar face in film and TV for decades.A spokeswoman for his agent, the Liz Hobbs Group, said: “We can confirm he did pass away this morning. It was following a long illness.”

From Online

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed the characters he played that were often much older than he was. I will miss him.

Mangamax said...

Just put a similar post on my Blog. Such a real shame that such a true original has gone. Shame too that he didn't get the accolades he so richly deserved.

Graeme Neil Reid said...

He was great, another childhood favourite!

Andrew Glazebrook said...

It's hard to believe that although he played Dick Van Dyke's father in Chitty Chitty Ban Bang he was actually six months younger than Van Dyke !!!

Michael Grant Clark said...

Sad to hear that, he was a good director and spiffing chap.

I'm off to my shed now to build an anti gravity machine, in his honour.