Lionel Jeffries

About Lionel Jeffries

Who is it?: Actor, Director, Writer
Birth Day: June 10, 1926
Birth Place:  Forest Hill, London, England, United Kingdom
Died On: 19 February 2010(2010-02-19) (aged 83)\nPoole, Dorset, England
Birth Sign: Cancer
Cause of death: Vascular dementia
Occupation: Actor, film director, screenwriter
Years active: 1950–2001
Spouse(s): Eileen Mary Walsh (m. 1951; his death 2010)
Children: 3

Lionel Jeffries Net Worth

Lionel Jeffries was born on June 10, 1926 in  Forest Hill, London, England, United Kingdom, is Actor, Director, Writer. With his firm jawline and bristling mustache, Lionel Jeffries played a nice line of English eccentrics. This belied his RADA training. Following military service in WWII, he played his major roles - everything from Grandpa Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) to the Marquis of Queensberry in The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) - in the 1960s.His surprisingly brief career as a director included the highly popular family films The Railway Children (1970) and The Amazing Mr. Blunden (1972).
Lionel Jeffries is a member of Actor

💰Lionel Jeffries Net worth: $5 Million

Some Lionel Jeffries images

Biography/Timeline

1945

In 1945, he received a commission in the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and served in Burma at the Rangoon radio station during the Second World War, being awarded the Burma Star. (He blamed the humidity there for his hair loss at the age of 19.) He also served as a captain in the Royal West African Frontier Force.

1951

He was married to Eileen Mary Walsh from 1951 until his death. Their son and two daughters also survived him. His son Ty Jeffries is a Composer, lyricist and cabaret Artist. Lionel Jeffries' granddaughter is the Novelist and Playwright Amy Mason.

1968

He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He entered repertory at the David Garrick Theatre, Lichfield, Staffordshire for two years and appeared in early British television plays. Jeffries built a successful career in British films mainly in comic character roles and as he was prematurely bald he often played characters older than himself, such as the role of father to Caractacus Potts (played by Dick Van Dyke) in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), although Jeffries was actually six months younger than Van Dyke. His acting career reached a peak in the 1960s with leading roles in other films like Two-Way Stretch (1960), The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), Murder Ahoy! (opposite Margaret Rutherford), First Men in the Moon (1964) and Camelot (1967).

1970

Jeffries turned to writing and directing children's films, including a well regarded version of The Railway Children (1970) and The Amazing Mr Blunden (1972). He was a member of the British Catholic Stage Guild.

1980

Jeffries had a dislike of television and its production values and shunned the medium for many years. He reluctantly appeared on television in an acting role in the 1980 London Weekend Television Dennis Potter drama Cream in My Coffee and realised that television production values were little different from those in the film industry; as a result he developed a belated career in television. He appeared in an episode of the Thames Television/ITV comedy-drama Minder in 1983, played a leading role in the situation comedy Roll Over Beethoven (Central Television/ITV) and appeared in an episode of Inspector Morse in 1990 (Central Television/Zenith/ITV). He starred as Tom (Thomas Maddisson) in the Thames/ITV situation comedy Tom, Dick and Harriet; during location filming for a 1983 episode, Jeffries and his co-stars Ian Ogilvy and Bridget Forsyth had to be rescued when a stunt involving a car went wrong.

2010

Jeffries retired from acting in 2001 and his health declined in the following years. He died on 19 February 2010 in a nursing home in Poole, Dorset. He had suffered from vascular dementia for the last twelve years of his life.