Lionel Jeffries, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang star, dies 83

[Steve Sanderson]

From my friends at Hollywoodmemoir.com


Lionel Charles Jeffries (June 10, 1926 – February 19, 2010) was a British actor, screenwriter and film director.

He 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, who was born on December 13, 1925. 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), First Men in the Moon (1964) and Camelot (1967).

Death of Lionel Jeffries
Following a long illness, Jeffries died in a nursing home in Poole, Dorset, on 19 February 2010 at the age of 83. He was married to Eileen Mary Walsh from 1951 until his death. Their son and two daughters survive him.