Christopher Benjamin 1934 – 2025
Today we heard the very sad news of the passing of actor Christopher Benjamin aged 90. Many of our readers will fondly remember him for his appearances in Doctor Who playing Sir Keith Gold in “Inferno” (1970), Henry Gordon Jago in “The Talons of Weng-Chiang” (1977) and Colonel Hugh Curbishley in “The Unicorn and the Wasp” (2008).
Christopher Benjamin was an English actor with many stage and television credits since the 1960s.
He also provided the voice of Rowf in the animated film The Plague Dogs (1982). His radio acting career included two BBC Radio adaptations of Christopher Lee’s crime drama Colvil and Soames.
Benjamin was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England.
He has appeared regularly in TV and radio since 1965. He is well known for his roles in some of the UK’s biggest cult television programmes. This included playing the same character (“Potter”) in two Patrick McGoohan dramas, Danger Man and The Prisoner, fuelling speculation that they are possibly linked. He played the Old Man (boss of Philip Roath) in the Thames Television comedy by Peter Tilbury, It Takes a Worried Man (1981). He was also an occasional guest star in The Avengers and Doctor Who, making three appearances in each, mostly in comedy roles.
He also played recurring roles in several period dramas. He was Sir John Glutton, the regular adversary in the period family adventure series Dick Turpin, Channing in several episodes of the third series of When The Boat Comes In, and Prosper Profond in the acclaimed 1967 adaptation of The Forsyte Saga.
He reprised the role of Henry Gordon Jago, from the Doctor Who serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang in thirteen series of Jago and Litefoot audio plays, after a well received episode of the Big Finish Productions audio C.D. series Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles entitled The Mahogany Murderers. He acted alongside Trevor Baxter who played Professor George Litefoot. He was Sir William Lucas in the acclaimed 1995 production of Pride and Prejudice.
His few film roles include appearances in Ring of Bright Water (1969), Brief Encounter (1974), Hawk the Slayer (1980), The Tichborne Claimant (1998) and Angel (2007). His final screen appearance was in The Legend of Tarzan (2016).
Predominantly a stage actor, after six years in repertory theatres, Manchester, Salisbury and Bristol Old Vic (1958-1965) he has performed regularly over twenty years with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has played Bottom five times, at Bristol Old Vic, Regents Park, Radio 3, the RSC (including a tour of Australia and New Zealand) and finally at Glyndebourne in The Fairy-Queen, before retiring from the stage in 2012.
His West End performances include How the Other Half Loves at the Duke of Yorks, A Voyage Round My Father at Wyndhams, The Clandestine Marriage at the Queens Theatre, Sweeney Todd at the Royal National Theatre, and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Saville (with Leonard Rossiter). He has also appeared in several plays at the Donmar, the Kings Head, Mermaid, etc. He has played Falstaff in rep at Salisbury, at Regents Park, and at the Globe in 2008 and after touring the US and UK in 2010.
Benjamin retired from acting and lived in Hampstead, London, with his wife, Anna Fox, an actress and writer.
