Today (23rd August 2023) would have been the actor Peter Wyngarde’s 96th birthday. (You can read a bit more about him if you want to on his Wikipedia page here.) He was probably most famous for his role as Jason King in the ITV spy-drama “Department S” and the spin-off series “Jason King”. Unless you are a Doctor Who fan of course, and then you’d know him as Timanov, from the 1984 Fifth Doctor adventure “The Planet of Fire”.
Jason King – for real
Wyngarde always struck me as a strange person. An eccentric for sure; the most striking example of which was the way that he played his off-camera life the same way as his on-camera roles – very confident, very sure of himself type of person. To the young me, that was both marvellous and highly amusing. The strutting, the preening and let us not forget the 1970’s Jason King clothes.
He was described as playing his roles “in the manner of a cat walking on tiptoe, with an air of self-satisfaction”, which I thought was spot-on. Apparently his acting became more mannered and he came to believe his own publicity, which led to something of a confusion of facts about him that he would change every now and again (e.g. birthday, place of birth, parents occupations etc.)
It got to a point where he wouldn’t accept direction.
Cyril Frankel (Director)
He was a very fine actor, but unfortunately a difficult person.
Then in 1975, right at the zenith of his television career, he was successfully prosecuted for gross indecency in a Bus Station toilet. He was fined £75 for this, but the knock-on effect of that was to kill his TV and Film career for a bit. In fact, the next time I “saw” him was in the 1980 film “Flash Gordon” playing Klytus, a character that always wore a mask. However, there was no mistaking his unique voice.
Speaking of Voices
His voice was once described as “butter melting over caramel”. Not sure what that’s supposed to mean, but Wyngarde had a very recognisable voice – probably assisted by the many Persian cigarettes that he used to smoke.
He made a couple of spoken-word musical arrangements in 1970. These were very odd (in my opinion) recordings, with very odd lyrics, which Wyngarde claimed sold very well amongst Wyngarde fans. I’ve yet to hear them in full, but I can well imagine them being just as eccentric as Wyngarde himself.
According to Wikipedia, the album (originally called “Peter Wyngarde”) was re-release in 1998 and retitled to be: “When Sex Leers Its Inquisitive Head”. I’ve yet to track down an actual physical copy, however I imagine it will be all I would want it to be.
I thought you were dead
Wyngarde pretty much disappeared in the late 1980’s from British TV screens. I think he mainly did theatre for a long while (and most of it abroad), so news from the Wyngarde estate was few and far between. So much so, I thought that he’d died.
And it wasn’t just me that thought he’s died: Screenwriter Mark Millar says that when casting his 2004 film “Layer Cake”, the director Matthew Vaughn wanted Wyngarde for a role, but was told that he had died. Seven years later, Vaughn requested him again for a role in “X-Men: First Class” but was again wrongly advised that Wyngarde had died.
Missed opportunities. I’t would have been magnificent to see Wyngarde in an X-Men film!
In 2010 however, I learned (to my joy) that he was actually still alive. I saw him in a short interview about “Planet of Fire”. By that time he was 82. but he was still unmistakably Peter Wyngarde.
Gone but not forgotten
Despite the flamboyancy and the flounciness, the pink Persian fags and the hedonism, he lived until 2018. He died aged 90 in a Chelsea Hospital. A true relic from the 1970’s, and one of my favourite people.
Peter Wyngarde will always remain at the top of my list of favourite actors and people. The sheer arrogance of his characters, his fluid acting style, the cat-like movement and not forgetting ‘that’ accent and ‘that’ voice.
Long live Cyril Goldbert!