Sir Felix Aylmer OBE (21 February
1889 – 2 September 1979) was a distinguished English
stage
actor who also appeared in the cinema and on
television.
He was
born in Corsham
, Wiltshire
, England as Felix Edward Aylmer
Jones. He was educated at Almondbury Grammar School near
Huddersfield, Yorkshire, where he was a boarder from 1897 to 1900,
Magdalen
College School
, and Exeter College
, Oxford, where he was a member of Oxford University Dramatic
Society. He trained under the Victorian-era actress and director Rosina Filippi before securing his first
professional engagement at the London Coliseum
in 1911.
He often worked with
Sir Laurence
Olivier in
Shakepearean
films, such as Polonius in
Hamlet (1948), and often played old
wise men, such as
Merlin in
Knights of the
Round Table (1953). He also memorably played the
Archbishop of Canterbury in the film adaptation of
Becket (1964), with
Richard Burton and
Peter O'Toole.
Aylmer was President of
Equity
from 1950 to 1969.He was made an Officer of the
Order of the British Empire
(OBE) in the 1950
Queen's
Birthday Honours and
knighted in
the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honours. His last major screen role was
as the Abbot in the 1960s sitcom
Oh, Brother!, opposite
Derek Nimmo.
He died in a nursing
home in Pyrford
, Surrey in
1979.
Partial filmography
Publications
References
External links
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