The British character actor, writer and director Lionel Jeffries has died, following a long illness. He was 83.
His film debut was in Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright in 1950, and he was an immediately recognisable face in countless British films for the next two decades. He turned in sterling character work in the likes of The Colditz Story (1955) and The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), and popped up for Hammer in The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958).
But he was best known for his comedy roles in the likes of Doctor at Large, Blue Murder at St Trinians (both 1957), and the classic Peter Sellers vehicles Two Way Stretch (1960) and The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963). His premature baldness often lead to his playing far above his real age. He played Dick Van Dyke's father, the eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts, in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), despite being six months younger than his onscreen offspring.
In the 1970s he acted less (athough he was memorable in Richard Lester's 1975 Royal Flash), turning his hand to writing and directing children's films. His The Railway Children (1970), based on E Nesbit's novel, was a resounding success, playing regularly on TV for the rest of time, and burning the image of Jenny Agutter waving her underwear indelibly into the British psyche. He also directed The Amazing Mr Blunden (1972) and Wombling Free (1977).
His final film appearance was in Danny the Champion of the World in 1989, but TV work included Lovejoy, Inspector Morse, Dennis Potter's Cream in My Coffee and Kingsley Amis' Ending Up.
He was married to Elieen Mary Walsh from 1951 until his death. She and his son and two daughters survive him.
"He took his job extremely seriously," Railway Children station master Bernard Cribbins told the BBC. "But you have to if you want to be funny."