Friends remember master of stage, film and television
Award-winning actor Peter Barkworth, who lived in Flask Walk for 40 years, has died at the age of 77.
Mr Barkworth died at the Royal Free hospital on October 21 from bronchopneumonia after suffering a stroke ten days before.
The actor, who taught drama at RADA to Sir Anthony Hopkins, Richard Wilson and Diana Rigg in the 50s and 60s, suffered from rheumatism and had been housebound for three months before his death.
Stella Quilley, widow of actor Dennis Quilley, said: "He was a very shy but wonderfully sweet man. I knew him because of Dennis. We once did a poetry reading at the same event. He was a beautiful poetry reader.
"He played the piano fantastically well, but had to give up because of his rheumatism and because he hated not playing well."
Mr Barkworth was born in Margate in January 1929, and was hooked on the stage from the age of five when he appeared as Simple Simon in Margate church hall.
He later claimed to have felt "the sheer sensual pleasure of acting" from that first moment.
A theatre actor in the 1950s, he moved into television in the 60s, appearing in Doctor Who, The Avengers and Colditz.
In 1977, he won a Bafta for his portrayal of Anderson, a philosophy lecturer who has to question his own ethics on a trip to Cold War Czechoslovakia, in Professional Foul.
His most famous role was as Paul Telford, a high-flying banker who packs it all in for the quiet life in Dover, in Telford's Change.
Writer Michael Frayn said: "He was a wonderfully sensitive actor and a most charming man. I only saw him once or twice since then - the last time was at the Folkestone Literary Festival."
He would spend regular weekends at a home he owned in Folkestone in his native Kent.
Mr Barkworth's greatest hobby was gardening, and in his latter years he won awards for his Flask Walk garden.
Joseph Steele first met the actor on the day he opened his butchers on Flask Walk.
Mr Steele said: "He was a very charming man but was very reserved, very discrete, someone you didn't really get to know too closely."
His last role was Charles Gill in Wilde, a 1997 film about the life of the dandy playwright, which starred Stephen Fry and Jude Law.
Many stars of TV and stage, including Tom Conti and Louis Mahoney, were at Mr Barkworth's funeral at Golders Green Crematorium on Monday.
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