Robert Flemyng

Robert Flemyng, OBE, MC (born Benjamin Arthur Flemyng, 3 January 1912 – 22 May 1995) was a British film and stage actor.[1]

Robert Flemyng OBE
Robert Flemyng in The Constant Wife (1953)
Born
Benjamin Arthur Flemyng

(1912-01-03)3 January 1912
Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Died22 May 1995(1995-05-22) (aged 83)
London, England
NationalityBritish
EducationHaileybury and Imperial Service College
OccupationActor of stage and screen
Years active1936–1993
Spouse(s)
Carmen Martha Sugars (m. 1939⁠–⁠1994)
(her death)
Children1 child

Early life

Flemyng was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, the son of a doctor, and was educated at Haileybury.[2]

He began his career as a medical student before abandoning medicine to become an actor.[2] Flemyng made his stage debut in the early 1930s, and worked in both London and Broadway. His first film appearance was in 1937, but he didn't appear steadily in films until after he served in the Second World War.

Second World War

During the war he was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps, reaching the rank of colonel at the age of 33. He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) in 1941,[3] was mentioned in despatches (MiD), and was appointed OBE (military) in 1945.[2][4]

Personal life

Flemyng was married to Carmen Sugars, who died in 1994, and they had one daughter.[2] According to Alec Guinness: The Authorised Biography, a biography of Alec Guinness by Piers Paul Read, Flemyng "[fell] in love with a younger man in [his] middle age." He could not act upon his repressed feelings because male homosexuality was illegal in the United Kingdom (until 1967) and because he was married. Therefore, "he had a nervous breakdown and then a stroke and had a really terrible time."[5]

Career

Flemyng is probably best known today for his appearance in the cult Italian horror movie The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962), in which he played a necrophiliac. He later appeared in the low budget British horrors The Blood Beast Terror (1967), in which he was a last-minute replacement for Basil Rathbone, and The Body Stealers (1969).

Flemyng’s other movie roles include the idealistic schoolmaster in the 1948 Roy Boulting film, The Guinea Pig, starring Richard Attenborough, and the role of Detective Sergeant Roberts in the 1950 film The Blue Lamp.[1] He played a more senior policeman in the 1959 Joseph Losey drama Blind Date opposite Stanley Baker, and the sardonic British Secret Intelligence Service chief in the 1966 thriller The Quiller Memorandum opposite George Sanders.[6] As a character actor he worked in cinema and television until his death in 1995, and some of his later films include Kafka (1991) and Shadowlands (1993).[7]

Death

Flemyng died from complications of pneumonia, following a disabling stroke.

Filmography

References
  1. "Robert Flemyng". BFI.
  2. Granger, Derek (24 May 1995). "Obituary: Robert Flemyng". The Independent. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  3. "No. 35396". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 26 December 1941. p. 7335.
  4. "No. 37184". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 17 July 1945. p. 3733.
  5. Read, Piers Paul (2003). Alec Guinness: The Authorised Biography. Simon & Schuster. pp. 247, 460 (see other pages). ISBN 978-0-7432-4498-5.
  6. "The Quiller Memorandum (1966)". BFI.
  7. Erickson, Hal. "Robert Flemyng - Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos -". AllMovie.
  8. "The Magic Box (1951) Release Info". IMDb. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
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