CINEMA: British actor Jack Hedley has died at the age of 92.

Famous British actor Jack Hed­ley, prob­a­bly best known for his role as Sir Tim­o­thy Have­lock in the James Bond film ‘For Your Eyes Only’, died ear­li­er this month after a brief ill­ness. The Times Lon­don announced his death in a notice which read:

[Hed­ley] passed away on Decem­ber 11, 2021, at the age of 92, from a short ill­ness coura­geous­ly endured. At his request, there will be no funer­al. He will be sad­ly missed by his fam­i­ly and friends.

Hed­ley’s act­ing career spanned decades, and he starred in rather icon­ic roles in film as well as on stage. The actor was also very pop­u­lar on tele­vi­sion with a ros­ter of hit shows in the UK includ­ing Colditz, Dixon of Dock Green, The Buc­ca­neers, Only Fools and Hors­es and the TV movie ver­sion of Brief Encounter.

Born in 1929 as Jack Hawkins, he changed his last name to avoid con­fu­sion with his name­sake who was yet anoth­er icon­ic British actor known for his por­tray­al of the mil­i­tary. Jack Hed­ley start­ed his act­ing career in the 1950s and found his big break­through in the BBC series The World of Tim Fraz­er in the ear­ly 1960s.

He sub­se­quent­ly starred in a num­ber of films of the decade, includ­ing Lawrence of Ara­bia, The Scar­let Blade, Witch­craft, and The Secret of Blood Island. How­ev­er, his role in Lawrence of Ara­bia was minor, as he played a reporter at Lawrence’s funer­al. Hed­ley had final­ly made a name for him­self as some­one who best por­trays mil­i­tary fig­ures. In the Colditz tele­vi­sion pro­duc­tion he played Lt. Col. Pre­ston and his por­tray­al was the embod­i­ment of the “British stiff upper lip”. He also had a rel­a­tive­ly minor role in the Amer­i­can war epic The Longest Day, where he starred along­side main­stays like John Wayne, Robert Ryan, and Richard Burton.

How­ev­er, Hed­ley is per­haps best known for his role in the 1981 Bond film, For Your Eyes Only. He played the role of Sir Tim­o­thy Have­lock, a British Navy archae­ol­o­gist who was hired by the British Secret Ser­vice to locate the wreck of the spy ship, the St. George. The char­ac­ter was also the father of Meli­na Have­lock (played by Car­ole Bou­quet), the “Bond girl” of the film. Inter­est­ing­ly, Hed­ley also voiced the par­rot that accom­pa­nied Sir Havelock.

Jack Hed­ley con­tin­ued to make reg­u­lar appear­ances on numer­ous shows through­out the 1980s and 90s, includ­ing Only Fools and Hors­es, ‘Allo’ Allo and Dalziel and Pas­coe. His last screen appear­ance was in the Ital­ian tele­vi­sion minis­eries called St. Paul, where he played the role of a priest.