JEREMY KEMP

(3 January 1935 - 19 July 2019)

The British actor Jeremy Kemp, who has died aged 84, following a long illness, was often seen in sinister or military character parts, playing Germanic or heavy roles both in films and on television. Following National Service with the Gordon Highlanders and the Black Watch, he studied at the Central School of Speech & Drama and then went into rep. He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare and Old Vic companies before joining the BBC Drama Repertory Company. Kemp’s first film was an uncredited role in Powell & Pressburger’s The Battle of the River Plate in 1956, followed by many television appearances, including Z-Cars in which he played PC Bob Steele for over thirty episodes. During that time he also appeared in many films, including Cleopatra, Dr Terror’s House of Horrors, Operation Crossbow, Cast a Giant Shadow, Assignment K, The Strange Affair, A Twist of Sand, The Blue Max, Darling Lili, Pope Joan and The Games. More films followed before his appearance in the popular TV series of Colditz, playing Squadron Leader Tony Shaw. Kemp worked steadily in such films as The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, A Bridge Too Far, Caravans, The Prisoner of Zenda, The Return of the Soldier and Top Secret! as well as the TV mini-series The Winds of War, Sadat, Peter the Great, War and Remembrance, Star Trek, etc. Jeremy Kemp’s last films were Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994 and Angels and Insects in 1995. He battled with illness for a long time and latterly had been living in the Denville Hall home for retired actors in north-west London.

MICHAEL DARVELL