Christopher Benjamin(I)
- Actor
Christopher Benjamin was fifteen when he made up his mind to become an actor. He recollected having already performed in school plays, playing Oberon in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Later acting opportunities arose in amateur dramatics in Bath, while Benjamin was undergoing a two year stint of national service with the Royal Air Force. His father died during his first term at RADA. After graduating in 1958, Benjamin began his professional career in repertory at the Manchester Library Theatre, often playing old men, because "they couldn't afford real old men". From 1958 to 1965, he became prolific as a leading actor at the Salisbury Arts Theatre, playing anything from Willy Loman and James Tyrone to Falstaff. Benjamin spent several seasons at the Bristol Old Vic (1962-67) and was later (1978-2002) regularly engaged by the RSC, headlining several times in the mid 90's in the title role of Julius Caesar. In addition to frequent portrayals of Shakespearean clowns Dogberry (Much Ado About Nothing) and Bottom (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Benjamin also reprised his dual roles of Vincent Crummles and Walter Bray in Trevor Nunn's production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, upon the play's transfer to Broadway's Plymouth Theatre in October 1981. He also played Falstaff again at Shakespeare's Globe, two years before his retirement from the stage in 2012.
While the theatre has always remained his favorite medium, Benjamin has been equally prolific on screen since 1961, albeit in smaller roles. He has usually portrayed amiable, garrulous or avuncular characters with a comedic edge. Early on, Benjamin was featured on three occasions in The Prisoner (1967) and made other guest appearances in popular ITC series The Baron (1966), The Avengers (1961), The Saint (1962) and Jason King (1971). He also made a strong run in period drama, his notable roles in this genre having included Annette's Belgian lover Prosper Profond in BBC's acclaimed The Forsyte Saga (1967); the roguish bachelor Sir Hugh Bodrugan in the original series of Poldark (1975); corrupt landowner Sir John Glutton, chief nemesis of Dick Turpin (1979); the amicable, though none-too-bright Bennet family friend Sir William Lucas in BBC's famous adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (1995); and the inept hack actor Montfleury in the made-for-TV movie Cyrano de Bergerac (1985) (a role Benjamin had previously performed several times on the stage).
Television director David Maloney, who had been a BBC floor manager at the time of Benjamin's work on The Forsyth Saga, remembered the actor and cast him in the part of bluff theatrical impresario and reluctant hero Henry Gordon Jago in the Doctor Who (1963) serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang, alongside Trevor Baxter in the role of Professor George Litefoot. The duo proved immensely popular with audiences. In fact so much so, that Benjamin reprised his role as Jago in a fourteen-part series of audio plays ('Jago and Litefoor') for Big Finish Productions, released between 2010 and 2021. Benjamin had previously appeared as project director Sir Keith Gold in the Doctor Who serial Inferno and later played Boer War veteran Colonel Hugh Curbishley in the 'Agatha Christie episode' The Unicorn and the Wasp.
In 1996, Benjamin and Amanda Redman co-starred as MI6 agents in the BBC radio drama Colvil and Soames, a six part murder mystery created and written by Christopher Lee.
An avid cricket fan, Benjamin has been retired since 2021 and lives in Hampstead, London. He has been married to the actress Anna Fox since 1960. They have three children.
While the theatre has always remained his favorite medium, Benjamin has been equally prolific on screen since 1961, albeit in smaller roles. He has usually portrayed amiable, garrulous or avuncular characters with a comedic edge. Early on, Benjamin was featured on three occasions in The Prisoner (1967) and made other guest appearances in popular ITC series The Baron (1966), The Avengers (1961), The Saint (1962) and Jason King (1971). He also made a strong run in period drama, his notable roles in this genre having included Annette's Belgian lover Prosper Profond in BBC's acclaimed The Forsyte Saga (1967); the roguish bachelor Sir Hugh Bodrugan in the original series of Poldark (1975); corrupt landowner Sir John Glutton, chief nemesis of Dick Turpin (1979); the amicable, though none-too-bright Bennet family friend Sir William Lucas in BBC's famous adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (1995); and the inept hack actor Montfleury in the made-for-TV movie Cyrano de Bergerac (1985) (a role Benjamin had previously performed several times on the stage).
Television director David Maloney, who had been a BBC floor manager at the time of Benjamin's work on The Forsyth Saga, remembered the actor and cast him in the part of bluff theatrical impresario and reluctant hero Henry Gordon Jago in the Doctor Who (1963) serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang, alongside Trevor Baxter in the role of Professor George Litefoot. The duo proved immensely popular with audiences. In fact so much so, that Benjamin reprised his role as Jago in a fourteen-part series of audio plays ('Jago and Litefoor') for Big Finish Productions, released between 2010 and 2021. Benjamin had previously appeared as project director Sir Keith Gold in the Doctor Who serial Inferno and later played Boer War veteran Colonel Hugh Curbishley in the 'Agatha Christie episode' The Unicorn and the Wasp.
In 1996, Benjamin and Amanda Redman co-starred as MI6 agents in the BBC radio drama Colvil and Soames, a six part murder mystery created and written by Christopher Lee.
An avid cricket fan, Benjamin has been retired since 2021 and lives in Hampstead, London. He has been married to the actress Anna Fox since 1960. They have three children.
