PeterBUTTERWORTHCarry On actor Peter Butterworth died on 16 January, 1979 aged 59.
The comedy films were the epitome of harmless, frivolous fun during the 1960s and '70s, but Mr Butterworth's acting career began in rather more critical circumstances.
During the Second World War the 20-year-old Royal Navy lieutenant from Stockport was captured in the Netherlands and sent to a POW camp in Poland.
One of his fellow prisoners was Talbot Rothwell who would become a Carry On writer. Together they starred in a musical show at the camp - but as well as entertaining fellow inmates, the noise of the show was cover for an escape tunnel being dug unbeknownst to the guards.
Ironically, when the episode was dramatised for the screen in the 1950 film The Wooden Horse, Peter Butterworth was rejected by the casting director for not looking heroic enough.
Nevertheless, he continued performing after the war and had small parts in a string of British films and television serials during the '50s and '60s. In particular his warm, bumbling persona made him known for his roles in children's television. In the mid '60s he was cast as the 'Meddling Monk' in a Doctor Who serial.
His association with screenwriter Rothwell led to him joining the cast for Carry On Cowboy, the 11th film in the series, and went on to appear in another 15 Carry On's, plus TV specials. As one of the supporting cast of Carry On faces, he characters ranged from a sly businessman in Carry on Camping to a portly Count Dracula in Carry on Christmas (both 1969).
After gaining fame in Carry On, he also appeared in sitcoms like Bless This House (1972) and Dad's Army (1975).
In the final years of his life he was one of the main cast of Carry on Emmannuelle (1978), appeared with Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland in The First Great Train Robbery (1979) and gave his last performance in Afternoon Off, a 1979 television play by Alan Bennett and Stephen Frears.
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