Peter Wyngarde has died

Believe Morrissey had a friendship (of sorts) with him which is touched upon in autobiography

Actor Peter Wyngarde, star of Department S, dies aged 90

Peter Wyngarde, star of Jason King and Department S, dies aged 90 - The Guardian
‘Unique, original and creative’ actor who also appeared in Flash Gordon and Doctor Who

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"Suddenly, Department S comes close to the unthinkable; a witty Sebastian Melmoth who is also swift to deploy expert judo at the drop of a Ming vase. Peter Wyngarde plays Jason King with impeccable Old Vic control, and dazzling Shaftesbury Avenue command. King is Knightsbridge to McGill’s Notting Hill, even though Peter Wyngarde had been born in Marseilles. Although King’s dapperness is a host of Burlington Arcade giveaways and Aix-en-Provence getaways, his Interpol partner Joel Fabiani (playing Stewart Sullivan) would thrash you in a game of squash – or squash you in a game of thrash. King is Beerbohm Tree smoking Sobranie, because Wyngarde is legitimate theater whom television is lucky to have, and whose techniques and intentions are infallibly precise (although the exact style of his delivery is by no means conventional). Wyngarde might occasionally rush into a following line without punctuated pause (enjambement?), but whatever he attempts by way of delivery is so meticulous that he leads the way as the governing center of Department S. Fabiani was the flipside of Wyngarde’s coin, being ex-US Navy, wiry Californian tough, and married to a woman. Completing the TV team is Annabelle Hurst (played by Rosemary Nichols), a most correct and well-educated computer-whiz British bird of polite wit; a tea-room and commando-trained lacrosse champ whose sexuality is only a detail. Of course, such women did not exist then, or now. In the wings, the child-like inquisitor does his best to understand whatever unravels before him on the screen (because the screen is certainly bigger than I am), with Sullivan as the true human ideal, yet the talent to amuse is Jason King’s – utilizing chopsticks with eye-crossing speed and reading from Italian menus with an expert’s sigh. ‘Mine’s the car with the Swiss number plates,’ he instructs hoteliers, and Europe is his casino. This charmless child is ready for bed, constructing a melting-plot wherein the broth blends Sullivan and King with an added dash of 77 Sunset Strip, and the final creation might very well be Mary Shelley’s: 'I don’t care what the price is I’ll make the sacrifices I’ll bear the sorrow Just let it be me.'"
 
"Peter Wyngarde writes: 'It’s becoming the Mad Hatters Tea Party for me ... just phoned the number Samantha gave me [he means Sarah Yeoman, my PA] which I took down wrongly and got a complete stranger’s voice! As I’d scribbled the number down during cooking I’d obviously .... Apologies, but as Vivien [Leigh] says in GWTW ‘ca ira mieux demain’. Wondering if the mental dept would consider seeing me as soon as possible, before it’s too late ....' Peter is still living in Kensington, in the flat he shared for many years with Alan Bates. It’s an Edwardian warren of clerical ferocity – a tornado of books and papers and swelling pyramids of typescripts, half-finished, half-begun. His voice is still of great clarity and sound, his eyes unchanged since that period known as his prime. But he is no longer on stage or television. Film generally tells us that people of Peter’s age don’t actually exist, or, if they do, they are hopelessly infirm and in the way of the main storyline. He sits before me as one who knew his duty and did it, beyond all praise, alive in the cinema of the mind. He takes the bus down Kensington High Street and jumps off at the Albert Hall, where I have loaded my latest machine-gun. After the concert he comes backstage, all a-buzz, genuinely excited. It is a relief to receive praise from someone who has a true perspective on all things, and who is not easily fooled – if ever fooled at all. Someone, also, who has downplayed accessibility. Out in the hallway people nervously approach him to ask questions. ‘I am sorry,’ he cuts across them, ‘if I don’t answer you, but I’m hard of hearing,’ which isn’t true, but is the perfect way of telling people to get knotted, especially as the whispers of ‘It’s Jason King’ ripple loudly. Peter Wyngarde is what the world now calls ‘the real thing’ which, let’s assume, means serious artist. He adapts to different listeners, and the magnified popularity of his most famous television role was never his goal. His favorite actor is Jean Gabin, and Peter’s genius is such that all of his actions work on two levels. Jason King complexly became one of the most well-known names on worldwide television, but the meanness that England always shows to its home-grown talent was the reason why Peter gave up and left for Vienna, where he opened his own acting school. Invariably in search of ghosts, he came back, and he found Kensington still very much as it always had been, with Edwardes Square maintaining its true self in the new world of noise, noise, noise – computer noise, cell phones, pings of ringtones, alarm apathy, and the new mad craze for constant house renovation."
 
"Peter Wyngarde writes: 'Forgive my vanity for not entertaining but I had an attack of psoriasis today which makes me look like a baboons arse. Have been writing a film script on Roger Casement.' When you telephone Peter at his home he will lift the receiver and instantly say ‘Ahh! THERE you are!’ even though he has no idea who’s calling."
 
He certainly was a character.
Renowned for picking up rent boys and getting arrested in the mid 70's for 'gross indecency' in Gloucester bus station toilets (with the BBC bailing him out of all sorts of trouble). I can see how the juxtaposition of a 'ladies man' image whilst being called 'Petunia Winegum' by his peers might appeal to Moz.
Raising a glass to Peter.
Where I first remember him from:
The-Prisoner-the-prisoner-26749949-1024-768.jpg

RIP.
FWD.
 
"When you telephone Peter at his home he will lift the receiver and instantly say ‘Ahh! THERE you are!’ even though he has no idea who’s calling."
I've done this, it freaks people out. Don't know why it just does. RIP Peter:praying:
 
he was on par with roger moore,suave and sophisticated,they really don't make them like that anymore,wish they did.we now live in a world where most peoples personality has done a runner,whether it be sportsman,footballers even actors are devoid of being exciting.
 
Never heard of him or seen his face.

Very weird. Seems I am still too young for some things.
 


Super Stuff :)

Just think Pop Kidz, this came out the same year Zep were grunting about their Hole Lotta Love and Lennon was squealing Power to the People :sleeping:

It takes all sorts to make the world go square...


.
 
I've done this, it freaks people out. Don't know why it just does. RIP Peter:praying:
I often say 'there he is' when I see friends, but it's just a rip off from The Sopranos.

Tangential gibberish: I also like to say "if it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all" (from 'A Bronx Tale'), or "he's so far behind the race he thinks he's in the lead", or "He'd take the worm from a blind hen" (if someone is really stingy mean). Sorry I'm off on a tangent there.
 
he was on par with roger moore,suave and sophisticated,they really don't make them like that anymore,wish they did.we now live in a world where most peoples personality has done a runner,whether it be sportsman,footballers even actors are devoid of being exciting.
People either have no personality now or are afraid to show it. 'Running with the herd' is the modern maxim. Like Moz said in 'All the young people':
'They never stop talking
But they aren't allowed to say
They cannot say what they really mean
Do you ever say what you really feel?'


Homogenization is King. Blandness is Queen. Individualism is the poor beggar stretched on the rack.
 
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THIS WORLD IS FULL OF CRASHING SQUARES



People either have no personality now or are afraid to show it. 'Running with the herd' is the modern maxim. Like Moz said in 'All the young people':
'They never stop talking
But they aren't allowed to say
They cannot say what they really mean
Do you ever say what you really feel?'


Homogenization is King. Blandness is Queen. Individualism is the poor beggar stretched on the rack.




:rock:


NEVER TO BE ANOTHER


:cool:
 
He certainly was a character.
Renowned for picking up rent boys and getting arrested in the mid 70's for 'gross indecency' in Gloucester bus station toilets (with the BBC bailing him out of all sorts of trouble). I can see how the juxtaposition of a 'ladies man' image whilst being called 'Petunia Winegum' by his peers might appeal to Moz.
Raising a glass to Peter.
Where I first remember him from:
View attachment 43532
RIP.
FWD.

You do realise that you've got this information from a Fake News 'site! Is it any wonder that such filth is allowed to permeate into the public psyche when there are such gullible people like you repeating it. I was with Peter for the last 30 years of his life, and he was NOTHING like this. Shame on you!
 
You do realise that you've got this information from a Fake News 'site! Is it any wonder that such filth is allowed to permeate into the public psyche when there are such gullible people like you repeating it. I was with Peter for the last 30 years of his life, and he was NOTHING like this. Shame on you!
You do realise the article you read to tell me this was 'fake' is based on some real events.
So common that it makes it in to Wikipedia - have you tried tackling these places first before registering here to cast 'shame' on someone?
I'm sure the fans of both Morrissey/Wyngarde demographic pales to that of Times / Independent / Guardian readers.
Feel free to tackle these gullible types first and then get back to me.

From his TIMES obituary:
"His stock fell further when in 1975 he was fined £75 for gross indecency with a crane driver in a public lavatory at a Gloucester bus station. The defence insisted that he was not homosexual and that he had merely been drunk. One result of the court appearance was to reveal what was probably his real name: Cyril Louis Goldbert"
(https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/peter-wyngarde-obituary-vwzj2798n)

From the Guardian:
"During a time when it was difficult to be an openly homosexual celebrity, it was known in acting circles that Wyngarde was gay – with Petunia Winegum as a nickname – but it was kept secret from the public."
"He was outed publicly as gay in 1975 following charges of gross indecency, and the ensuing scandal saw his television appearances dwindle."

(https://www.theguardian.com/culture...nd-tributes-paid--cult-tv-star-peter-wyngarde)

From The Life of Alan Bates by Donald Spoto:
"Less tranquil was The Caretaker, "a poetic exploration of the desire to dominate". Bates was in a relationship with Peter Wyngarde, known to the profession as Petunia Winegum, who as Petruchio put a banana down his tights during matinées. The liaison was a psychologically damaging, Pinter-style situation."
(cited in: Roger Lewis reviews Otherwise Engaged: the Life of Alan Bates by Donald Spoto - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture...3666144/The-minute-they-got-close-he-ran.html)


From the Independent:
"It was only much, much later that I read, I think in Private Eye, the reason for Wyngarde’s switch from ubiquity to obscurity. It was an incident that took place in the rather unglamorous and unerotic surroundings of the gents’ loos at Gloucester Bus Station. Wyngarde was caught, very possibly by some sort of a police entrapment, engaged in what was described as an act of gross indecency with a man.

Wyngarde maintained his innocence and proffered the explanation, for why he had been discovered prone in a cubicle, that he had slipped backwards on a piece of soap carelessly left on the floor. He was given a token fine, but this television career, at any rate, was simply over."

(https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-department-s-flares-space-1999-a8166156.html)

From the BBC:
"Wyngarde was briefly married to actress Dorinda Stevens in the 1950s, and then had a long-term relationship with actor Alan Bates.

His career suffered a setback in 1975 when he was arrested and convicted of "an act of gross indecency" with a lorry driver. He was fined £75 by magistrates under his real name Cyril Louis Goldbert.

The star said the conviction upset him deeply, but did not affect his career. However, his days as a leading man were largely finished.

He attributed his decline to type-casting by "small-minded people", but homophobia was undoubtedly a factor."

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42731220)

A different era: How iconic actor Peter Wyngarde's 'liaison' in Gloucester Bus Station changed his world forever:
(https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/celebs-tv/peter-wyngarde-gloucester-bus-station-1101106)

How Peter Wyngarde's secret sex life was exposed by police, destroying career of the 1970s pin up who inspired Austin Powers:
(https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/how-peter-wyngardes-secret-sex-11872774)

I'm sure the sterling work of one wordpress/blogspot and someone registering here to tell me how awful I am is a great use of time and befitting of Peter's memory (something I was actually positive about and always have been).
FWD.

(edit: the rent boy assertion surfaced online in 2000 and not via the Tapnewswire article of 2012 you allude to).

 
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