Gordon Peters

2023-03-11T18:09:53Z

178.83.164.156: /* Early life */

{{Short description|British actor (1926–2022)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Gordon Peters
| birth_name = Gordon Peter Wilkinson
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|11|29|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Shildon]], [[County Durham]], England<ref>Harrison, Tim (11 October 2019) [https://thegoodlifesurbiton.co.uk/2019/10/11/who-do-you-think-you-are-kidding-mr-peters/ "Who do you think you are kidding Mr Peters?"]. ''The Good Life''. Retrieved 26 June 2022.</ref>
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|06|15|1926|11|29|df=y}}
| death_place = Surrey, England<ref>https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0676449/bio/?ref_=nm_ql_1</ref>
| occupation = Actor
| spouse = {{ubl|{{marriage|Joan Mann|1959|end=divorced}}|{{marriage|Patricia Fraser|1969}}}}<ref>Harrison, Tim (11 October 2019) [https://thegoodlifesurbiton.co.uk/2019/10/11/who-do-you-think-you-are-kidding-mr-peters/ "Who do you think you are kidding Mr Peters?"]. ''The Good Life''. Retrieved 26 June 2022.</ref><ref>https://www.thestage.co.uk/obituaries--archive/obituaries/obituary-comedian-gordon-peters</ref>
| children = 1<ref>https://www.thestage.co.uk/obituaries--archive/obituaries/obituary-comedian-gordon-peters</ref>
}}

'''Gordon Peter Wilkinson''' (29 November 1926 – 15 June 2022), known professionally as '''Gordon Peters''', was an English actor and comedian.

==Early life==
Peters was born in Shildon, County Durham, England on 29 November 1926. His mother was a piano teacher and his father a tenor-voiced butcher, both enthusiastic amateur performers, Peters spent much of his early childhood as a chorister at [[Durham Cathedral]].<ref>https://www.thestage.co.uk/obituaries--archive/obituaries/obituary-comedian-gordon-peters</ref><ref>https://www.gordonpeters.co.uk/TVPlaysCabaret.html</ref>
Peters began his early career as a junior bank clerk after national service in the Royal Navy, at the Standard Bank of South Africa, in Harare, ([[Rhodesia]], now [[Zimbabwe]]). It was there he entered a talent contest, his comic miming to two songs securing him second place.<ref>https://www.thestage.co.uk/obituaries--archive/obituaries/obituary-comedian-gordon-peters</ref>

==Career==
Returning to the UK in 1951, he found his first job, a summer season with the Vincent Tildsley’s Mastersingers at Blackpool’s Opera House, after responding to an advert in [[The Stage]].<ref>https://www.thestage.co.uk/obituaries--archive/obituaries/obituary-comedian-gordon-peters</ref>

Peters starred in a [[BBC TV]] comedy series in 1973 called ''The Gordon Peters Show'', which was a [[situation comedy]] in which he played a character with his own name. The series was cancelled after one season.

He devised and hosted a children’s quiz ''Around the World in 48 Hours'' for [[Westward Television]] in 1976.<ref>https://www.thestage.co.uk/obituaries--archive/obituaries/obituary-comedian-gordon-peters</ref>

Peters had many roles in other television shows over the years, including ''[[Oh Brother!]]'', two episodes of ''[[Hi-de-Hi!]]'', four episodes of ''[[Dad's Army]]'', two episodes of ''[[Are You Being Served?]]'', one episode of ''[[Grace & Favour]]'' (also called ''[[Are You Being Served? Again!]]'' in the United States).<ref>{{cite web |title=Gordon Peters |url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/gordon_peters/ |website=British Comedy Guide |access-date=24 June 2022}}</ref> He played Victor and Margaret Meldrew's family friend Ronnie in three episodes of the long-running BBC sitcom ''[[One Foot in the Grave]]'' during the 1990s,<ref name="w53">{{cite book|author=Webber, Richard|title=The Complete One Foot in the Grave|publisher=Orion|location=London|year=2006|isbn=0-7528-7357-1}}</ref> five episodes of ''[[Never the Twain]]''. Moreover, he featured in one episode of ''[[Little Britain (sketch show)|Little Britain]]'' in 2005, as a booking clerk in an episode of the BBC sitcom ''[[Keeping Up Appearances]]'' and in one episode of ''[[Tales from the Crypt (TV series)|HBO's Tales from the Crypt]]''. He voiced the narrator, male characters and all the Mr. Men in the 1995–1997 series ''[[Mr. Men and Little Miss]]'' save for the 1998 special ''The Christmas Letter'', where the roles of the narrator and Santa Claus were taken up by [[Geoffrey Palmer (actor)|Geoffrey Palmer]].

==Personal life and death==
Peters married Joan Mann in 1959, however the marriage ended in divorce. In 1969 he married Patrica Fraser and they had one daughter together.<ref>https://www.thestage.co.uk/obituaries--archive/obituaries/obituary-comedian-gordon-peters</ref>

He published an autobiography, ''From Choirboy to Comic'', in 2004.

Peters died on 15 June 2022, aged 95.<ref name="Stage">Quinn, Michael (13 September 2022). [https://www.thestage.co.uk/obituaries--archive/obituaries/obituary-comedian-gordon-peters "Obituary: Gordon Peters"]. ''[[The Stage]]''. Retrieved 29 October 2022.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Official website|https://www.gordonpeters.co.uk/}}
*{{IMDb name|0676449}}
*[https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba39814d3 Gordon Peters] at the [[British Film Institute]]
*[https://www.aveleyman.com/ActorCredit.aspx?ActorID=36592 Gordon Peters] (Aveleyman)
*[https://www.thestage.co.uk/obituaries--archive/obituaries/obituary-comedian-gordon-peters Obituary] at ''[[The Stage]]''

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Gordon}}
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:2022 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century English male actors]]
[[Category:20th-century Royal Navy personnel]]
[[Category:21st-century English male actors]]
[[Category:Actors from County Durham]]
[[Category:English male television actors]]
[[Category:English male voice actors]]
[[Category:People from Durham, England]]

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Gordon Peters