“He worked consistently on stage and screen, becoming a household name on TV as the archetypal English gent in To The Manor Born, Only When I Laugh, The Bounder and Lytton’s Diary, which he devised himself.”
Born in 1936, Bowles’ career began in theater for several years before he featured in an episode of Rising Damp.
He became recognized as a comic actor and announced himself on TV in To The Manor Born, where he starred as self-made-man Richard DeVere opposite Dame Penelope Keith from 1979 to 1981.
The pair reprized their roles for a 2007 special, which celebrated the show’s popularity, having drawn in millions of viewers per episode for the original series.
Other big roles included in The Irish R.M. and, more recently, ITV drama Victoria, and he also wrote and starred in 1985’s Lytton’s Diary for ITV about the life of a newspaper gossip columnist.
