Felix Aylmer

Felix Edward Aylmer Jones was born in Corsham, Wiltshire, the second of six children (five sons and a daughter) of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Edward Aylmer Jones, of the Royal Engineers, and his wife Lilian, née Cookworthy.^[1] He was educated at King James's Grammar School, Almondbury, near Huddersfield, where he was a boarder from 1897 to 1900,^[2] Magdalen College School, and Exeter College, Oxford, where he was a member of Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS).^[1] He trained under the Victorian-era actress and director Rosina Filippi before securing his first professional engagement at the London Coliseum in 1911.^[1] He appeared in the world premiere of The Farmer's Wife by Eden Phillpotts at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1917. Between 1917 and 1919 he served as a junior officer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (R.N.V.R.).

He acted with Sir Laurence Olivier in Shakespearean films, appearing as Polonius in Hamlet (1948), and often played wise old men, such as Merlin in Knights of the Round Table (1953). He played the Archbishop of Canterbury in the film adaptation of Becket (1964), with Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole and gave elocution lessons to the young Audrey Hepburn.^[3]

His memorable style of delivery—dignified and learned—^[4] was frequently mimicked by comedians such as Peter Sellers and Kenneth Williams. Indeed, as dramatist and barrister John Mortimer noted, the mannerisms Aylmer brought to bear in his roles came to be imitated in real life by judges on the bench.^[5] Williams observed that although his impersonation of Aylmer was a speciality during his days with ENSA, the Armed Forces Entertainment Association, he came to the conclusion that none of the troops knew who was being impersonated.

Aylmer was President of Equity from 1950 to 1969. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire^[6] in the 1950 King's Birthday Honours and knighted^[7][8] in the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honours.

He was also the narrator in the original version (and recobbled cut) of Richard Williams' unfinished animated project, The Thief and the Cobbler (1993).

At the age of 80 Felix Aylmer played a villain in an episode of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) entitled "It's Supposed to be Thicker than Water". His last major screen role was as the Abbot in the sitcom Oh, Brother!, opposite Derek Nimmo (1968–70). He appeared as a doctor in an episode of the TV series Jason King called "If It's Got To Go, It's Got To Go" in 1972, at the age of 83.

Aylmer died in a nursing home in Pyrford, Surrey, in 1979, at the age of 90.

He married Cecily Minnie Jane Byrne during the First World War, and they had three children.^[1]

• Dickens Incognito (1959)
• The Drood Case (1964)

• The Inca of Perusalem (1916)
• The Farmer's Wife (1917)
• The Likes of Her (1923)
• The Terror (1927)
• Badger's Green (1930)
• Spider's Web (1954)

• Felix Aylmer at IMDb
• Performances in the theatre archive, University of Bristol
• Felix Aylmer at the Internet Broadway Database