British actor Derek Nimmo has died aged 68, his agent announced last night. The veteran comedy star and producer had been in hospital since falling at his home in Kensington, west London, before Christmas. He died yesterday in the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital with his family around him.
Mr Nimmo was an unlikely star, with a stutter endured since childhood and an upper class air. Yet it was these very factors which made him one of the great comic character actors and a natural for early television sitcoms.
With his slightly bumbling, well-to-do mannerisms he was well-suited to The World of Wooster and Blandings Castle.
However, while roles like these propelled him to stardom, it soon became clear that he was funniest not as a toff, but as a member of the clergy.
Ecclesiastical hits, including All Gas And Gaiters, Oh Brother!, Oh Father! and Hell's Bells, saw him play a range of clerics. In his time he was a curate, a monk, a Catholic priest and a dean.
His ability to subsume himself into the role and give off that air of piety was so convincing it almost landed him in trouble while filming for the series Oh Brother! in 1969.
In Father Dominic garb he was arrested on the steps of St Peter's Basilica by Vatican police, after being seen with his arm around a mini-skirted girl by a shocked nun.
Originally from Liverpool, Mr Nimmo went into acting by chance.
He was a leading figure in the campaign to oppose women's membership of the exclusive Garrick Club. "The only excuse for joining the Garrick is to get away from women," he remarked.
He hit the headlines again two years ago when he crashed his Rolls Royce into three cars after the accelerator pedal got stuck and he ended up in a "charming lady's greenhouse".
"I switched off the key and bought her a hydrangea" he said.
He and his wife Patricia lived in Kensington for 30 years. They had three children, Tim, Amanda and Piers.