Jeremy Kemp

Edmund Jeremy James Walker[1] (3 February 1935 – 19 July 2019[2]), known professionally as Jeremy Kemp, was an English actor. He was known for his significant roles in the miniseries The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, the film The Blue Max, and the TV series Z-Cars.

Jeremy Kemp
Born
Edmund Jeremy James Walker

(1935-02-03)3 February 1935
Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England
Died19 July 2019(2019-07-19) (aged 84)
London, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materRoyal Central School of Speech and Drama
Years active1958–1998
PartnerChristopher Harter (female)

Early life

Kemp was born 3 February 1935[3][4] in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, the son of Elsa May (daughter of Dr James Kemp, of Sheffield) and Edmund Reginald Walker, an engineer, of a Yorkshire landed gentry family that had owned at various times Aldwick Hall at Rotherham, Silton Hall at Northallerton, Ravensthorpe Manor, and Mount St John, at Thirsk.[5][3] Kemp attended Abbotsholme School in Staffordshire from 1943 to 1953. He studied acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama.[2]

Career

In 1958, Kemp joined the Radio Drama Company by winning the Carlton Hobbs Bursary[6] He was an original cast member of Z-Cars playing PC Bob Steele, but left after just over a year in the role. His other television credits include Colditz, Space: 1999 and a number of other series, such as Hart to Hart, The Greatest American Hero, The Fall Guy, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Conan the Adventurer, Star Trek: The Next Generation,[7] The Winds of War, War and Remembrance and Murder, She Wrote. He played King Leontes in the BBC Television production of The Winter's Tale (1981). He also appeared as Cornwall in the 1983 TV movie version of King Lear opposite Laurence Olivier as Lear.

From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, Kemp had a prominent film career, usually appearing as second male leads or top supporting roles. His films include Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Operation Crossbow, The Blue Max, Darling Lili, A Bridge Too Far, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Top Secret! and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Personal life and death

Kemp was an avid bird watcher. Private about his personal life, at various times he lived in Britain and California. Kemp's long-term partner was an American woman, Christopher Harter.[8] Her parents, who had expected a boy, named her in honour of a family friend. Kemp was quoted as saying he found the idea of marriage to be "too tying". Jeremy Kemp died on 19 July 2019 aged 84,[9] Harter having predeceased him.[10]

Partial filmography

References
  1. Sir Bernard Burke (1969). Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry. Vol. 2. Burke's Peerage. p. 627.
  2. Hayward, Anthony (24 July 2019). "Jeremy Kemp obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  3. "Jeremy Kemp Biography (1935–)". Film Reference. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  4. Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co. 1990. p. 233. OCLC 11078702.
  5. Burke's Landed Gentry 1952, p. 2614, "Walker of Mount St John' pedigree"
  6. Carlton Hobbs Bursary winners at BBC.co.uk, accessed 23 January 2018
  7. StarTrek.com Staff (24 July 2020). "Remembering 'TNG' Guest Star Jeremy Kemp, 1935-2019". StarTrek.com. United States: CBS Entertainment Group (CBS Interactive, CBS Studios, and CBS Television Distribution). Retrieved 5 September 2020.
  8. "The love of his life was an American woman called Christopher Harter, so named because her mother and father had expected a boy." "Jeremy Kemp obituary". The Times. 3 August 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  9. Hayward, Anthony (24 July 2019). "Jeremy Kemp obituary, One of the original cast of Z Cars who was a stalwart of British cinema and TV, often playing army officers and authority figures". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
  10. "Jeremy Kemp obituary". The Times. 3 August 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
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