15 Facts About Felix Aylmer

Sir Felix Edward Aylmer Jones was an English stage actor who appeared in the cinema and on television.

Felix Edward Aylmer Jones was born in Corsham, Wiltshire, the second of six children of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Edward Aylmer Jones, of the Royal Engineers, and his wife Lilian, nee Cookworthy.

Felix Aylmer was educated at King James's Grammar School, Almondbury, near Huddersfield, where he was a boarder from 1897 to 1900, Magdalen College School, and Exeter College, Oxford, where he was a member of Oxford University Dramatic Society.

Felix Aylmer trained under the Victorian-era actress and director Rosina Filippi before securing his first professional engagement at the London Coliseum in 1911.

Felix Aylmer appeared in the world premiere of The Farmer's Wife by Eden Phillpotts at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1917.

Felix Aylmer acted with Sir Laurence Olivier in Shakespearean films, appearing as Polonius in Hamlet, and often played wise old men, such as Merlin in Knights of the Round Table.

Felix Aylmer played the Archbishop of Canterbury in the film adaptation of Becket, with Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole and gave elocution lessons to the young Audrey Hepburn.

Indeed, as dramatist and barrister John Mortimer noted, the mannerisms Felix Aylmer brought to bear in his roles came to be imitated in real life by judges on the bench.

Williams observed that although his impersonation of Felix 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.

Felix Aylmer was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1950 King's Birthday Honours and knighted in the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Felix Aylmer was the narrator in the original version of Richard Williams' unfinished animated project, The Thief and the Cobbler.

At the age of 80 Felix Aylmer played a villain in an episode of Randall and Hopkirk entitled "It's Supposed to be Thicker than Water".

Felix Aylmer 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.

Felix Aylmer lived in Painshill House in Cobham, Surrey and died in a nursing home in Pyrford on 2 September 1979, at the age of 90.

Felix Aylmer married Cecily Minnie Jane Byrne during the First World War, and they had three children.