44 Facts About Peter Wyngarde

Peter Wyngarde was best known for portraying the character Jason King, a bestselling novelist turned sleuth, in two television series: Department S and Jason King.

Peter Wyngarde cited a false family background by changing his father's name and profession and both his parents' nationalities and their ethnic origins, and he would fabricate a false education and work history of his early years in the UK.

Peter Wyngarde maintained these versions of his biography until his death at 90 in 2018.

Peter Wyngarde's death certificate states that he was born on 23 August 1927.

Peter Wyngarde grew up in British Malaya, where he became a naturalised British citizen.

Peter Wyngarde had claimed that Henry Goldbert was his stepfather, and that his birth father was an Englishman named Henry Peter Wyngarde who had a prestigious career in the British Diplomatic Service in Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore and India, before becoming an importer-exporter of antique watches living in Eaton Square, London.

Peter Wyngarde's mother was Margherita Goldbert, Ahin, known as Madge.

Peter Wyngarde appears to have been born to a Eurasian family from Singapore.

Peter Wyngarde had two younger siblings: Henry Goldbert Jr, known as Joe and Marion Goldbert Wells.

Peter Wyngarde's stepfather appears to have inspired Wyngarde's later claims that his father was a dealer of antique watches, and that he was a maternal nephew of the French actor-director Louis Jouvet.

Peter Wyngarde lived in Johor, Malaysia until her husband retired and they moved to his home town of Stornoway, Scotland.

Peter Wyngarde told an interviewer that after his parents' divorce his father took him to China "only months before war with China broke out" in the summer of 1937.

Peter Wyngarde spoke about living in Shanghai when the Japanese Army took over the Shanghai International Settlement on 8 December 1941.

In one interview in the 1970s, Peter Wyngarde says that he was interned as an unaccompanied 5-year-old due to an administrative error, but this appears to be age fabrication since records show that he was interned from age 15 to just before his 18th birthday.

Peter Wyngarde began acting during his internment when he played all the characters in a version of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Peter Wyngarde later claimed that the ship had arrived in Liverpool not Southampton, and that he was personally greeted by King George VI.

Peter Wyngarde was in the camp, under his real name of Cyril Goldbert.

Peter Wyngarde always denied knowing Ballard or said he could not remember, but in an undated letter published by his biographer in 2020 he confirms that he knew Ballard.

Little or none of this can be true because it is clear that Peter Wyngarde arrived in the UK from Shanghai aged 18 in December 1945 and began his professional acting career in early 1946 just a few months later.

Peter Wyngarde first appeared at the Buxton Playhouse in 1946, and the following year in a production of Noel Coward's Present Laughter at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham.

Peter Wyngarde appeared with Alec Guinness in Hamlet in London in 1951, and with Siobhan McKenna in Saint Joan in 1954.

One of these, a television adaptation of Julien Green's novel South, in which Peter Wyngarde featured in a lead role, is thought to be the earliest television play with an overtly homosexual theme.

Peter Wyngarde appeared as Long John Silver in an adaptation of The Adventures of Ben Gunn, and as Sir Roger Casement in an episode of Granada Television's On Trial series produced by Peter Wildeblood.

Peter Wyngarde featured in the title role of Rupert of Hentzau in 1964.

Peter Wyngarde took the role of Pausanias opposite Richard Burton in the film Alexander the Great, and appeared in the film The Siege of Sidney Street with Donald Sinden.

Peter Wyngarde followed this appearance as the lead in the occult thriller Night of the Eagle, his only film appearance in a lead role.

Peter Wyngarde appeared in The Prisoner as the authority figure called Number Two.

Peter Wyngarde was a guest star, playing himself as a Shakespearean actor in Lucy in London, a prime-time TV special starring Lucille Ball.

One obituary described Peter Wyngarde as playing the role "in the manner of a cat walking on tiptoe, with an air of self-satisfaction", but that increasingly his acting became more mannered and he came to believe his own publicity.

In 1974, Peter Wyngarde played the lead role of the King of Siam in a stage revival of The King and I, initially with Sally Ann Howes as Anna, which ran for 260 performances at the Adelphi Theatre in London.

Peter Wyngarde played the masked character Klytus in the film Flash Gordon and Sir Robert Knight in the film Tank Malling with Ray Winstone.

Peter Wyngarde has appeared in public at Memorabilia and other events celebrating his performances.

In 2007, Peter Wyngarde participated in recording extras for a box-set of The Prisoner, including a mock interview segment titled "The Pink Prisoner".

Peter Wyngarde married the actress Dorinda Stevens on 6 March 1951 when he was 23.

Peter Wyngarde married the Canadian cinematographer William Michael Boultbee in Nairobi in 1957 while filming for African Patrol.

Peter Wyngarde called Vivien Leigh "the love of my life".

From 1956 to 1958, Peter Wyngarde shared a flat with Ruby Talbot in London and the 2020 biography cites the electoral roll as evidence that this was a romantic relationship.

Peter Wyngarde shared a flat there for some years with fellow actor Alan Bates and according to some sources this was a romantic relationship.

The Evening Standard reported that Peter Wyngarde pleaded guilty although his solicitor tried to mitigate the charge as a "mental aberration" brought on by excessive drinking.

Peter Wyngarde was declared bankrupt in 1982 and again in 1988.

Peter Wyngarde's voice is still of great clarity and sound, his eyes unchanged since that period known as his prime.

Peter Wyngarde sits before me as one who knew his duty and did it, beyond all praise, alive in the cinema of the mind.

Peter Wyngarde had an active fan club from the mid-1950s to 1985.

Mike Myers credited Peter Wyngarde with inspiring the character Austin Powers.