The son of a doctor, and originally intended for a medical career, Flemyng learned his stagecraft in provincial repertory theatre.
28 Facts About Robert Flemyng
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Robert Flemyng toured Australia, Britain, Canada, India, South Africa and the US in a wide range of parts, from comedy to classic drama.
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Robert Flemyng's broadcasting was principally in two television series in the 1960s, in the second of which, Compact, he appeared in more than 100 episodes.
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Robert Flemyng was born in Liverpool, the son of George Gilbert Robert Flemyng, a physician, and his second wife Rowena Eleanor, nee Jacques.
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Robert Flemyng was educated at Haileybury, and was then a medical student before abandoning medicine in favour of the theatre.
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In June 1931, at the age of 19, Robert Flemyng made his stage debut, playing Kenneth Raglan in Patrick Hamilton's thriller Rope at the County Theatre, Truro.
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Robert Flemyng made his first appearance in London at the Westminster Theatre in October 1931, walking on in The Anatomist, and during 1932 he toured with Violet Vanbrugh's company, playing Cyril Greenwood in After All.
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Robert Flemyng was directed by William Armstrong, who became known for training future stars including Robert Donat, Rex Harrison, Michael Redgrave and Diana Wynyard.
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Robert Flemyng stayed at the Playhouse for three seasons, playing a wide range of roles.
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Robert Flemyng was still under contract to the Liverpool company when Raymond Massey and Gladys Cooper offered him a major West End role in the comedy Worse Things Happen at Sea.
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The new play opened at the St James's Theatre; reviews for the piece were lukewarm but the cast, including Robert Flemyng, were praised by the press.
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Robert Flemyng played in four more light comedy roles between September 1935 and March 1936, before his first big success, of which the director Derek Granger wrote:.
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Robert Flemyng remained on Broadway to play Makepiece Lovell in No Time for Comedy; his notices were good: the stars of the production were Laurence Olivier and Katherine Cornell but the reviewer in The Stage said that Flemyng "comes close to walking away with the show".
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Robert Flemyng was commissioned and rose to become a full colonel at 33, one of the youngest in the British army.
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Robert Flemyng was awarded the Military Cross in 1941, was mentioned in despatches, and was appointed OBE in 1945.
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Robert Flemyng reprised the role in a film version of the play, released in 1948.
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In 1947 he again played on Broadway, in a company led by John Gielgud; Robert Flemyng played Algernon Moncrieff to Gielgud's John Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest and Ben to his Valentine in Love for Love.
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Robert Flemyng toured southern Africa in Nancy Mitford's The Little Hut and Roger MacDougall's To Dorothy, A Son, and in London took over in the former from Robert Morley in the West End run.
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The piece ran for 1,261 performances; Robert Flemyng was succeeded by Hugh Sinclair.
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Later in 1954 Robert Flemyng appeared at the ANTA Playhouse, Broadway in a short-lived adaptation of Henry James's Portrait of a Lady.
21.
Robert Flemyng played Dr Sloper in The Heiress, toured Australia as Anthony Wilcox in the boardroom melodrama Difference of Opinion, returned to the US in The Cocktail Party, this time in the central role of Harcourt-Reilly, and toured Britain as Garry Essendine in Present Laughter.
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Back in London, Robert Flemyng played Richard Halton in On Approval, Gregory Butler in Giles Cooper's Happy Family, and Colonel Melkett in Black Comedy.
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At the beginning of the 1970s Robert Flemyng again appeared in Shaw plays, as Mr Bompas in How He Lied to Her Husband and General Michelin in Press Cuttings.
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In 1980 Robert Flemyng played Sorin in The Seagull with Barbara Jefford as Arkadina, and the following year he co-starred in William Douglas-Home's The Kingfisher with Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray.
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Robert Flemyng appeared for two years at the Savoy Theatre in Michael Frayn's Noises Off, taking over the role of Selsdon Mowbray from Michael Aldridge in early 1983 and handing it over to Hugh Paddick at the end of 1984.
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Robert Flemyng played Edward Voysey in a radio version of The Voysey Inheritance in 1951 and was in an adaptation of Happy Family broadcast by the West End cast in 1967.
27.
Robert Flemyng married Carmen Martha Sugars in November 1939; by this time, she had switched from acting into theatrical decor, joining the design team Motley.
28.
Robert Flemyng suffered a stroke in April 1995, and died on 22 May, aged 83.