COMEDY actor Paul Eddington, who approached death with the kind of
quiet dignity that he brought to a long and distinguished acting career,
has died aged 68.
News of his death, on Saturday evening, was announced last night by
Lady Caroline Marshall, wife of Sir Michael Marshall, the Conservative
MP for Arundel. The couple were close family friends of Mr Eddington.
Tall and debonair, he shot to fame as the long-suffering Gerry
Leadbetter in TV's The Good Life. He was the husband of snooty Penelope
Keith and neighbour of Felicity Kendal and his long-time actor friend
Richard Briers, the couple who went self-sufficient.
Eddington went on to international fame as the all too believably
incompetent politician Jim Hacker in the satirical double series Yes,
Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.
One of its biggest fans was the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,
and he was made a CBE in 1987 in recognition of his efforts in keeping
the nation amused. But he once said that Mrs Thatcher was not one of his
favourite people.
Beneath the smiles and the elegance, he was secretly nursing serious
health problems. He was diabetic, and for 40 years suffered from a rare
form of skin cancer, mycosis fungoides, which finally left him covered
from head to foot in dark blotches and sores. He also lost his hair as a
result of radiotherapy.
The disease restricted his later appearances and in 1994, when he
performed alongside Briers in the stage play Home, about two elderly men
in a mental hospital, a provincial tour was planned around hospitals
where his treatment could continue.
But he pulled through and the play later had a successful run at
Wyndham's Theatre in the West End to critical acclaim.
He commented: ''It's a thorough nuisance but the treatment slows down
the condition to such an extent that there's a very good chance of my
dying of something else.''
When he launched his autobiography, So Far, So Good, published just
two weeks ago, Eddington spoke movingly, bravely, and with good humour
of his illness.
''There's a stigma attached to one's appearance,'' he said. ''People
are reluctant to shake hands with you if they see you festering, and you
can understand it.
''I haven't had a great deal of television exposure looking as I do.
I'm hoping now to be famous for being grotesque instead of famous for
being a good actor.
''I look in the mirror every morning and it gives me a bit of a
fright. And I am discovering a way of coping with the caring look that
comes into people's eyes when you say you've got a touch of cancer.''
Eddington spent his early childhood in north London. His father's
family were Quakers and his mother's Catholic. Their marriage was not
happy and they separated when he was in his early teens.
The young Paul Eddington was sent to a Quaker boarding school. After
gaining no qualifications, he took a job as a window dresser in a
department store.
He was 17 when he decided he wanted to be an actor and, during the
Second World War, joined Ensa (Entertainments National Service
Association), playing troops concerts.
After the war, he joined Birmingham Repertory Company and went on to
work with other repertory companies, including Sheffield, where he met
his wife, Patricia Scott, whom he married in 1952. They had four
children.
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