ACTOR Patrick Cargill, known to millions for his role in the hit television series Father, Dear Father died yesterday. He was 77.

He died peacefully in his sleep, his agent, Mr Roger Carey, said.

Cargill had a long and illustrious career on stage and in television and also had some success as a playwright.

Father, Dear Father, in which he played a father struggling to raise two teenage girls alone, ran for five years from the late 1960s.

He also played the doctor in Tony Hancock's classic half-hour sketch The Blood Donor.

He never married but one of his series was called The Many Wives Of Patrick.

In his early career, he often was cast as the villain - in Top Secret, The Avengers, and The Prisoner.

Later, he played the hero but always a smooth gentleman with a world-weary air and a flair for comedy.

His play Ring For Catty was developed into the script for Carry On Nurse. He also played in the Carry On films.

Other film work included Help! with the Beatles, Up Pompeii and the last Charlie Chaplin film, A Countess From Hong Kong, for which he got particularly good reviews.

Cargill gave up a commission in the Indian Army in 1939 to go into the theatre.

He spent 15 years in repertory before he made his first West End appearance.

A spokeswoman for agent Roger Carey said Cargill had died in a nursing home after a short but severe illness.

His health had been vulnerable since he was knocked down by a car in Australia at the end of last year, she said.

In recent years, Cargill had been working for British Airways Playhouse, an international touring company run by actor Derek Nimmo.

Mr Nimmo said yesterday: ``He was one of an almost extinct breed - an actor who was always a gentleman.

``He was a most accomplished actor. He could extract a laugh from thin air.''

Cargill was left unconscious for some time after the hit-and-run accident, apparently sparking the brain tumour which caused his death, Mr Nimmo said.