Ian Carmichael

Preparing for a stage career at Scarborough College and RADA, Ian Carmichael made his first theatrical appearance as a non-speaking robot in a 1939 London production of RUR. Beginning with 1940's Nine Sharp, Carmichael spent well over a decade polishing his comic skills in various musical revues, bearing such titles as What Goes On? and At the Lyric. In films from 1948, he hit his stride in the British comedies of the mid- to late '50s, playing Candide-like bumblers in such droll endeavors as Private's Progress (1955), Lucky Jim (1957), The Brothers in Law (1958), I'm All Right Jack (1959), and School for Scoundrels (1960). On television, Carmichael specialized in such fey upper-class types as P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster and Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey; he also served as director on such productions as Mr. Pastry's Progress, It's a Small World, and We Beg to Differ. In 1979, he published his open-ended autobiography, Will the Real Ian Carmichael.... Carmichael died at age 89 in February 2010.