Peter Gilmore

Peter Gilmore is one of my favourite actors, and I was saddened some years ago when he died. While watching an old episode of the Bill, recently, I saw him again. And was as usual surprised by how good an actor he was. He was playing a man who had had a head injury which caused a personality change, and he was excellent. Gilmore was born in Germany, in 1931, but was brought up in Yorkshire. He wanted to be an actor and attended stage school for a time, but was expelled. He could sing as well as act and appeared in several stage musicals in the 50s and 60s. He also appeared in small roles in many of the Carry On films. He achieved TV stardom in the 1970's when he was cast as James Onedin in the Onedin Line. He was tall and handsome and rugged looking and he carried the series for many years, appearing in all 91 episodes. However, he did prefer stage work to film, and TV, and liked a live audience. He was very popular as James Onedin, a hard selfish man who founded his own shipping line. He was married twice, to Una Stubbs with whom he adopted a son, and then to Jan Waters. During the Onedin Line, he became involved with Anne Stallybrass who was playing his wife. They fell in love and lived together for some time, then in the 1980s they got married and lived in Devon. He felt that playing James had typecast him, and taken over his life.. so he finished with the show in 1980 and took on other roles. He was in an episode of Heartbeat with his wife. He also had a character role in a series about a Zoo vet, (One by One) and in a drama called The Manions of America. He died aged 81, in 2013.