Патрик Каргилл: Англиялық актер өмірі мен мансабы

English actor (1918–1996)

Patrick Cargill (3 June 191823 May 1996) was an English actor remembered for his lead role in the British television sitcom Father, Dear Father.

Cargill was born to middle class parents living in Bexhill on Sea, Sussex. After education at Haileybury College, he made his debut in the Bexhill Amateur Theatrical Society. However, he was aiming for a military career and was selected for training at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. Cargill became a commissioned officer in the British Indian Army.

After the Second World War ended, Cargill returned to Britain to focus on a stage career, and joined Anthony Hawtrey's company at Buxton, Croydon and later the Embassy Theatre at Swiss Cottage in London. He became a supporting player in John Counsell's repertory at Windsor alongside Brenda Bruce and Beryl Reid and scored a huge hit in the revue The World's the Limit, which was seen by the Queen and 26 of her guests one evening. He made his first West End appearance in 1953 in Ian Carmichael's revue High Spirits at the London Hippodrome. He also co wrote the stage play Ring for Catty, with Jack Beale. The second of the Carry On films, Carry On Nurse, produced in 1959, was based on this play as was the 1962 film Twice Round the Daffodils. After a number of other West End roles he was cast as Bernard in Boeing Boeing at the Apollo Theatre in 1962. The farce, which was ideal for Cargill, drew the attention of major producers led to him starring in Say Who You Are at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1965 and directing Not Now Darling by Ray Cooney and John Chapman at the Strand Theatre in 1968.

From the mid 1960s Cargill lived at Sheen Gate Gardens, Richmond on Thames. He spent his time 'resting' at Spring Cottage, his country retreat situated in Warren Lane, near [[Heathfield and Waldron, East Sussex. Cargill's private life was little known and his homosexuality was not public for decades. For many years, Cargill's companion was Vernon Page, an eccentric landscape gardener, poet and lampoon songwriter, until he married in 1984 with Cargill's blessing. Cargill was a private man, who did not relish his celebrity status, though he was always kind to fans who approached him. He would shun the awards ceremonies in favour of a quiet evening at home playing mahjong. He never made any public acknowledgment of his private life as he felt that to confirm his homosexuality would damage his professional image. Notwithstanding his reluctance to "come out" in this respect, Cargill was happy in his private life and his wit when not in the spotlight reflected that. Once, whilst lunching with Ray Cooney, the theatrical impresario, Cargill observed, when a particularly handsome waiter mistakenly removed his soup spoon, "Aah, look Ray, the dish has run away with the spoon." In the later years of his life, Cargill lived in Henley on Thames with his last companion, James Camille Markowski. The love of his life was his Bentley, a black and dark green model of which only six were ever made. Cargill also had a Mini and often told a story about driving through Barnes one day and on seeing one of the other five Bentley Drop Heads at the traffic lights, waved furiously at the driver, only to realise that he was driving his Mini that day. In the mid 1980s he changed the Bentley for a Rolls Royce. Cargill's many pets included a monkey, a parrot and a castrated ram. His favourites were Ra, a cross border collie, and Charles, a cat that lived at Spring Cottage.

At the time of his death at the age of 77, Cargill was suffering from a brain tumour and was being nursed in a hospice in Richmond on Thames, London. In 1995, the year before he died, Cargill had been struck by a car in Australia; though he was only slightly injured, this accident led to false reports that the cause of his death was a hit and run accident.