Best known on TV as Sir Frank Gordon in Yes Minister and then Yes, Prime Minister in the 1980s.
He played W. S. Gilbert in the 1983 film The Best of Gilbert and Sullivan, in which Gilbert and Sullivan reunite to watch a performance of their greatest songs at the Royal Albert Hall.
First acted on stage at the Leatherhead Theatre in 1953. Member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, 1956-57.
Has appeared in many Shakespearean roles on the stage and was a founder-member of the National Theatre.
His father Frank, his mother Phyllis Shannaw, and his half-sister Antoinette were all actors..