Biography
An English stage and screen character actor, born in Coventry to Charles Beckingham Piff and Frances (née Petty). He was educated at Warwick School and Birmingham University, initially studying dental surgery before enrolling at RADA. He graduated in 1957 and made his stage debut in 1958 with the Belgrade Theatre Company in Coventry. In 1963, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where notable roles included Octavius in Julius Caesar, the Duke of Clarence in Richard III, Launcelot Gobbo—the comic servant of Shylock—in The Merchant of Venice, and Pyotr Dobchinsky in The Government Inspector. Between 1967 and 1970, he was part of the National Theatre ensemble and later appeared frequently on the West End and at Birmingham Rep. In 1975, he named his favorite role as Lord Fancourt 'Babbs' Babberly in the farce Charley's Aunt. In 1986, he received the Clarence Derwent Award for Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role for portraying Tory MP Sir Charles Canteloupe in Waste.
Beginning his screen career in 1958, he portrayed a wide array of characters including academics, judges, barristers, nobility, senior police officers, clergy, diplomats, and politicians. Reflecting his classical training, he often appeared in period dramas. He reprised his stage role as the Duke of Clarence in the mini-series The Wars of the Roses (1965), and also played the Prince of Aragon in The Merchant of Venice (1973), Tsar Nicholas II in Fall of Eagles (1974), General Sir Thomas Fairfax in Churchill's People (1974), Roman senator Gaius Asinius Gallus in I, Claudius (1976), King Louis VII of France in The Devil's Crown (1978), Count Franz Orsini-Rosenberg in Amadeus (1984), and the Archbishop of Canterbury in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V (1989).
His varied television appearances include roles in Bergerac (1981), Crown Court (1972), Minder (1979), Rumpole of the Bailey (1978), The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1991), The Darling Buds of May (1991), The Bill (1984), Midsomer Murders (1997), and Agatha Christie's Marple (2004).
He retired from acting in 2013.
