Roger Hammond

Roger Hammond (21 March 1936 - 8 November 2012) was an English character actor who appeared in many films and television series. Hammond's father was a chartered accountant and managing director of a cotton mill. He attended Stockport Grammar School for two years followed by Bryanston School in Dorset. He then went up to Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he initially read English, then switched to archaeology and anthropology and he appeared extensively in their drama programme, alongside actors such as Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, and John Wood. Following that, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

In 1963, he joined the Arts Theatre Company, and appeared in a number of productions there.

In 1964, Hammond made his first television appearance, as Tidiman in an episode of The Villains, and his first film appearance the next year.

Although he worked primarily as a television actor in his early years, from the 1990s his career was more focused on film, and his credits boast an impressive 125 credits in a variety of roles, ranging from all sorts of genres, although mostly in costume dramas and period pieces. Hammond's credits include the Prince of Wales in The Duchess of Duke Street, Valence in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, and Cecil in A Good Woman. Hammond was also cast as a clergyman several times, including as the Archbishop in Ian McKellen's Richard III, the Bishop de Cambrai in The Princes in the Tower, and as the Chief Augur in the HBO television drama Rome.

He twice played a doctor to the King of England: first in The Madness of King George (1994) and finally in The King's Speech (2010) (to Prince Albert who would become king). In both instances, the role called for an establishment doctor whose prescriptions didn't work.