Dynasty star Christopher Cazenove passes away at 64

Christopher Cazenove, who has died at 64, was one of the last actors who could play aristocrats, upper-middle-class characters, military types or suave cads with absolute conviction. He first came to prominence in the 1970s on British television when long-running costume dramas were all the rage. And for years he was married to Angharad Rees – Demelza Poldark in Poldark. (She later married David McAlpine of the construction family.)
Older viewers will think of him in The Duchess of Duke Street, a serial from the late Seventies set in a posh hotel in the 1920s called Bentincks and created by John Hawkesworth who produced Upstairs, Downstairs. Cazenove played dashing, mustachioed Charlie Tyrrell, nephew of Lord Henry Norton, who later inherits the title of Lord Haslemere.
Later he had a part in the sixth season of Dynasty, as the series was losing its way somewhat. He was a scheming smoothie named Ben Carrington who pops up out of nowhere as half-brother to the paterfamilias Blake (played of course by John Forsyth, who has also just died). For good or ill, this role is probably what Cazenove will be best remembered for. Ben forms a dastardly alliance with the hugely popular Alexis character, played by Joan Collins, and together they plot to steal all Blake’s money.
The difficulty for actors like Christopher Cazenove is that they’re so convincing as the English gent, it is hard to play anything else. Their fortunes depend on the waxing and waning fashion for toffs on screen. He was convincing because he was a gent – educated at the Dragon, Eton and Oxford and related in some way to the stock-broking Cazenoves.
He suffered tragedy in his personal life with the loss of his son. And he once said that he “often” drank heavily. But people who knew him sent these comments into BBC News this morning: he was a “a true gentleman”, “a totally charming gentleman” and “a noble, kind and generous spirit”.