Paul Eddington

Paul Clark Eddington (18 June 1927 – 4 November 1995) was an English actor born in Paddington, London, who appeared on Broadway in 1964 in A Severed Head. He is best known for his television work, particularly as Jerry Leadbetter in the BBC sitcom The Good Life (1975–1978) and as politician Jim Hacker in Yes Minister (1980–1984) and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister (1986–1988). Over the course of his career he received four BAFTA TV nominations and two Olivier Award nominations.

Eddington was raised in St John's Wood by his parents, decorative artist Albert Clark Eddington (1887–1955) and Frances Mary (née Roberts) (1898–1958). The family were Quakers, and his father's emotional difficulties following the First World War shaped Eddington into a lifelong pacifist. He attended Sibford School in Sibford Ferris, Oxfordshire. Through his father, he was related to both the Somerset shoemaking Clark family and the scientist Sir Arthur Eddington, Albert and Sir Arthur being second cousins and both great-grandsons of William Eddington (1755–1806). In 1952, Eddington married Patricia Scott, with whom he would have three sons and a daughter.

Having registered as a conscientious objector, Eddington began acting as a teenager with ENSA during the Second World War. He subsequently worked with Sheffield Repertory Theatre at Sheffield Playhouse. His first significant television role came in 1956, when he played corrupt police constable Tom Carr in the Dixon of Dock Green episode The Rotten Apple. Later that same year he joined the regular cast of The Adventures of Robin Hood, initially in minor roles before taking on the part of Will Scarlet in the fourth series (1959–60). A 1960 BBC Maigret episode, Liberty Bar, gave him a leading role as Harry Brown, an Australian entrepreneur. He also appeared in episodes of The Avengers (1963), the ATV series Hine (1971), in which he played arms dealer associate Astor Harris, Special Branch (1974), The Prisoner (1967), and The Champions (1969), as well as in Hammer Films' The Devil Rides Out (1968) and an episode of Van der Valk in 1972.

It was not until his late forties that Eddington became widely recognized, when he was cast as Jerry Leadbetter in The Good Life, first broadcast by the BBC in 1975 and written by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey. The sitcom centered on a suburban couple pursuing self-sufficiency, with Eddington and Penelope Keith, who played his wife Margo, evolving from supporting players into essential foils for the two leads. He also appeared in a single episode of another Esmonde and Larbey sitcom, Get Some In!, in 1977.

His profile rose further with the title role of Jim Hacker in Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. He was shortlisted four times for the BAFTA award for Best Light Entertainment Performance for those series, losing on each occasion to his co-star Nigel Hawthorne. In 1987, the same year he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Year Honours, Eddington appeared as Sir Joseph Porter in a production of H.M.S. Pinafore in Australia.

Among his later credits were the role of Guy Wheeler in the Minder episode The Wrong Goodbye (1989), Richard Cuthbertson alongside Good Life co-star Felicity Kendal in the television dramatization of The Camomile Lawn (1992), and the voice of Badger in The Adventures of Mole. In 1994 he reunited with Good Life co-star Richard Briers in a stage run of the play Home, and in 1995 he appeared as Justice Shallow in a BBC adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2. He also read extracts from Sir Winston Churchill's A History of the English-Speaking Peoples for the BBC Radio series This Sceptred Isle, though he died before the production concluded, with Peter Jeffrey taking his place.

Eddington had been diagnosed at age 28 with mycosis fungoides, a rare form of cancer. He and his family kept the condition private for decades, and it became public knowledge only in 1994 when he addressed press speculation about changes in his appearance. His autobiography, So Far, So Good, was published in 1995. Five days before his death, the BBC broadcast a Face to Face interview in which he discussed his life, career, and his battle with lymphoma. Eddington died in Southwark, London, on 4 November 1995, survived by his wife Patricia, to whom he had been married for 43 years, and their four children.