Ian Carmichael OBE (born 18 June 1920) is an English film, stage, television and radio actor.
Carmichael was born in Hull, Yorkshire. His father was an optician and he was educated at Scarborough College and Bromsgrove School and trained as an actor at RADA. He made his stage debut, but with the outbreak of the Second World War his acting career was interrupted by military service in Europe with the Royal Armoured Corps, as a commissioned officer in the 22nd Dragoons.
He portrayed serious characters in Betrayed (1954), starring Clark Gable and Lana Turner, and in The Colditz Story (1955), but he made his name playing the sheltered innocent in a world of crooks and shirkers in a series of classic films for the Boulting Brothers, including Private's Progress (1956), Brothers in Law (1957) and I'm All Right Jack (1959), as well as similar films for other producers, for example School for Scoundrels (1960). He also appeared in the Pride segment of The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins.
During the 1960s and 1970s, he enjoyed success in television, including the sitcom, Bachelor Father, based on the story of a real-life bachelor who took on several foster children. On television he enjoyed great popularity as Bertie Wooster, opposite Dennis Price as Jeeves, in several series of The World of Wooster, based on the works of P. G. Wodehouse. In later years, he was heard on BBC radio as Galahad Threepwood, another Wodehouse creation. In the 1970s, he memorably played Lord Peter Wimsey in several drama series based on the mystery novels by Dorothy L. Sayers. He appeared on television, notably in the ITV series, The Royal as the Hospital Secretary T.J. Middleditch (2003–2006). In 1999, he appeared in the BBC mini series Wives and Daughters. He was awarded an OBE in the 2003 New Year's Honours List.
Appointed OBE in the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours List.
An Associate Member of RADA.
Educated at Scarborough College and Bromsgrove School.
