Lionel Charles Jeffries (born June 10, 1926 in Forest Hill, London, England) is a British actor, screenwriter and film director.

With his firm jawline and bristling mustache, Lionel Jeffries played a nice line of English eccentrics. This belied his RADA training. Following military service in WWII, he played his major roles - everything from Grandpa Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) to the Marquis of Queensberry in Trials of Oscar Wilde, The (1960) - in the 1960s. His surprisingly brief career as a director included the highly popular family films Railway Children, The (1970) and Amazing Mr. Blunden, The (1972).