David Markham

David Markham
Born
Peter Basil Harrison

(1913-04-03)3 April 1913
Died15 December 1983(1983-12-15) (aged 70)
OccupationActor
Years active1938–1983
Spouse
(m. 1937)
Children4, including Kika and Petra Markham
RelativesRoger Lloyd-Pack (son-in-law)

David Markham (3 April 1913 – 15 December 1983) was an English stage and film actor for over forty years.[1][2]

Markham was born Peter Basil Harrison in Wick, Worcestershire and died in Hartfield, East Sussex.

In 1937 he married Olive Dehn (1914–2007), a BBC Radio dramatist.[3] They had four daughters: Sonia, an illustrator; Kika (b. 1940), an actress, widow of actor Corin Redgrave; Petra (b. 1944), an actress; and Jehane, a poet and dramatist, widow of actor Roger Lloyd-Pack.[4]

In World War II, he was imprisoned as a conscientious objector, before being allowed to do forestry work.[5]

Markham appeared occasionally in cinema and often on television.[6] He appeared in Carol Reed's film The Stars Look Down (1939) and in François Truffaut's films Two English Girls (1972), in which he plays a fortuneteller with his daughter Kika, and Day for Night (1973).[7] He played the father of Robin Phillips in two films, Two Gentlemen Sharing (1969) and Tales From The Crypt (1972).[2]

Markham portrayed Prime Minister H. H. Asquith (a close look-alike) in the 1981 BBC Wales drama The Life and Times of David Lloyd George, alongside his daughter Kika Markham, who played Lloyd George's secretary, lover and later second wife – Frances Stevenson.

  1. ^ "David Markham - Theatricalia". theatricalia.com.
  2. ^ a b "David Markham". Archived from the original on 11 March 2016.
  3. ^ Karpf, Anne (31 March 2007). "Obituary: Olive Dehn". The Guardian.
  4. ^ Nicholas Tucker, "Obituary. Olive Dehn: Poet and children's writer", The Independent, 7 April 2007
  5. ^ Jonathan Croall: Don't You Know There's a War On?, 1988
  6. ^ "David Markham". www.aveleyman.com.
  7. ^ "David Markham - Movies and Filmography - AllMovie". AllMovie.