British character actor Felix Aylmer was educated at Oxford and later studied drama, making his stage debut at the London Coliseum in 1911. During World War I he served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and resumed his stage career after the war ended. He entered films in 1930 and stayed in them for the next 40 years, specializing in elderly, doddering characters .
Father of David Aylmer and Jennifer Aylmer.
He was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1950 Kings Birthday Honours List and appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1965 Queens Birthday Honours List for his services to drama.
He played Lord Palmerston in three different films: Victoria the Great , Sixty Glorious Years and The Lady with a Lamp .
He played the Archbishop of Canterbury in both The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fifth with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France and Becket .
He made five films with Laurence Olivier : The Temporary Widow (1930) , As You Like It , The Demi-Paradise , The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fifth with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France and Hamlet . Olivier also directed the latter two films.
He appeared in ten films with John Laurie : Her Last Affaire (1935) , Tudor Rose , As You Like It , The Ghost of St. Michaels , The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp , The Demi-Paradise , The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fifth with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France , Caesar and Cleopatra , Hamlet and Trio .
