
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 19, 1990                   TAG: 9006190487
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LONDON                                LENGTH: Short

RAYMOND HUNTLEY, COMEDY ACTOR, DIES

Actor Raymond Huntley, who specialized in comedy roles debunking pompous officialdom in a career on the stage, in movies and on television, has died. He was 86.

One of his best-known roles was that of Sir Geoffrey Dillon, the crusty family lawyer in the British TV series "Upstairs, Downstairs," made from 1970 to 1975.

Huntley died Friday in London's Westminster hospital. No cause of death was stated in the family's announcement Monday.

Huntley was seldom the star of any show but his performances as a supporting actor were noted for their polish and professionalism. He made his first stage appearance in 1922 in Birmingham, the industrial city in central England where he was born.

A tall man with a mustache, Huntley during his long career played judges, bank managers, churchmen, bureaucrats and other figures of authority.

He could play them straight if necessary but in comedy his natural dryness of delivery was exaggerated to the point where the character he was playing invited mockery as a pompous humbug.

by CNB