Joss Ackland dead: Lethal Weapons 2 and White Mischief star dies aged 95 after career spanning six decades

VETERAN British actor Joss Ackland has died at the age of 95.

The star was best known for his iconic roles in Lethal Weapons 2 and White Mischief.

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The retired actor had appeared in over 130 film and television roles, including ITV1’s Midsomer Murders, during his six-decade career.

The stage and screen actor died “peacefully” and was “surrounded by family”, according to a family statement.

“He will be remembered as one of Britain’s most talented and beloved actors,” it said.

Ackland was also a “beloved father” and had been married to his wife Rosemary for 51 years before she died in 2002.

The couple had seven children, 32 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

And despite his filming taking him to far-flung locations, he said Rosemary and he “were hardly ever apart”.

In 1963, the couple’s home in Barnes caught fire and Rosemary saved the five children they had at the time but broke her back while jumping from the bedroom window.

Their eldest son, Paul, died of a heroin overdose in 1982, aged 29 and in 2000, Rosemary was diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

She died on July 25, 2002.

During his glittering TV career, Ackland was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for portraying Jock Delves Broughton in 1987’s White Mischief.

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He first appeared on screen during the 1960s alongside notable actors including Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, and Tom Courtenay.

He worked with Alec Guinness in the 1979 television serial Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, playing Jerry Westerby, and his career grew through the 1980s with important parts in such films as The Sicilian, Lethal Weapon 2, The Hunt for Red October and White Mischief.

On television Ackland appeared as Jephro Rucastle with Jeremy Brett and David Burke in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; the episode entitled “The Copper Beeches”.

Other appearances included Passion of Mind with Demi Moore and the two-part TV serial Hogfather based on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.

He also played C. S. Lewis in the television version of Shadowlands before it was adapted into a stage play starring Nigel Hawthorne – and then a theatrical film with Anthony Hopkins in the same role.

Ackland then appeared in the Pet Shop Boys’ 1987 film It Couldn’t Happen Here, and in the video for their version of the song Always On My Mind.

Several years later, he said in an interview with the Radio Times that he appeared with the band purely because his grandchildren liked their music.

The on-screen icon later co-starred as  Emilio Estevez’s mentor and friend Hans in the 1992 Disney hit The Mighty Ducks.

In a 2001 interview with the BBC, Ackland said that he appeared in some “awful films” due to being a workaholic.

He said that he “regretted” appearing in Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey and the Pet Shop Boys music video.

Ackland then appeared in the 2007 movie How About You, and a year later played Sir Freddy Butler in Midsomer Murders.

Nearing the end of his long running career, in September 2013, Jonathan Miller directed a Gala Performance of William Shakespeare’s King Lear at the Old Vic in London where Ackland played the lead role of Lear.

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