British actor Clive Dunn, best known as a bumbling war veteran-turned-butcher in the popular World War II sitcom Dad’s Army, has died, his agent said.
Dunn passed away on Tuesday, Peter Charlesworth said, adding that the actor died in Portugal where he has lived for many years. He was 92.
As Lance-Corporal Jones in Dad’s Army – a hit television series in the 1960s and 1970s about a group of local volunteer members of the Home Guard – Dunn was famous for catchphrases such as “Don’t panic!” and “They don’t like it up ‘em”.
He also had a No. 1 hit song with Grandad in 1970, which he performed several times on TV music show Top of the Pops.
Dunn was born in London in 1920 into a showbusiness family and enrolled in an acting academy after leaving school.
He played several small roles in films in the 1930s before serving in the army in World War II, ending up in prisoner-of-war and labour camps for four years.
After the war he worked in music halls before landing the role of Corporal Jones in Dad’s Army in 1968.
Underlining his ability to play characters far older than his real age, he followed Dad’s Army with a five-year run in children’s comedy series Grandad as an elderly caretaker.
Dunn lived in Portugal for more than 20 years and, in a 1992 interview with Saga Magazine, he explained the appeal of the place was down to Greta Garbo.
He said: “The reason I came to Portugal originally was through seeing Greta Garbo in the film Queen Christina. In the script she was going to the southwest corner of Europe, full of sunshine, where warm breezes blew. The final shot shows her on her way to Portugal and I thought if it’s good enough for Garbo, it’s good enough for me.”
Ian Lavender, who played Private Pike in Dad’s Army, said Dunn was a good friend.
He said: “A word he often used was ‘nice’. He wanted everyone to have a nice time.
“Everyone at one time or another would be tempted to duck into a doorway or bury their head in a paper but not Clive, he always made time for fans.”
Dunn is survived by his wife Priscilla Morgan and two daughters, Jessica and Polly. (Reuters/PA)