We are very sad to share news of the death of acclaimed OH actor Gerald Harper (B 42-47) on 2nd July 2025, aged 96. Enjoying acting from a young age, including a Haileybury pupil tour of Macbeth in Denmark in 1947, Gerald had a long and fascinating acting career including starring in cult TV series as crime fighter Adam Adamant (1966-67) and elegant cad Hadleigh (1969-76). His prolific film appearances included The Dam Busters (1955), The Admirable Crichton (1957), A Night to Remember (1958), The League of Gentlemen (1960), The Shoes of the Fisherman ((1958), The Young Ones (1961) and The Lady Vanishes (1979). He also had a long and varied stage career including Shakespearean roles, notably his Iago in 1974 at the Bristol Old Vic, and he compiled and performed a touring one-man show with himself as Rudyard Kipling, which had a London season in 1984. Later in his career he was a disc jockey with Capital radio in the 1970s and Radio 2 in the 1990s. In 2008 he made a film comeback in Bill Kenwright’s production of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.
At Haileybury Gerald was a Prefect, played in the XV in 1946, was School Boxer in 1946 & 1947 and Captain of Swimming.
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