Born John Elton Le Mesurier Halliley on 5 April 1912 he was an English actor.

After saying to his wife, Joan Malin, "It's all been rather lovely", he slipped into a coma and died on 15 November 1983, aged 71.

Self-penned death notice in The Times, 16 November 1983 - JOHN LE MESURIER Wishes it to be known that he conked out on November 15th. He sadly misses family and friends.#

The character he cumulatively created will be remembered when others more famous are forgotten, not just for the skill of his playing but because he somehow embodied a symbolic British reaction to the whirlpool of the modern world—endlessly perplexed by the dizzying and incoherent pattern of events, but doing his best to ensure that resentment never showed.

—The Guardian, 16 November 1983