Trivia

As a boy during World War II, he was interned by the Japanese in the Lunghua Civil Assembly Centre in China. One of his friends there was future author J.G. Ballard, author of Empire of the Sun (1987) among others.

In 1974, Wyngarde played the lead role of the King of Siam in a stage revival of The King and I, initially with Sally Ann Howes as Anna, which ran for 260 performances at the Adelphi Theatre in London.

Son of an English father and French mother. Born in Marseilles, France, his father worked for the British Diplomatic Service. Spent his childhood in a number of different countries.

In his youth, he toyed with the idea of calling himself Lawrence Templeton.

He was evasive about his actual age for many years, but was almost certainly born several years earlier than 1933. He made his television debut in January of 1950 in a live broadcast of the Patrick Hamilton play "Rope", playing Granillo. This character is a university student, and, if Wyngarde had actually been born in August of 1933, he would have been 16 at the time, far too young for the part. He was a busy leading man on television in Britain by the mid-50s, and seemed then clearly older than his early 20s.

Between 1976 and 1979, DC Thompson - publishers of the Beano comic - ran a story called "Fireball" in its comic, Bullet. The hero bore more than a passing resemblance to none other than ... Peter Wyngarde.

He called Vivien Leigh "the love of my life".

The fictional actor "Todd Rivers" (actually played by Matt Berry) who played Dr. Lucien Sanchez in Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (2004) claimed in the Illuminatum DVD documentary about the series that he had worked with Wyngarde in a production of "Love's Labour's Lost". He said Wyngarde "had it all" and was one of his inspirations as an actor.

In 1975, he was arrested and convicted for an act of "gross indecency" in the toilets of Gloucester Bus Station. Although some have claimed that he was interviewed by the News of the World and the Birmingham based Sunday Mercury following the incident, this is incorrect. He did not speak to any newspapers in the wake of this incident.

He and J.G. Ballard were prisoners of the Japanese during World War II. In his autobiography, Ballard refers to Wyngarde (using the actor's real name of Cyril Goldbert and referring to his later fame under a stage name), and describes him as being "four years my senior"; this would suggest that Wyngarde was born in 1926, not in 1933, as has often been claimed.

He became immensely popular in Australia when Jason King (1971) was broadcast in that country.

He nearly fell out of a moving Swiss Cable Car whilst filming Jason King (1971).

He harboured feelings of regret in accepting the Jason King role. Once Jason King (1971) became popular, he began to be mobbed in the streets and was unable to frequent public places in general. It got to the stage where the actor couldn't leave his own house.

He was considered for many guest roles on Doctor Who (1963) - General Grugger in "Meglos", Aukon in "State of Decay", The Monitor in "Logopolis" and Commander Vorshak in "Warriors of the Deep". He did play Timanmov in "Planet of Fire".

In the late 1950s he moved to a flat in number 1 Earls Terrace off Kensington High Street in London. He would live in the same building for the rest of his life. He shared a flat there for some years with Alan Bates and according to some sources this was a romantic relationship.

The character of Mr. Six in Grant Morrison's The Invisibles was heavily based on his Jason King persona.

In 1970 RCA Records released the eponymous album "Peter Wyngarde" (RCA SF 8087). The resultant mix of spoken word and alternative arrangements was subject to a very short pressing run, which has led some to conclude that it was not the recording that RCA had expected. However it is difficult to imagine a record being released without official approval, particularly given that the album also spawned two singles, "La Ronde De L'Amour" (RCA 1967) and the track sampler "Peter Wyngarde Commits Rape". RCA Records have never officially disclosed the reasons behind their decision to discontinue pressings. In 1998 RPM Records re-released the album on CD (RPM 187) with the alternative title "When Sex Rears Its Inquisitive Head". The original vinyl album is now much sought after by fans and collectors alike.

In It Was Alright in the 70s (2014), he expressed his unease at having had to don blackface to play a Turk in The Gadic Collection (1967), but said he had done it only in the hope that a theatre director might pick him to play Othello.

He told an interviewer in 1993 that he was an alcoholic and that at the height of his fame "I drank myself to a standstill ... I am amazed I am still here", but that he stopped drinking in the early 1980s.

Considered for Dr. Hans Fallada, Dr. Armstrong, Dr. Bukovsky, and Sir Percy Heseltine in Lifeforce (1985).

Interviewed for The Sydney Morning Herald in 1972, he said that his biggest regret was that he "married far too young", adding: "It lasted three [sic] years and the last year was pretty hell. However, one just goes on learning from one's mistakes doesn't one?".

An auction of 250 items from his estate took place on 26 March 2020. All items sold, and the auction fetched over £35,000. His trophy for "best dressed personality of 1970" reached the highest selling price with a winning bid of £2,200.

On stage, he appeared in the thriller Underground with Raymond Burr and Marc Sinden (whose father Donald Sinden had worked with Wyngarde on The Siege of Sidney Street) at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto and at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London in 1983.

According to his former manager, at the height of his fame, he was the most requested and highest paid celebrity making personal appearances other than Morecambe and Wise.

Matthew Vaughn attempted to cast him in Layer Cake (2004) and X-Men: First Class (2011), only to be mistakenly informed that he'd died.

He was declared bankrupt in 1982 and again in 1988. An obituary reported that he lived partly on social security benefits.

It was always assumed within the acting community that he was gay and while the nickname Petunia Winegum is often quoted, it may have originated in a comedy sketch rather than being a genuine nickname.

Despite erroneous comments made elsewhere, Dorinda Stevens was never married to (or divorced from) actor Peter Wyngarde.

Some sources list his birth year as 1924.

In July 1974, Jeremy Dallas-Cope, a 23-year-old described as Wyngarde's former "male secretary and personal assistant", was found guilty at his trial at the Old Bailey and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, for forging nearly £3,000 worth of cheques from the actor's bank account. Upon the fraud scheme being discovered Dallas-Cope persuaded his flatmate Anthony O'Donoghue, a male model, "to attempt suicide and take the blame". O'Donoghue was found by police when close to death, and was sentenced to 15 months, after also being found guilty.

Nephew of Louis Jouvet.

He had an active fan club from the mid-1950s to 1985. An appreciation society called The Hellfire Club was founded in 1992 with the actor's support, with members receiving its quarterly magazine by post. It went online in 2000 and maintains a regularly updated blog.

He served as the visual inspiration for a redesign of Mastermind/Jason Wyngarde (a classic X-Men villain) in the late 1970s and the early 1980s. The character was re-introduced as a member of the Hellfire Club, and the actor had portrayed the leader of the Hellfire Club in A Touch of Brimstone (1966).

From 1956 to 1958, he shared a flat with Ruby Talbot in London and the 2020 biography cites the electoral roll as evidence that this was a romantic relationship.

In the late 1970s, he performed in the theatre in South Africa and Austria.

He appeared in a stage production of The Cabinet of Dr. Calibari in 1995, until he withdrew due to a throat infection. Afterwards, he stopped acting except for occasional voice work.