’60s TV Star Gerald Harper Dead at 96

British TV star Gerald Harper, whose roles often portrayed him as the quintessential Englishman, has died. He was 96.

He passed away on July 2. A cause of death has not been revealed.

Harper is best known for his television roles, especially for playing the title characters in the 1966 series Adam Adamant Lives! and in 1969-76’s Hadleigh.

One of his first main appearances on TV was in the series Gazette, where his character of James Hadleigh was so beloved that producers spun him off into his own TV series. A Daily Telegraph review at the time stated that Hadleigh was “a rebellion not only against fashionable working-class melodrama but even more against the successful social and business climber who is the obligatory hero of so many TV drama series.”

Later on, he appeared in several successful movies both in the U.K. and in the U.S. during the 50s and 60s, including Paradise Lagoon, A Night to Remember, The League of Gentlemen, Tunes of Glory, The Shoes of the Fisherman and the 1979 remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic mystery The Lady Vanishes.

Towards the back of his career, he became known as a radio DJ in addition to his on-screen roles. When Capital Radio launched in the United Kingdom in 1973, he was the biggest name in the house thanks to his weekly show A Sunday Affair with Gerald Harper, where he’d send roses and champagne to listeners celebrating special occasions.

Harper is survived by one daughter and one son.