Lionel Charles Jeffries (10 June 1926 – 19 February 2010) was an English actor, director, and screenwriter.

[1][2][3][4][5] He appeared primarily in films and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his role in The Spy with a Cold Nose.

[8] As a boy, he attended the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wimborne Minster in Dorset.

[9] He entered repertory at the David Garrick Theatre, Lichfield, Staffordshire for two years and appeared in early British television plays.

[citation needed] Jeffries built a successful career in British films mainly in comic character roles and as he was prematurely bald he often played characters older than himself, such as the role of father to Caractacus Potts (played by Dick Van Dyke) in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), although Jeffries was actually six months younger than Van Dyke, who was born on 13 December 1925.

His acting career reached a peak in the 1960s with leading roles in other films like Two-Way Stretch (1960), The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), Murder Ahoy!