He served for five years during World War II in the Royal Navy as a wireless operator aboard Motor Torpedo Boats, first in North Africa, then in the Allied invasion of Sicily, where he was wounded in action.

His London stage appearances included A Man for All Seasons with Charlton Heston, Captain Brassbound's Conversion with Penelope Keith and The Wolf with Judi Dench and Leo McKern.

Other film appearances included Chapuys in Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972), Al-risâlah (The Message) (1976) starring Anthony Quinn, Admiral Nelson in Nelson's Touch (1979), The Prince and the Pauper with Rex Harrison, Mallarmé in Gauguin the Savage (1980), Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract (1982) with Anthony Higgins and Janet Suzman, Chapuys again in A Man for All Seasons (1988), Ben Gunn in a re-make of Treasure Island (1990) with Charlton Heston, The Whipping Boy (1994), The Deep Blue Sea (2011) with Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston, The Awakening (2011) with Rebecca Hall, a short, Heroes Return (2012) for Camelot, playing the World War II veteran Private Jack Jennings, filmed on location in the Burmese jungle on the border with Thailand, and his final film appearances playing Oggie in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) and as Mr Abney in the film (short) adaptation of Lost Hearts released in 2018.

His many TV credits, starting in the early 1950s, included Hamlet (1961), The Avengers (1963), I, Claudius (1976), The Professionals (1979), If Tomorrow Comes (1986), Fortunes of War (1987), Jonathan Creek (1999), ChuckleVision (2004), Midsomer Murders (2005) and Borgia (2011).

His success in the third play of that season, The Intruder, a translation of Asmodé by the French playwright Jean-Jacques Bernard,[8][9] prompted Fernald to make him the Juvenile Lead of the company.

His first London play was Fernald's production of Pinero's The Schoolmistress at the Arts Theatre, with Joan Harben,[11] Philip Stainton and the rising star of British films at the time, Nigel Patrick.

In between these, he accepted an invitation to play Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice opposite Canadian actress Barbara Chilcott as Jessica for a tour of the Welsh valleys,[16] for little money and travelling by coach, with the actors having to set the stage themselves and take it down after each performance.

Amer auditioned and was offered the role of Green in Gielgud's production of Richard II,[17] which would star Paul Scofield alongside Eileen Herlie, Pamela Brown, Eric Porter, Noel Willman and Herbert Lomas.

In the other production of that season, Venice Preserv'd by Thomas Otway, starring Gielgud opposite Eileen Herlie, and directed by Peter Brook, Amer played Ternon, one of the conspirators, and understudied to Eric Porter.

[18] Gielgud, who was knighted in the new Queen's Coronation Honours List in 1953, announced that the Richard II production was being flown out to Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as part of the Cecil Rhodes centenary.

[29][30][31] He showed his versatility by also appearing in the 1958 musical Keep Your Hair On at the Apollo Theatre in London, directed by John Cranko and with settings and costumes designed by Tony Armstrong-Jones (later 1st Earl of Snowdon) and Desmond Heeley.

They spent almost a year writing a play together, based on their teaching of the techniques that an actor needs to bring Shakespeare's printed text to life, calling it Macbeth In Camera.

The British Council next sent Voyage Theatre, described by senior executive Valerie West at the time as "four splendid ambassadors waving the flag for Britain," to India, Pakistan, Nepal, Iran (Tehran and Shiraz) and Egypt (Cairo and Alexandria) as part of their Shakespeare Quatercentenary celebrations.

[70] In December 1964, they performed at the Hong Kong Arts Festival then returned to Kathmandu in Nepal (this time at the King's request), India (Bombay), Turkey (Ankara and Istanbul) and Egypt (Cairo), then back to London.

In May 1965 they travelled to Switzerland (Basel, Lausanne, Geneva and Vevey) and then back to the UK for performances in Hemel Hempstead and the Jeannetta Cochrane Theatre in London.

[71] In December of that year they toured to Turkey (Istanbul and Ankara) with Man Speaking and also to Thailand (Bangkok) en route to yet another return visit to New Zealand and Australia.

Voyage Theatre prepared itself for its longest engagement yet: they would spend six months visiting Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland in New Zealand and then Sydney, Melbourne, Freemantle, Adelaide and the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia, with both pieces and including a third play A Sleep of Prisoners by Christopher Fry.

[72][73][74][75] In July 1966 the Filipino impresario Ralph Zulueta took them over and billed them as 'The Intellectual Beatles', opening in Manila to a packed Independent Theatre where the famous pop group had just played.

[109][110] He played the part of Otto alongside Mark Wynter in the musical Hans Andersen directed by Val May at Guildford Rep in 1986,[111] followed by Shaw's Candida at the King's Head Theatre in Islington.

[119] Lloyd George Knew My Father followed at St Edmund's Hall, Southwold in 1990,[120][121] followed by Robin Hood and Mad [sic] Marion and Herne the Hunter (musical) at the Canal Cafe Theatre, Kilburn Park in 1992,[122] The Kingfisher in Southwold in 1993, Shaw's Getting Married in Chichester the same year,[123][124][125] and Beast on the Moon by Richard Kalinoski,[126] directed by Irina Brook at the Battersea Arts Centre in London in 1996.

In the 1970s, film director Waris Hussein asked him to play the Spanish ambassador Chapuys in his production of Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972) starring Keith Michell and Charlotte Rampling.

[137] Back in London, he appeared in The Prince and the Pauper (1977) (released in the US the following year as Crossed Swords), with Rex Harrison and Mark Lester, and The Bitch (1979) with Joan Collins.

[139] In 1982 he was in Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract (1982) with Anthony Higgins and Janet Suzman,[140] and some years later he revisited the part of Chapuys, this time in A Man for All Seasons (1988) with Charlton Heston.

[146] Amer had a part written specially for him by film director Terence Davies and played the elderly, ailing Mr Elton in The Deep Blue Sea (2011), which starred Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston.

[150] Following this he appeared as the Italian opera singer Carlo Ponchi in Sing for Your Supper, the first ever TV musical for British television, written and composed by George Hall.

[157][158] Appearances in The Pursuers (1961),[159] The Avengers (1963),[160] and a BBC TV production of Hamlet (playing Rosencrantz), small character parts in Parbottle Speaking,[161] Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls (1965),[162] The Root of All Evil?

[163][164] Then in 1976 Jack Pulman adapted I, Claudius for television from the novels of Robert Graves, and Amer had the part of Messalina's lover Mnester specially written for him and played opposite Sheila White.

[165] In 1977 he acted in Spaghetti Two-Step,[166] in 1979 in an episode of The Professionals, in 1982, Whoops Apocalypse, Pig in the Middle[167][168] and Jemima Shore Investigates,[169] and in 1984, The Tragedy of Coriolanus (playing the Aedile) for the BBC's celebration of Shakespeare.

[170] Following these he appeared in Tender Is the Night (1985),[171] Crossroads (1985), Artists and Models (1986),[172] playing the middle-aged Casanova,[173] and as a desk clerk in If Tomorrow Comes,[174] filmed in Nice (1986), Paradise Postponed (1986),[175] Love and Marriage (1986),[176] The Charmer (1987), Bust (1987),[177] Fortunes of War (1987) (shot in Yugoslavia with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson),[178] Streets Apart (1988),[179] Eldorado (soap opera set in Spain) (1993), the TV film Knights: El Cid, Soldier of Fortune (1997),[180] an episode of Jonathan Creek (1999),[181] Arrows of Desire (Channel 4 poetry programme) directed by Colin Still (2002),[182] Grange Hill (2002), Story Teller (BBC children's TV) (2002), Silent Witness (2002), My Dad's the Prime Minister (2003), ChuckleVision (2004), Merseybeat (2004) and as Arthur Leggott in an episode ('Midsomer Rhapsody') of Midsomer Murders (2005).

[189] This collection of modern Irish poetry interspersed with songs and anecdotes later transferred to the Young Vic in London and then to a tour of Soweto and other black townships in South Africa in 1979.