Christopher Michael Hewett (5 April 1921 – 3 August 2001) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 and theatre director best known for his role as Lynn Belvedere on the ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 sitcom

Situation comedy

A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...

 Mr. Belvedere

Mr. Belvedere

Mr. Belvedere is an American sitcom that originally aired on ABC from March 15, 1985, until July 8, 1990. The series was based on the Lynn Aloysius Belvedere character created by Gwen Davenport for her 1947 novel Belvedere, which was later adapted into the 1948 film Sitting Pretty...

.

Career

Hewett was born in Worthing

Worthing

Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...

, Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, to an army officer father and an Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 mother who was a descendant of Daniel O'Connell

Daniel O'Connell

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847; often referred to as The Liberator, or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century...

. He was educated at Beaumont College

Beaumont College

Beaumont College was a Jesuit public school in Old Windsor, Berkshire, England. In 1967 the school closed. The property became a conference centre, and from 2008 an hotel.-History of the estate:...

, and at age 7, he made his acting debut in Dublin stage production of A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...

. At 16, Hewett joined the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

, leaving in 1940. Hewett then joined the Oxford Repertory Company and made his West End theatre

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 debut in 1943.

He later appeared on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 in the musicals My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...

, The Unsinkable Molly Brown

The Unsinkable Molly Brown (musical)

The Unsinkable Molly Brown is a musical with music and lyrics by Meredith Willson and book by Richard Morris. The plot is a fictionalized account of the life of Margaret Brown, who survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic, and her wealthy miner-husband....

, Music Is

Music Is

Music Is is a musical with a book by George Abbott, music by Richard Adler, and lyrics by Will Holt. It is the second musical adaptation of the William Shakespeare play Twelfth Night, following Your Own Thing in 1968....

, and Kean

Kean (musical)

Kean is a musical with a book by Peter Stone and music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest.Using material by Jean-Paul Sartre and Alexandre Dumas, père as its source, it centers on the adventures of Edmund Kean, considered the greatest Shakespearean actor of the 18th century, focusing...

and in the plays Sleuth

Sleuth (play)

Sleuth is a 1970 play written by Anthony Shaffer. The play is set in the Wiltshire, England manor house of Andrew Wyke, an immensely successful mystery writer. His home reflects Wyke's obsession with the inventions and deceptions of fiction and his fascination with games and game-playing...

and The Affair

The Affair (play)

The Affair is a 1962 play by Ronald Miller based on the novel by C.P. Snow.-Synopsis:A group of professors at Cambridge University try to hire an old colleague back even though they all don't like him, they all agree he was dismissed unfairly....

, among others, and directed the 1960 Broadway revue From A to Z

From A to Z

From A to Z is a musical revue with a book by Woody Allen, Herbert Farjeon, and Nina Warner Hook and songs by Jerry Herman, Fred Ebb, Mary Rodgers, Everett Sloane, Jay Thompson, Dickson Hughes, Jack Holmes, Paul Klein, Norman Martin, William Dyer, and Charles Zwar.Although a critical and commercial...

and the 1967 Off Broadway revival of the Rodgers

Richard Rodgers

Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...

 and Hart

Lorenz Hart

Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart...

 musical By Jupiter

By Jupiter

By Jupiter is a musical with a book by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers, music by Rodgers, and lyrics by Hart. The musical is based on the play The Warrior's Husband by Julian F. Thompson, set in the land of the Amazons...

. Hewett also directed several stage productions including The Marriage-Go-Round

The Marriage-Go-Round

The Marriage-Go-Round is a 1958 play written by Leslie Stevens and a 1961 film adaptation also written and produced by Stevens. It was inspired by a suggestion that dancer Isadora Duncan supposedly made to playwright George Bernard Shaw: the two of them should have a child because "with your mind...

and Beyond the Fringe and Camelot.

Hewett made his film debut in the 1951 crime drama Pool of London, and later appeared in roles on Robert Montgomery Presents

Robert Montgomery Presents

Robert Montgomery Presents is an American dramatic television series which was produced by NBC from January 30, 1950 until June 24, 1957. The live show had several sponsors during its seven-year run, and the title was altered to feature the sponsor, usually Lucky Strike cigarettes, for example,...

and DuPont Show of the Month

DuPont Show of the Month

DuPont Show of the Month, an acclaimed 90-minute television anthology series, aired monthly on CBS from 1957 to 1961. The DuPont Company also sponsored a weekly half-hour anthology drama series hosted by June Allyson, The DuPont Show with June Allyson .During the Golden Age of Television, DuPont...

. He appeared as the effeminate stage director Roger DeBris in Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...

's 1968 film comedy The Producers

The Producers (1968 film)

The Producers is a 1968 American satirical dark comedy cult classic film written and directed by Mel Brooks. The film is set in the late 1960s and it tells the story of a theatrical producer and an accountant who want to produce a sure-fire Broadway flop...

. In 1976, Hewett played the generic bureaucrat Federov in the short-lived sitcom Ivan the Terrible

Ivan the Terrible (TV series)

Ivan the Terrible was an American sitcom that aired on CBS for five episodes during 1976.The short-lived series parodied American attitudes toward the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War...

. From 1983 to 1984, he portrayed Lawrence, Mr. Roarke's (Ricardo Montalbán

Ricardo Montalbán

Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino, KSG was a Mexican radio, television, theatre and film actor. He had a career spanning six decades and many notable roles...

) sidekick

Sidekick

A sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, The Lone Ranger's Tonto, The Green Hornet's Kato and Batman's Robin.-Origins:The origin of the...

 on the final season of the ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 series Fantasy Island

Fantasy Island

Fantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:...

. The following year, Hewett landed his best known role as Lynn Aloysius Belvedere, an English butler who works for a middle-class American family in the sitcom Mr. Belvedere

Mr. Belvedere

Mr. Belvedere is an American sitcom that originally aired on ABC from March 15, 1985, until July 8, 1990. The series was based on the Lynn Aloysius Belvedere character created by Gwen Davenport for her 1947 novel Belvedere, which was later adapted into the 1948 film Sitting Pretty...

. After the series ended its run in 1990, Hewett appeared in a guest spot on an episode of the NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 teen sitcom California Dreams

California Dreams

California Dreams is an American teen-oriented sitcom that aired from 1992 to 1996 on Saturday mornings during NBC's TNBC programming block. It was created by writers Brett Dewey and Ronald B. Solomon and executive produced by Peter Engel, all known for their work on Saved by the...

. In 1995, he starred with Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...

, Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...

, Deborah Winters

Deborah Winters

Deborah Winters is an American actress and businesswoman. Winters is probably most remembered for her roles in Kotch, The People Next Door, Class of '44, and The Winds of War...

 and Peter Graves

Peter Graves

Peter Graves may refer to:* Peter Graves , American actor* Peter Graves, 8th Baron Graves , English actor and peer* Peter Graves , English cricketer...

 in Warren Chaney

Warren Chaney

Warren Herbert Chaney, Ph.D. is an American executive, author, filmmaker, behavioral scientist, entertainer, businessman and a pioneer in early television. In a career spanning four decades, Chaney wrote fifteen books, fourteen screenplays, and seventy-eight professional and nonprofessional...

's America: A Call to Greatness

America: A Call to Greatness

America: A Call to Greatness is a 1995 docudrama feature from Paige-Brace Cinema, chronicling United States history from its inception through the 20th century. It stars Charlton Heston, Mickey Rooney, Deborah Winters, Peter Graves, Jane Russell, and Rita Moreno among others and was written,...

. His last onscreen role was a cameo appearance

Cameo appearance

A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

 on the Fox

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 series Ned & Stacey

Ned & Stacey

Ned & Stacey is a US television sitcom that aired on the FOX network from 1995 to 1997. It starred Thomas Haden Church and Debra Messing. The major thread of the series was that the two were brought together in a marriage of convenience—Ned Dorsey needed to be married to get a promotion at...

in 1997.

Personal life and death

A devout Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 and lifelong bachelor, Hewett served as a deacon

Deacon

Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...

 at St. Victor's church in West Hollywood. During his later years, he suffered from arthritis

Arthritis

Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....

 and diabetes.

Hewett died on August 3, 2001 at his Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 home from complications of diabetes. He was 80 years old.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1951	Pool of London	Mike
1951	The Lavender Hill Mob The Lavender Hill Mob The Lavender Hill Mob is a 1951 comedy film from Ealing Studios, written by T.E.B. Clarke, directed by Charles Crichton, starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway and featuring Sid James and Alfie Bass...	Inspector Talbot
1954	The Million Pound Note The Million Pound Note The Million Pound Note is a 1954 British comedy, directed by Ronald Neame and starring Gregory Peck...	Irate Investor	Uncredited Alternative title: Man with a Million
1955	Robert Montgomery Presents Robert Montgomery Presents Robert Montgomery Presents is an American dramatic television series which was produced by NBC from January 30, 1950 until June 24, 1957. The live show had several sponsors during its seven-year run, and the title was altered to feature the sponsor, usually Lucky Strike cigarettes, for example,...		Episode: "The Cage"
1959	DuPont Show of the Month DuPont Show of the Month DuPont Show of the Month, an acclaimed 90-minute television anthology series, aired monthly on CBS from 1957 to 1961. The DuPont Company also sponsored a weekly half-hour anthology drama series hosted by June Allyson, The DuPont Show with June Allyson .During the Golden Age of Television, DuPont...	Policeman	Episode: "The Fallen Idol"
1966	The Jackie Gleason Show The Jackie Gleason Show The Jackie Gleason Show is the name of a series of popular American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason, which ran from 1952 to 1970.-Cavalcade of Stars:...	Mumbling English Pedestrian	Episode: "The Honeymooners In England"
1968	The Producers The Producers (1968 film) The Producers is a 1968 American satirical dark comedy cult classic film written and directed by Mel Brooks. The film is set in the late 1960s and it tells the story of a theatrical producer and an accountant who want to produce a sure-fire Broadway flop...	Roger De Bris
1976	Ivan the Terrible Ivan the Terrible (TV series) Ivan the Terrible was an American sitcom that aired on CBS for five episodes during 1976.The short-lived series parodied American attitudes toward the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War...	Federov	5 episodes
1977	On Our Own On Our Own (1977 TV series) On Our Own is a television series broadcast on CBS as part of their 1977-78 schedule. It featured Maria Bonino and Julia Peters, two employees in the Bedford Advertising Agency in New York who also share an apartment. Toni McBain was their boss, while April Baxter and Phil Goldstein were their...		Episode: "Julia's Big Bust"
1979	ABC Afterschool Special ABC Afterschool Special The ABC Afterschool Special is an American television anthology series that aired on ABC from 1972 to 1996, usually in the late afternoon on week days. Most of the episodes were dramatic presentations of situations, often controversial, of interest to children and teenagers. Several episodes were...	Butler	Episode: "Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid"
1982	The Elephant Man	Ross	Television movie
1982	Hart to Hart Hart to Hart Hart to Hart is an American television series, starring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a wealthy couple who also moonlighted as amateur detectives. The series was created by writer Sidney Sheldon and produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg...	Jeremy Lane	Episode: "Vintage Harts"
1982	Massarati and the Brain	Anatole	Television movie
1983 to 1984	Fantasy Island Fantasy Island Fantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:...	Lawrence	10 episodes
1984	E/R E/R E/R is an American television sitcom that aired in 1984 and 1985. Developed from a successful play of the same name, the series was produced by Embassy Television and lasted a single season.-Synopsis:...	Englishman	1 episode
1985 to 1990	Mr. Belvedere Mr. Belvedere Mr. Belvedere is an American sitcom that originally aired on ABC from March 15, 1985, until July 8, 1990. The series was based on the Lynn Aloysius Belvedere character created by Gwen Davenport for her 1947 novel Belvedere, which was later adapted into the 1948 film Sitting Pretty...	Mr. Lynn Aloysius Belvedere	115 episodes
1986	Ratboy Ratboy Ratboy is a film released in 1986 and directed by and starring Sondra Locke. Though the film had a troubled production and was both a critical and commercial failure , it has maintained somewhat of a cult status throughout the years due to its make-up effects designed by Rick Baker.Ratboy did...	Acting Coach
1987	The New Mike Hammer The New Mike Hammer The New Mike Hammer is an American television series based on the exploits of the fictitious New York-based private detective Mike Hammer. The show starred Stacy Keach and was essentially a continuation of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, an earlier television program featuring an identical core cast...		Episode: "Green Blizzard"
1987	Murder, She Wrote Murder, She Wrote Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...	Humphrey Defoe	Episode: "It Runs in the Family"
1990	A Very Retail Christmas	Ghost of Christmas Past	Television movie
1994	California Dreams California Dreams California Dreams is an American teen-oriented sitcom that aired from 1992 to 1996 on Saturday mornings during NBC's TNBC programming block. It was created by writers Brett Dewey and Ronald B. Solomon and executive produced by Peter Engel, all known for their work on Saved by the...	Mr. Green	Episode: "Follow Your Dreams"
1995	America: A Call to Greatness America: A Call to Greatness America: A Call to Greatness is a 1995 docudrama feature from Paige-Brace Cinema, chronicling United States history from its inception through the 20th century. It stars Charlton Heston, Mickey Rooney, Deborah Winters, Peter Graves, Jane Russell, and Rita Moreno among others and was written,...	Host	Film Docudrama
1997	Ned & Stacey Ned & Stacey Ned & Stacey is a US television sitcom that aired on the FOX network from 1995 to 1997. It starred Thomas Haden Church and Debra Messing. The major thread of the series was that the two were brought together in a marriage of convenience—Ned Dorsey needed to be married to get a promotion at...	Himself	Episode: "Saved by the Belvedere"

Award nomination

Year	Award	Category	Title of work
2004	TV Land Award	Best Broadcast Butler	Mr. Belvedere

External links