In Memory of Christopher Hewett ('Mr. Belevedere' & 'Fantasy Island'): 23 Years After His Demise

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It's been 23 years since British actor and American TV personality Christopher Hewett died in his Los Angeles home from complications of diabetes at 80. Best known for his leading persnickety butler role in TV's Mr. Belvedere (ABC, 1985-1990) and his supporting assistant role in the last season of Fantasy Island (ABC, 1977-1984). Hewett was a classically-trained thespian of the stage who, for one, played Captain Hook opposite Sandy Duncan in her 1979-1980 Broadway musical production of Peter Pan. He also appeared on the big screen in movies like director Mel Brooks' 1967 classic, The Producers. This is his story.

A Closer Look

Christopher Hewett was born on April 5, 1921, in Worthing, England. He was the great-great-grandson of Daniel O'Connell, the 19th-century Irish political figure who became the first Catholic in modern history to sit in the House of Commons.

Hewett's mother, also a thespian, helped run a plantation in Malaysia, while he later attended Wimbledon College, a prestigious Jesuit school, before serving in the British armed forces from 1938 to 1942.

Hewett made his theatrical debut at age seven in A Midsummer Night's Dream at Theatre Royal in Dublin. From 1940 to 1942, he was a member of the Oxford Repertory Company and made his London debut as Khadja in The Merry Widow.

Hewett went on to appear in several British productions including The Rest Is Silence; The Millionairess; many with Hermione Gingold, later of TV's Maude (in which she replaced Esther Rolle as Bea Arthur's housekeeper); Kiss Me, Kate and the Harold Rome musical, Wish You Were Here.

Hewett was also an acclaimed director, particularly of revues, including New York's Shoestring Revue with (the aforementioned) Arthur and Chita Rivera. He staged sketches for a pre-Broadway Ziegfeld Follies, and From A to Z on Broadway, The Boys From Syracuse Off-Broadway, and then in London. He also staged Broadway's No Sex, Please, We're British.

As an actor, Hewett made his Broadway debut as Zoltan Karpathy in the original 1956 production of My Fair Lady. He later appeared in Westport Country Playhouse's Roar Like a Dove, Broadway's The Unsinkable Molly Brown (the latter two both in 1960), The Affair and Kean. He was Drama Desk Award-nominated for his portrayal of Malvolio in Broadway's Music Is. For the Roundabout Theatre, he appeared in The Rivals and The Circle.

Movie-Role-Ah

Christopher Hewett applied his highly-honed and diversely creative stage skills to other venues beyond live theatre; performing in nightclubs, radio, television, and feature films.

Among his memorable movie roles, and performances in general, is the flamboyant stage director Roger DeBris in The Producers, directed by Mel Brooks in 1967.

Brooks had originally cast actor Kenneth Mars as De Bris, given he played a gay psychiatrist on Broadway. However, Mars, in what became his film debut, wanted to play another character (Franz Liebkind).

Consequently, De Bris was portrayed by Hewett, who was in retrospect the first actor who read for the part.

Small Screen Gems

Sixteen years after making his motion picture mark in The Producers, Christopher Hewett was cast onto the final 1983-1984 season of TV's Fantasy Island. It was in that series created by Gene Levitt (Maverick) and produced by Aaron Spelling (The Love Boat) that Hewett replaced Hervé Villechaize's Tatoo as Lawrence, the right-hand man to the mysterious Mr. Roarke played by Ricardo Montalbán (Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn).

In 1985, Hewett returned to ABC in another subservient role of sorts, but this time as the star of his own sitcom: Mr. Belvedere, which was a hit for five years. In this show (loosely based on a 1940s movie character created by Clifton Webb), Hewett portrayed the sardonic Lynn Belvedere, a former butler to the Royal Family who is hired by an American family (led by Bob Uecker).

Lasting Impression

In the last few years of his life, Christopher Hewett experienced a decline in health before he passed away. However, the actor's enormous on-screen charms live forever in the pop-culture psyche, particularly by way of Mr. Belvedere.