Peter Egan

Peter Joseph Egan (born 28 September 1946) is a British actor and animal rights activist. He is known for his television roles, including Hogarth in Big Breadwinner Hog, the future George IV of the United Kingdom in Prince Regent (1979); smooth neighbour Paul Ryman in the sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles (1984–89); and Hugh "Shrimpie" MacClare, Marquess of Flintshire, in Downton Abbey (2012–15). Early life Egan was born on 28 September 1946 in Hampstead, London, the son of Doris (née Pick) and Michael Thomas Egan, who is of Irish descent. He was educated at St George's Catholic School, Maida Vale. He also attended the London Oratory School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Life and career Egan's first stage performance was in Charlie Girl. His first television role was as the sex-and-cinema-obsessed Seth Starkadder in a BBC serialisation of Cold Comfort Farm (1968). In 1969, he had come to notoriety as the acid-throwing gangster Hogarth in the controversial Granada series Big Breadwinner Hog. Later, he had other starring roles: as John Everett Millais in the BBC serial The Love School (1975); as Oscar Wilde in the serial Lillie (1978), starring Francesca Annis as Lillie Langtry; as Magnus Pym in the BBC dramatisation of John le Carré's A Perfect Spy (1987) and another BBC sitcom, Joint Account (1989–90).