Paul Eddington was a tall, debonair actor who achieved international success in the 1970s with The Good Life (1975), a popular television series about a young couple farming their backyard in a London suburb. He played the supporting role of neighbor Jerry Leadbetter. It was the hit comedy series Yes Minister (1980), later called Yes, Prime Minister (1986), in the 1980s that brought him television stardom as the inept politician Jim Hacker. The actor’s performances as an incompetent minister and prime minister were so admired by Margaret Thatcher that she awarded him the honor of Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Despite suffering from skin cancer, he continued to perform on stage and television, concealing his illness, until tabloid press began suggesting he had AIDS.
