Peter Wyngarde Peter Wyngarde Peter Wyngarde (23 August 1927 – 15 January 2018) was a British actor best known for playing the character Jason King, a bestselling novelist turned sleuth, in two television series: "Department S" (1969–70) and "Jason King" (1971–72). His flamboyant dress sense and stylish performances led to popular success, and he was considered a style icon in Britain and elsewhere in the early 1970s; Mike Myers credited Wyngarde with inspiring the character Austin Powers. Peter Wyngarde's date and place of birth, his birth name, and his parents' nationalities and occupations are all disputed. According to his own account, he
Jason King (TV series) inspirations (especially his clothes) for Kim Newman's psychic crime fighter and secret agent Richard Jeperson. Wyngarde is said to have been the inspiration for the character of Fireball in the strip of the same name in D.C. Thompson's "Bullet" comic. "The Two Ronnies" performed a sketch entitled 'Jason King', with Ronnie Corbett putting on all the airs and graces of King and Ronnie Barker playing a suspect in a murder investigation, during their third series in 1973. Jason King was also the basis for Jason Bentley, played by Peter Richardson in the "Comic Strip Presents" episode "Detectives on the Edge