john quarmby (18 june 1929 – 5 april 2019) was an english character actor. he was best known for his roles as mr carnegie in the "fawlty towers" episode "basil the rat" (1979), and as henry tobias in "k-9 and company" (1981). he had roles in tv series such as "z-cars", "softly, softly", "juliet bravo" and "howards' way". he also appeared in the movies "the scarlet pimpernel" (1982), "a christmas carol" (1984) and "thirteen at dinner" (1985).