Consummate character player who began his screen career playing earnest, dependable young Englishmen in films like "The Cruel Sea" (1953). Over the next four decades, Elliott perfected the image of the slightly disreputable, often boozy ex-public school type, expertly playing a succession of rumpled con men, journalists and professors. He won three British Film Awards for his roles in "Trading Places" (1983), "A Private Function" (1984) and "Defence of the Realm" (1985), and earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Julian Sands' slightly shabby academic father in "A Room With a View"