name	John Thaw, CBE
birth name	John Edward Thaw
birth date	January 03, 1942
birth place	Longsight, Manchester, Lancashire, England
death date	February 21, 2002
death place	Luckington, Wiltshire, England
occupation	Actor
years active	1960–2001
spouse	(divorced); 1 child (his death); 2 children }}

John Edward Thaw, CBE (3 January 1942 – 21 February 2002) was an English actor, who appeared in a range of television, stage and cinema roles, his most popular being police and legal dramas such as ''Redcap'', ''The Sweeney'', ''Inspector Morse'' and ''Kavanagh QC''.

Early life[link]

Thaw came from a working class background, having been born in Longsight, Manchester, Lancashire then moved to nearby Gorton to parents John and Dorothy (née Ablott). His father was a long distance lorry driver. He had a difficult childhood as his mother left him when he was seven years old and he didn't see her again until 12 years later. His younger brother, Raymond Stuart "Ray" emigrated to Australia in the mid-1960s.

Thaw grew up in the Burnage area of the city, and attended Ducie Technical High School for Boys. Thaw entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the age of 16, where he was a contemporary of Tom Courtenay.

Career[link]

Soon after leaving RADA he made his stage début in ''A Shred of Evidence'' at the Liverpool Playhouse and was awarded a contract with the theatre. His first film role was a bit part in the 1962 adaptation of ''The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner'' starring Tom Courtenay and he also acted on-stage opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in ''Semi-Detached'' (1962) by David Turner. He appeared in several episodes of the BBC police series ''Z-Cars'' in 1963–64 as a detective constable with an unusual drink problem - he had a glass head, so couldn't take the alcohol so often part of the copper's work. Between 1964 and 1966 he appeared as the central role of hard-nosed military policeman, Sgt John Mann, in two series of the ABC Weekend Television/ITV production ''Redcap''. He was also a guest star in an early episode of ''The Avengers''. In 1967 he appeared in the Granada TV/ITV series, ''Inheritance'', alongside James Bolam and Michael Goodliffe, as well as appearing in TV plays such as ''The Talking Head'' and episodes of series such as ''Budgie'', where he played against type (opposite Adam Faith) as an effeminate failed playwright with a full beard and a Welsh accent.

Thaw will perhaps be best remembered for two roles: the hard-bitten Flying Squad detective Jack Regan in the Thames Television/ITV series (and two films) ''The Sweeney'' (1974 – 1978), which established him as a major star in the United Kingdom, and as the quietly spoken, introspective, well-educated and bitter detective ''Inspector Morse'' (1987 – 1993, with specials from 1995 – 1998 and 2000). Starring alongside Kevin Whately as the put upon Detective Sergeant Lewis, Morse became a cult character—"a cognitive curmudgeon with his love of classical music, his vintage Jaguar and spates of melancholy". Morse became one of the UK's most loved TV series; the final three episodes, shown in 2000, were seen by 18 million people, about one third of the British population. He won "Most Popular Actor" at the 1999 National Television Awards and won two BAFTA awards for his role as Morse.

He subsequently played liberal working class Lancastrian barrister James Kavanagh in ''Kavanagh QC'' (1995 – 1999, and a special in 2001). Thaw also tried his hand at comedy with two sitcoms—''Thick as Thieves'' (London Weekend/ITV, 1974) with Bob Hoskins and ''Home to Roost'' (Yorkshire/ITV, 1985 – 1990). Thaw is best known in America for the Morse series, as well as the BBC series ''A Year in Provence'' with Lindsay Duncan.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Thaw frequently appeared in productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre. He appeared in a number of films, including ''Cry Freedom'', where he portrayed the conservative South African justice minister Jimmy Kruger, for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and ''Chaplin'' alongside Robert Downey Jr. for director Richard Attenborough.

Thaw also appeared in the TV adaptation of the Michelle Magorian book ''Goodnight Mister Tom'' (Carlton Television/ITV). It won "Most Popular Drama" at the National Television Awards, 1999. In September 2006, Thaw was voted by the general public as number 3 in a poll of ''TV's Greatest Stars''.

Personal life[link]

In 1964, Thaw married Sally Alexander (a theatre stage manager), but they divorced four years later. He met actress Sheila Hancock in 1969 on the set of a London comedy ''So What About Love?''. She was married to fellow actor Alexander "Alec" Ross, and after Thaw professed his love to Hancock, she told him that she would not have an affair. After the death of her husband (from oesophageal cancer) in 1971, Thaw and Hancock married on 24 December 1973 in Cirencester, and he remained with her until his death in 2002 (also from oesophageal cancer).

Thaw had three daughters (all of whom are actresses): Abigail "Abs" Thaw from his first marriage, Joanna "Jo" Thaw from his second, and he also adopted Sheila Hancock's daughter Melanie Jane "Ellie" from her first marriage. Melanie legally changed her name from Ross to Thaw.

Thaw was a lifelong supporter of the Labour Party. Thaw was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in March 1993 by Queen Elizabeth II. In September 2006, Thaw was voted by the general public as number 3, after David Jason and Morecambe and Wise, in a poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars for the past 50 years.

Illness and death[link]

A heavy drinker, and a smoker from the age of 12, Thaw was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus in June 2001. He underwent chemotherapy in hope of overcoming the illness, and at first seemed to be responding well to the treatment, but in early January 2002 was told that the cancer had spread.

He died on 21 February 2002, seven weeks after his 60th birthday, the day after he signed a new contract with ITV, and the day before his wife's birthday. At the time of his death he was living at his country home, near the villages of Luckington and Sherston in Wiltshire, and was cremated at Westerleigh Crematorium in South Gloucestershire in a private service. A memorial service was held on 4 September 2002 at St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square, attended by 800 people including Prince Charles and Cherie Blair.

Honours and awards[link]

1989 British Academy Award

1992 British Academy Award

1994 CBE

1998 "Most Popular Actor" - National TV Awards

1998 "Special Recognition Award" - National TV Awards

1999 "Most Popular Actor" - National TV Awards

2001 BAFTA fellowship

Performances[link]

Television series[link]

1961 ''The Younger Generation''

1963–64 "Z-Cars"

1965–66 ''Redcap''

1966–67 ''Inheritance''

1974 ''Thick As Thieves''

1975–78 ''The Sweeney''

1983 ''Mitch''

1985–89 ''Home to Roost''

1987–2000 ''Inspector Morse''

1991 ''Stanley and the Women''

1992 ''A Year in Provence''

1995–2001 ''Kavanagh QC''

1999 ''Plastic Man''

2000 ''Monsignor Renard''

2001 ''The Glass''

TV Films[link]

1961 ''Serjeant Musgrave's Dance''

1963 ''The Lads''

1964 ''I Can Walk Where I Like, Can't I?''

1964 ''The Other Man''

1966 ''The Making of Jericho''

1974 ''Regan''

1978 ''Dinner at the Sporting Club''

1980 ''Drake's Venture''

1984 ''The Life and Death of King John''

1984 ''Killer Waiting''

1985 ''We'll Support You Ever More''

1987 ''The Sign of Four''

1992 ''Bomber Harris''

1993 ''The Mystery of Morse''

1994 ''The Absence of War''

1996 ''Into the Blue"

1998 ''Goodnight Mister Tom''

1999 ''The Waiting Time''

2000 ''The Last Morse''

2000 ''Inspector Morse: Rest in Peace''

2001 ''Hidden Treasure'' / ''Buried Treasure''

Film[link]

1962 ''Nil Carborundum''

1962 ''Smashing Day''

1962 ''The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner''

1963 ''Five to One''

1965 ''Dead Man's Chest''

1968 ''The Bofors Gun''

1970 ''Praise Marx and Pass the Ammunition''

1970 ''The Last Grenade''

1972 ''Dr. Phibes Rises Again''

1976 ''The Sensible Action of Lieutenant Holst''

1977 ''Sweeney!''

1978 ''Sweeney 2''

1981 ''The Grass is Singing''

1987 ''Business As Usual''

1987 ''Cry Freedom'' (aka Biko - Biko Asking for Trouble)

1992 ''Chaplin''

1996 ''Masculine Mesculine''

Stage[link]

1960 ''A Shred of Evidence''

1961 ''The Fire Raisers''

1962 ''Women Beware Women''

1962 ''Semi-Detached'' (with Laurence Olivier)

1964 ''The Father''

1969 ''So What About Love?''

1970 ''Random Happenings in the Hebrides'' by John McGrath

1971 ''The Lady from the Sea''

1973 ''Collaborators''

1976 ''Absurd Person Singular''

1978 ''Night and Day''

1982 ''Serjeant Musgrave's Dance''

1983 ''Twelfth Night''

1983 ''The Time of Your Life''

1983 ''Henry VIII''

1984 ''Pygmalion''

1988 ''All My Sons''

1993 ''The Absence of War'' by David Hare

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

Hancock, Sheila (2004). ''The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw''. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0-7475-7020-2

John Thaw.The Biography.Stafford Hildred and Tim Ewbank.London:Andre Deutsch.ISBN 0 233 99475 0

External links[link]

Category:1942 births Category:2002 deaths Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Category:English television actors Category:English film actors Category:English stage actors Category:Actors from Manchester Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:People from Gorton Category:Deaths from esophageal cancer Category:Inspector Morse Category:Cancer deaths in England

bg:Джон Тоу fr:John Thaw nl:John Thaw no:John Thaw ru:Тоу, Джон simple:John Thaw fi:John Thaw sv:John Thaw

Edward Samuel "Ted" Childs (born 26 December 1934) is a British television producer, screenwriter and director, whose notable works include ''The Sweeney'', ''Kavanagh QC'', ''Soldier Soldier'', ''Making Waves'', ''Inspector Morse'' and its spin-off ''Lewis''. In 2001 he was the recipient of the Harvey Lee award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting at the 2000 Broadcasting Press Guild awards. He quit ''Lewis'' during the production of the second series, citing creative differences.

References[link]

External links[link]

Category:British screenwriters Category:British television directors Category:British television producers Category:Living people Category:1934 births

:''"David Hare" redirects here. For other persons with the same name, see David Hare (disambiguation).''

name	David Hare
birth name	David Hare
birth date	June 05, 1947
birth place	St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, East Sussex
occupation	playwright, screenwriter, director
notableworks	''Plenty''''Pravda''''The Absence of War''''Licking Hitler''''Strapless''''The Blue Room''''Stuff Happens''
spouse	Nicole Farhi
awards	BAFTA, Golden Bear, Olivier Award
portaldisp	}}

Sir David Hare (born 5 June 1947) is an English playwright and theatre and film director.

Early life[link]

Hare was born in St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, East Sussex, the son of Agnes (née Gilmour) and Clifford Hare, a sailor. He was educated at Lancing, an independent school in West Sussex, and at Jesus College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, he was the Hiring Manager on the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club Committee, 1968.

Life and career[link]

Hare worked with the Portable Theatre Company from 1968 - 1971. His first play, ''Slag'', was produced in 1970. He was Resident Dramatist at the Royal Court Theatre, London, from 1970–71, and in 1973 became resident dramatist at the Nottingham Playhouse, a major provincial theatre. In 1975, Hare co-founded the Joint Stock Theatre Company with David Aukin and Max Stafford-Clark. Hare began writing for the National Theatre and in 1978 his play ''Plenty'' was produced at the National Theatre, followed by ''A Map of the World'' in 1983, and ''Pravda'' in 1985, co-written with Howard Brenton. David Hare became the Associate Director of the National Theatre in 1984, and has since seen many of his plays produced, such as his trilogy of plays ''Racing Demon'', ''Murmuring Judges'', and ''The Absence of War''. Hare has also directed many other plays aside from his own works, such as ''The Pleasure Principle'' by Snoo Wilson, ''Weapons of Happiness'' by Howard Brenton, and ''King Lear'' by William Shakespeare for the National Theatre. He is also the author of a collection of lectures on the arts and politics called ''Obedience, Struggle, and Revolt'' (2005).

Hare founded a film company called Greenpoint Films in 1982, and has written screenplays such as ''Plenty'', ''Wetherby'', ''Strapless'', and ''Paris by Night''. In December 2011, it was announced that his monologue ''Wall'' about the Israeli West Bank barrier is being adapted as a live-action/animated documentary by the National Film Board of Canada, directed by Cam Christiansen, to be completed in 2014. Aside from films he has also written teleplays for the BBC such as ''Licking Hitler'', and ''Saigon: The Year of the Cat''.

His career is examined in the Reputations strand on ''TheatreVoice''.

Hare's awards include the BAFTA Award (1979), the New York Drama Critics Circle Award (1983), the Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear (1985), the Olivier Award (1990), and the London Theatre Critics' Award (1990). In 1997, he was a member of the jury at the 47th Berlin International Film Festival. He was knighted in 1998.

Hare is married to the French fashion designer Nicole Farhi.

Plays[link]

''Slag'' (1970)

''The Great Exhibition'' (1972)

''Brassneck'' (1973) (with Howard Brenton)

''Knuckle'' (1974)

''Fanshen'' (1975)

''Teeth 'n' Smiles'' (1975)

''Plenty'' (1978)

''A Map of the World'' (1982)

''Pravda'' (1985) (with Howard Brenton)

''The Bay at Nice, and Wrecked Eggs'' (1986)

''The Secret Rapture'' (1988)

''Racing Demon'' (1990)

''Murmuring Judges'' (1991)

''The Absence of War'' (1993)

''Skylight'' (1995)

''Amy's View'' (1997)

''The Blue Room'' (1998) (adapted from Arthur Schnitzler)

''The Judas Kiss'' (1998)

''Via Dolorosa'' (1998)

''My Zinc Bed'' (2000)

''The Breath of Life'' (2002)

''The Permanent Way'' (2004)

''Stuff Happens'' (2004)

''The Vertical Hour'' (2006)

''Gethsemane'' (2008) ''The Power of Yes'' (2009)

''South Downs'' (2011)

Television and film scripts[link]

''Licking Hitler'' (1978)

''Dreams of Leaving'' (1980)

''Wetherby'' (1985)

''Plenty'' (1985) - based on his play

''Strapless'' (1989)

''Damage'' (1992)

''The Hours'' (2002) - based on the novel by Michael Cunningham

''The Corrections'' (2007) - based on the novel by Jonathan Franzen

''My Zinc Bed'' (2008) - based on his play

''Murder in Samarkand'' (2008) - based on the memoir by Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan

''The Reader'' (2008) - based on the novel by Bernhard Schlink

''Page Eight'' (2011) (also directed)

Directing credits[link]

''Licking Hitler'' for BBC1's Play for Today (1978) (TV film)

''Dreams of Leaving'' for BBC1's Play for Today (1980)

''Wetherby'' (1985)

''Paris by Night'' (1988)

''Strapless'' (1989)

''Paris, May 1919'' (1993) (TV episode)

''The Designated Mourner'', written by Wallace Shawn (1989)

''Heading Home'' (1991) (TV film)

''The Year of Magical Thinking'' (2007) (Broadway play by Joan Didion starring Vanessa Redgrave)

''Page Eight'' (2011) (also wrote)

Bibliography[link]

Books[link]

''Acting Up'' (A diary on his experiences of acting in his own play, the one-man-show on the topic of Israel/Palestine, Via Dolorosa.)

Obedience, Struggle and Revolt (Faber and Faber, 2005)

About Hare by Richard Boon (Faber and Faber, 2006)

Articles[link]

Awards[link]

1979 BAFTA Award (British Academy of Film and Television) for Best Single Play for ''Licking Hitler''

1983 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Play for ''Plenty''

1985 Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear for ''Wetherby''

1990 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play for ''Racing Demon''

1990 London Theatre Critics’ Award for Best Play for ''Racing Demon''

1995 Evening Standard Award for Best Play for ''Pravda''

1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show for ''Via Dolorosa''

2011 PEN/Pinter Prize

References[link]

External links [link]

David Hare Collection, Additional Papers at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin

David Hare - contributor page at ''The New York Review of Books''

Category:1947 births Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:English dramatists and playwrights Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Living people Category:People educated at Lancing College Category:Laurence Olivier Award winners Category:People from Hastings Category:Writers Guild of America Award winners

ar:ديفيد هير ca:David Hare de:David Hare eu:David Hare fr:David Hare it:David Hare ja:デヴィッド・ヘアー sv:David Hare

name	Sir Richard Eyre
birth name	Richard Charles Hastings Eyre
birth date	March 28, 1943
birth place	Barnstaple, Devon, England
occupation	Theatre director
spouse	Sue Birtwistle
awards	Drama Desk AwardsOutstanding Director of a Play Teddy Audience Award2006 ''Notes on a Scandal'' }}

Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre CBE (born 28 March 1943) is an English director of film, theatre, television, and opera.

Biography[link]

Eyre was educated at Sherborne School, an independent school for boys in the market town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset in south-west England, followed by Peterhouse at the University of Cambridge and Lincoln College at the University of Oxford. Eyre became the first President of Rose Bruford College in July 2010. He lives in Brook Green, West London.

Theatre and opera[link]

Eyre was Associate Director at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh from 1967 to 1972. He won STV Awards for the Best Production in Scotland in 1969, 1970 and 1971. He was artistic director of Nottingham Playhouse from 1973-78 where he commissioned and directed many new plays, including Trevor Griffith's ''Comedians''.

Eyre was director of the National Theatre (which became the Royal National Theatre during his time there) between 1987 and 1997, having previously directed a noted revival of ''Guys and Dolls'' for the venue in 1982 with Olivier Award-winner Julia McKenzie and Bob Hoskins. He repeated this production in 1996 with Imelda Staunton and Joanna Riding. His diaries during this time have been published as ''National Service'' and won the 2003 Theatre Book Prize.

Other than ''Guys and Dolls'', his most noted theatre productions are of ''Hamlet'' (twice), with Jonathan Pryce at the Royal Court in 1980 and Daniel Day-Lewis in 1989; ''Richard III'' with Ian McKellen; ''King Lear'' with Ian Holm; Tennessee Williams' ''Night of the Iguana'' and ''Sweet Bird of Youth''; Eduardo Di Filippo's ''Napoli Milionaria'' and ''Le Grande Magia''; ''John Gabriel Borkman'' with Paul Scofield, Vanessa Redgrave and Eileen Atkins; ''Hedda Gabler'' with Eve Best, and numerous new plays by David Hare, Tom Stoppard, Trevor Griffiths, Howard Brenton, Alan Bennett, Christopher Hampton and Nicholas Wright.

Eyre has also directed operas. His debut was the 1994 production of ''La Traviata'' at the Royal Opera House which starred Angela Gheorghiu and was conducted by Sir Georg Solti. This production was televised and has subsequently been released on video and DVD.

He directed the musical ''Mary Poppins'' in London and on Broadway. On 14 February 2007, Eyre's production of Nicholas Wright's ''The Reporter'' premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London. The play explores the social climate in the years before James Mossman's death as well as the reasons for the death itself.

Eyre directed a new production of Bizet's opera ''Carmen'' for the Metropolitan Opera's 2009-2010 season, starring Latvian mezzo soprano Elina Garanca and Roberto Alagna.

Eyre was planning to direct Jon Robin Baitz's stage adaptation of Hollywood legend Robert Evans' memoirs ''The Kid Stays in the Picture'' and its sequel, ''The Fat Lady Sang'', but the project was cancelled by the producer.

His production of Noël Coward's ''Private Lives'' starring Kim Cattrall and Paul Gross opened on Broadway in November 2011 following a run in Toronto.

Television[link]

Eyre worked as both a director and one of the producers of BBC's ''Play for Today'' between 1978 and 1980. He returned to the BBC in 1988 to direct the Falklands War story ''Tumbledown'' (starring Colin Firth), which won him the BAFTA Award for Best Director and the Prix Italia. Eyre served on the board of Governors of the BBC between 1995 and 2003.

Eyre will direct ''Henry IV, Part 1'' and ''Henry IV, Part 2'' for BBC2's Shakespeare Season in 2012.

Film[link]

For film, he directed ''The Ploughman's Lunch'' (written by Ian McEwan) in 1982, which won the Evening Standard Award for Best Film, ''Iris'', a biopic of writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch (starring Judi Dench, Kate Winslet and Jim Broadbent), and ''Stage Beauty''. Most recently, he directed ''Notes on a Scandal'', the film adaptation of the Man Booker Prize-nominated novel by Zoë Heller, and in 2008, ''The Other Man'', an adaptation of a short story by Bernhard Schlink, starring Liam Neeson, Antonio Banderas and Laura Linney.

Writing[link]

Eyre has written adaptations of ''Hedda Gabler'' and of Sartre's ''Les Mains Sales'' as ''The Novice'' for the Almeida Theatre.

A friend of Ian Charleson, whom he directed in acclaimed performances of ''Guys and Dolls'' and ''Hamlet'', Eyre contributed a chapter to the 1990 book, ''For Ian Charleson: A Tribute''.

Awards[link]

He has been the recipient of numerous directing awards including five Olivier Awards. In 1982 he won the Evening Standard Award for Best Director, for ''Guys and Dolls'', and in 1997 for ''King Lear'' and Tom Stoppard's ''Invention of Love''. In 1997 he won an Olivier Lifetime Achievement Award, and awards from The Directors' Guild of Great Britain, The South Bank Show, The Evening Standard and The Critics' Circle. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1992 New Year Honours, and knighted in the 1997 New Year Honours, receiving the honour on 4 March 1997. He became a Patron of the Alzheimer's Research Trust in 2001. He was made an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1998, and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters (honoris causa) by the University of Nottingham on 10 July 2008.

References[link]

External links[link]

Richard Eyre interviewed by Ginny Dougary (2002)

Category:Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Category:Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:BBC Governors Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:English film directors Category:English theatre directors Category:English theatre managers and producers Category:Evening Standard Award for Best Director Category:Fellows of King's College London Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Laurence Olivier Award winners Category:Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:People educated at Sherborne School Category:Opera directors Category:People associated with Rose Bruford College Category:People associated with the University of Nottingham Category:People from Barnstaple Category:Prix Italia Award winners Category:1943 births Category:Living people

ca:Richard Eyre de:Richard Eyre es:Richard Eyre fr:Richard Eyre it:Richard Eyre ja:リチャード・エアー ru:Айр, Ричард fi:Richard Eyre

name	Leonard Rossiter
birth date	October 21, 1926
birth place	Wavertree, Liverpool, England, UK
death date	October 05, 1984
death place	Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London
occupation	Actor
years active	1954–84
spouse	Josephine Tewson (1959–61; divorced)Gillian Raine (1964–84; his death); 1 child}}

Leonard Rossiter (21 October 1926 – 5 October 1984) was an English actor, best known for his roles as Rupert Rigsby, in the British comedy television series ''Rising Damp'' (1974–78), and Reginald Iolanthe Perrin, in ''The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin'' (1976–79). These roles followed a long and distinguished career in the theatre.

Early life and stage work[link]

Rossiter was born in Liverpool, the son of Elizabeth (née Howell) and John Rossiter. He lived over the barber shop which had been owned by his father. He was educated at Liverpool Collegiate Grammar School (1939–46) and it was his ambition to go to university to read modern languages and become a teacher. His father, a voluntary ambulanceman during the Second World War, was killed in an air-raid in 1942. Having thus to support his mother, Rossiter was unable to take up the place he had been offered by Liverpool University. After being demobbed (he had served as a sergeant in the Army Education Corps and spent much of his national service in Germany writing letters home for soldiers), he went to work as an insurance clerk in the claims and accidents department of the Commercial Union Insurance Company for six years.

He joined the Wavertree Community Centre Drama Group and made his first appearance with the Adastra Players in Terence Rattigan's ''Flare Path''. The local critic said he "was particularly outstanding, his one fault being a tendency to speak too fast on one or two occasions". He gave up his insurance job to enroll in Preston repertory theatre and turned professional as an actor at the comparatively late age of 27. He made his stage debut in Joseph Colton's ''The Gay Dog'' in Preston on 6 September 1954, later becoming assistant stage manager. He went on to Wolverhampton and Salisbury repertory companies. In his first nineteen months in the business he played some 75 roles. He said later: "There was no time to discuss the finer points of interpretation. You studied the part, you did it and then you studied the next part. I developed a frightening capacity for learning lines. The plays became like elastoplast, which you just stuck on and then tore off. It was the perfect preparation for rehearsing situation comedy on television at the rate of one episode a week."

1957–58 he played in the musical ''Free as Air'' and then toured in Eugene O'Neill's ''The Iceman Cometh''. He joined the Bristol Old Vic and was there for two years 1959–1961, time he described as 'the bedrock of his career', followed by much other stage work: as Brecht's ''Arturo Ui'', ''The Strange Case of Martin Richter'', ''Disabled'', ''The Heretic'', ''The Caretaker'' and ''Semi-Detached'' (in New York). His performance in Michael Blakemore's stage production of Bertolt Brecht's ''The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui'' in the late 1960s met with critical acclaim.

In 1969 he premiered in the UK in the title role of Brecht's ''The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui''. The part of the petty tyrant was perfectly suited to Rossiter and garnered critical and public acclaim.

Film and television career[link]

He broke into film roles with ''Billy Liar'' in which he plays the title character's boss. This brief role fixed him with audiences as an often flawed and inflexible authority figure – apparently similar to his real-life personality. Through the 1950s and 1960s he established himself as a respected actor in theatre and film, and began to make his presence felt on television, with a semi-regular role as Det-Insp Bamber in the police series ''Z-Cars'', as well as guest roles in series as diverse as ''Steptoe and Son'' ("The Lead Man Cometh", 1964; "The Desperate Hours", 1972) and ''The Avengers'' episode "Dressed to Kill" (1963).

In 1968 he played Mr. Sowerberry in the film version of Lionel Bart's musical ''Oliver!'' and he landed one of the few speaking supporting roles in Stanley Kubrick's ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' as the Russian scientist Smyslov. He worked with Kubrick again, in ''Barry Lyndon'' seven years later. In the same year as ''2001'', he appeared in the prescient BBC TV play ''The Year of the Sex Olympics'' by Nigel Kneale.

In ''Rising Damp'', on ITV, he played Rigsby, the lecherous landlord of a house converted into seedy bedsits, reprising the role from its successful stage version, entitled ''The Banana Box''. While on ''Rising Damp'', he also took the eponymous lead in ''The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin'', adapted by David Nobbs from his own ''Reginald Perrin'' comic novels and aired on the BBC. His performances as Rigsby and Perrin earned him acclaim. He was given a surprise tribute on ''This Is Your Life'' in 1975. In 1979 he appeared in the Galton and Simpson scripted short film ''Le Pétomane''.

From 1979 and into the early 1980s he branched out into advertising, making an advert dressed as a traffic warden for Parker Pens, and notably starring with Joan Collins as her boorish companion in a series of successful and endearing Cinzano commercials. In these adverts the drink would always somehow manage to be spilt down Melissa (Joan Collins)'s cleavage. In the 2000 Channel 4 programme ''The 100 Greatest TV Ads'', Terry Lovelock, the director of several of these commercials, revealed that he found Rossiter difficult to work with, and that he used to jokingly refer to Collins as "The Prop".

In the animated adaptation of ''The Perishers'' he provided the voice for Boot the dog. He reprised Rigsby for a film version of ''Rising Damp'' in 1980 — meaning he had now played the role on stage, TV and film. His last TV role was that of the supermarket manager in the eponymous ''Tripper's Day'', an ITV sitcom. He continued to make a steady stream of cinema appearances, including a role in Lindsay Anderson's dark parable ''Britannia Hospital'' (1982).

He played the title role in the ''BBC Television Shakespeare'' production of ''The Life and Death of King John'' (1984). Rossiter's last film appearance was in ''Water'' (1985).

Writing[link]

He displayed his acid wit in two books: ''The Devil's Bedside Book'' in 1980, a collection of cynical dictionary definitions in the style of Ambrose Bierce's ''The Devil's Dictionary'', and ''The Lowest Form of Wit'' in 1981, a collection of biting bon mots, stinging retorts, and insults divided into six main sections, illustrated with cartoons (by Honeysett) and including a definitive guide and a history of sarcasm.

Personal life[link]

His first marriage was to Josephine Tewson, an actress he had worked with many times in rep in the 1950s and a cousin of actor John Inman; it ended in divorce in 1961.

His second wife was actress Gillian Raine, with whom he had a daughter, Camilla, and to whom he was still married at the time of his death.

Rossiter had met Raine when he played the lead role of Fred Midway in a play called ''Semi-Detached'', directed by Tony Richardson. She was his co-star, playing Hilda Midway. The play opened on Friday 8 June 1962 at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry and ran for a week. At the time Rossiter's marriage with Josephine Tewson was about to break up. During the play's second run at the Belgrade, in September 1963 Leonard and Raine fell in love and moved in together, but they did not marry until 1972.

After his death it was revealed that during the early 1980s he had had an affair with broadcaster Sue MacGregor. However this was not revealed until long afterwards. His wife was unaware of the affair, describing their marriage as "up and down". She received a letter from MacGregor breaking the news that her memoirs, which were about to be published, would include an account of the affair.

Death[link]

Rossiter died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in 1984 while waiting to go onstage at the Lyric Theatre, London, where he was performing in Joe Orton's play, ''Loot''. His funeral took place at St. Mary's Church, The Boltons, London.

Books by Rossiter[link]

Leonard Rossiter, ''Devil's Bedside Book'', Littlehampton: 1980; ISBN 0-600-20105-8.

Filmography[link]

''Oliver

Year !! Title !! Role
1962	A Kind of Loving (film)>A Kind of Loving''	Whymper
1963	''This Sporting Life''
1963	Billy Liar (film)>Billy Liar''
1964	''A Jolly Bad Fellow''
1965	King Rat (film)>King Rat''
1966	Hotel Paradiso (film)>Hotel Paradiso''
1967	''Deadlier Than the Male''
1968	2001: A Space Odyssey (film)>2001: A Space Odyssey''
1968	(film)	Oliver!''	Mr. Sowerberry
1968	Otley (film)>Otley''
1973	Luther (1973 film)>Luther''
1974 to 1980	''Rising Damp''
1975	''Barry Lyndon''
1976	''The Pink Panther Strikes Again''
1976 to 1979	''The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin''
1978	The Losers (TV series)>The Losers''
1982	''Britannia Hospital''
1984	''Tripper's Day''
1985	Water (1985 film)>Water''

References[link]

External links[link]

Performances listed in the Theatre Archive University of Bristol

LeonardRossiter.com: Authorised Web Site

Category:1926 births Category:1984 deaths Category:Actors from Liverpool Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in England Category:English film actors Category:English television actors Category:People educated at Liverpool Collegiate Institution

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