Leonard Rossiter
| Leonard Rossiter | |
|---|---|
Rossiter as Reggie Perrin
|
|
| Born |
21 October 1926 Wavertree, Liverpool, England |
| Died | 5 October 1984 (aged 57) Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1954–1984 |
| Spouse(s) |
Josephine Tewson (1959–61; divorced) Gillian Raine (1972–84; his death); 1 child |
Leonard Rossiter (21 October 1926 – 5 October 1984) was an English actor. He had a long career in the theatre but achieved his greatest fame for his television comedy roles, most notably starring as Rupert Rigsby in the ITV series Rising Damp from 1974 to 1980, as well as a film version, and Reginald Perrin in the BBC's The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin from 1976 to 1979.
Rossiter was born on 21 October 1926 in Wavertree, Liverpool, the second son of Elizabeth (née Howell) and John Rossiter. The family lived over the barber shop owned by his father. He was educated at the Liverpool Collegiate School (1939–46). His ambition was to go to university to read modern languages and become a teacher. However, his father, who served as a voluntary ambulanceman during the Second World War, was killed in an air raid in 1942 and Rossiter had to support his mother. He therefore could not take up the place he had been offered at Liverpool University. Instead he did his National Service as a sergeant, initially in the Intelligence Corps, then in the Army Education Corps, spending much of the time in Germany writing letters home for other soldiers. After being demobbed he worked for six years as an insurance clerk in the claims and accident departments of the Commercial Union Insurance Company.
From childhood he was an apparently unlikely but in fact enthusiastic and capable sportsman in football, cricket, tennis and later squash.
Rossiter 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 that 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 enrol in Preston repertory theatre and became a professional actor at the comparatively late age of 27. He made his professional stage debut in Joseph Colton's The Gay Dog in Preston on 6 September 1954.
...
Wikipedia