Who is Warren Mitchell?

Warren Mitchell

Warren Mitchell was born on January 14, 1926 in Stoke Newington, London, England as Warren Misell. He was an actor, known for Till Death Us Do Part (1965), In Sickness and in Health (1985) and Jabberwocky (1977).

Mitchell was born in Stoke Newington, London. His father was a glass and china merchant. He was of Russian Jewish descent and described himself in an interview as an atheist, but also stated that he "enjoyed being Jewish". He was interested in acting from an early age and attended Gladys Gordon's Academy of Dramatic Arts in Walthamstow from the age of seven. He did well at Southgate County School (now Southgate School), a state grammar school at Palmers Green, Middlesex. He then studied physical chemistry at University College, Oxford, for six months. There he met his contemporary, Richard Burton, and together they joined the Royal Air Force in 1944. He completed his navigator training in Canada just as the Second World War ended.

Richard Burton's description of the acting profession had convinced him that it would be better than completing his chemistry degree and so Mitchell attended RADA for two years, performing in the evening with London's Unity Theatre. After a short stint as a DJ on Radio Luxembourg, in 1951, Mitchell became a versatile professional actor with straight and comedy roles on stage, radio, film and television.

His first broadcast was as a regular on the radio show Educating Archie, and this led to appearances in both the radio and television versions of Hancock's Half Hour. By the late '50s, he regularly appeared on television: as Sean Connery's trainer in boxing drama Requiem for a Heavyweight (1957), with Charlie Drake in the sitcom Drake's Progress (BBC, 1957) and a title role in Three 'Tough' Guys (ITV, 1957), in which he played a bungling criminal. He also appeared in several episodes of Armchair Theatre. During the first of these, Underground (1958), one of the lead actors died during the live performance. He also had roles in The Avengers in addition to many ITC drama series including: William Tell, The Four Just Men, Sir Francis Drake, Danger Man and as a recurrent guest in The Saint.

His cinema début was in Guy Hamilton's Manuela (1957), and he began a career of minor roles as sinister foreign agents, assisted by his premature baldness and facility with Eastern European accents. He appeared in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (José Quintero, 1961), Carry On Cleo (1964) and Help! (Richard Lester, 1965) and played leads in All the Way Up (James MacTaggart, 1970), The Chain (Jack Gold, 1984), The Dunera Boys (Ben Lewin, 1985) and Foreign Body (Ronald Neame, 1986).

In 1965, Mitchell was cast in the role for which he became best known, as the Conservative-voting, bigoted cockney West Ham United supporter Alf Garnett in a play for the BBC Comedy Playhouse series, broadcast on 22 July 1965. This was the pilot edition of the long-running series Till Death Us Do Part, with Gretchen Franklin, Una Stubbs and Antony Booth. The part of Mum, played by Franklin, was recast with Dandy Nichols in the role when the programme was commissioned as a series. Mitchell's real life persona was different from Alf Garnett, being Jewish, Labour-voting and a staunch supporter of Tottenham Hotspur. The show ran from 1966 to 1975, in seven series, making a total of 53 episodes.

Mitchell had a long and distinguished career on stage and television. Other small screen roles included a 13-episode series, Men of Affairs with Brian Rix (ITV, 1973–74), based on the West End hit farce Don't Just Lie There, Say Something! There were also performances in 1975 in Play for Today (showing that he could play a serious character role in the episode, Moss), The Sweeney (Thames Television for ITV, 1978), Lovejoy (BBC), Waking the Dead (BBC), Kavanagh QC (Carlton Television for ITV, he played a concentration camp survivor in the episode Ancient History), as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (BBC, 1980) and Gormenghast. In 2001, he appeared in a Christmas Special episode of Last of the Summer Wine, "Potts in Pole Position".

In the early 1970s, Mitchell appeared as a team captain on the television comedy panel game show Jokers Wild, opposite Les Dawson.

He was a subject of the television programme This Is Your Life in 1972 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.

On stage he received extensive critical acclaim for his performances as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman at the National Theatre directed by Michael Rudman (1979, being originally cast in the role by Stephen Barry at the Playhouse in Perth, Australia);[ Harold Pinter's The Caretaker at the National Theatre; Pinter's The Homecoming at London's Comedy Theatre (1991) and Miller's The Price at the Apollo Theatre in 2003.

Mitchell reprised the role of Alf Garnett in the films Till Death Us Do Part (1969) and The Alf Garnett Saga (1972), in the ATV series Till Death... (1981), and in the BBC series In Sickness and in Health (1985–92). He also reprised his role as Alf Garnett in 1983 in the television series The Main Attraction where comedians recreated their famous acts from their past in front of a live and television audience (similar to An Audience with... that began in 1976).

 In 1997 he played the role in An Audience with Alf Garnett. The same year, ITV aired a series of mini-episodes called A Word With Alf, featuring Alf and his friends. All the TV shows and both films were written by Johnny Speight. When Speight died in 1998, the series was cancelled at Mitchell's request.

In 2008, at the age of 82, Mitchell was performing, alongside Ross Gardiner at the Trafalgar Studios, in London's West End, as a retired dry-cleaner in Jeff Baron's portrait of Jewish-American life Visiting Mr. Green.

Mitchell was a patron of the British Humanist Association. In 1951 he married Constance M. Wake, an actress who appeared in early 1960s television dramas such as Maigret. They had three children.

For over twenty years, Mitchell suffered pain from nerve damage, caused by transverse myelitis, and was a supporter of the Neuropathy Trust. He suffered a mild stroke in August 2004. He was back onstage a week later, reprising his lauded role as a cantankerous old Jew in Arthur Miller's The Price.

Mitchell died in Highgate, London, on 14 November 2015 after a long illness, two months before his 90th birthday.

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Who is Angela Douglas?

Angela Douglas

Angela Douglas is without a doubt a very classy actress, who is remembered by million for her "Carry On..." career as well as other character roles.

Absolutely amazing in Carry on Cowboy (1965) as gorgeous, all-singing and trigger happy Annie Oakley, she eventually appeared in four "Carry On..." films and her best performance was probably as "The Princess Jelhi" in Carry On... Up the Khyber (1968).

Her entire "Carry On..." career is one of class not bawdiness, and she is a true heroine from the film's most successful period. She is often seen today in character roles in television and film.
She was happily married to actor Kenneth More for 14 years, after originally meeting him on the set of Some People (1962) in Bristol.

Miss Douglas made an appearance in north Wales in late September 2005 to unveil a plaque dedicated to the filming of Carry On... Up the Khyber (1968). Part of the movie had been shot in Llanberis, north Wales. She was quoted on BBC News saying that she loved appearing in Carry on Cowboy (1965) and Carry On... Up the Khyber (1968) and that they were her favourites.

Douglas started acting as a teenager, joining the Worthing, West Sussex repertory company, before making her West End theatre debut in 1958.
She made her film debut in 1959 with Donald Pleasence in The Shakedown, and then appeared with Tommy Steele in It's All Happening.

She is best remembered for her roles in several Carry On Films in the 1960s, including Carry On Cowboy (1965) as an all-singing and trigger-happy version of Annie Oakley. She then appeared in Carry On Screaming! (1966), Follow That Camel (1967) and Carry On... Up the Khyber (1968). She has, by virtue of this association, appeared on many retrospective and spin-off programmes. Douglas made an appearance in North Wales in September 2005 to unveil a plaque dedicated to the filming of Carry On... Up the Khyber, as part of the movie had been shot in Llanberis.


Her other films have included The Comedy Man, Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World and The Four Feathers.
Her television credits have included The Avengers, The Saint, Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, Jason King and Coronation Street, and Doctor at Large.

After husband Kenneth More was diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease, she put her career on hold after 11 episodes of Oil Strike North. After More's death, she returned in various roles, including Doris Lethbridge-Stewart in Doctor Who (1989) and Peak Practice. In 1996 she played the part of Isobel Trimble in the third series of Cardiac Arrest.

She has since concentrated on a career in journalism and writing, having completed two books.

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Who is Marty Feldman?

Marty Feldman

Marty Feldman was a British comedy writer, comedian, and actor, known for his prominent, misaligned eyes. He starred in several British television comedy series, including At Last the 1948 Show and Marty, the latter of which won two BAFTA awards. He was the first Saturn Award winner for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Young Frankenstein.

Feldman was born on 8 July 1934 in the East End of London, the son of Jewish immigrants from Kiev, Ukraine. He recalled his childhood as "solitary".

Feldman suffered from thyroid disease and developed Graves' ophthalmopathy, causing his eyes to protrude and become misaligned. A childhood injury, a car crash, a boating accident, and reconstructive eye surgery may also have contributed to his appearance. Leaving school at 15, he worked at the Dreamland funfair in Margate, but had dreams of a career as a jazz trumpeter, and performed in the first group in which tenor saxophonist Tubby Hayes was a member. Feldman joked that he was "the world's worst trumpet player." By the age of 20, though, he had decided to pursue a career as a comedian.

Although his early performing career was undistinguished, he became part of a comedy act (Morris, Marty, and Mitch) that made its first television appearance on the BBC series Showcase in April 1955. Later in the decade, Feldman worked on the scripts for Educating Archie in both its radio and television incarnations with Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe.

In 1954, Feldman first met Barry Took while both were working as performers, and with Took he eventually formed an enduring writing partnership which lasted until 1974. They wrote a few episodes of The Army Game (1960) and the bulk of Bootsie and Snudge (1960–62), both situation comedies made by Granada Television for the ITV network. For BBC radio they wrote Round the Horne (1964–67), their best-remembered comedy series, which starred Kenneth Horne and Kenneth Williams. (The last season of Round the Horne in 1968 was written by others.) This work placed Feldman and Took "in the front rank of comedy writers," according to Denis Norden.

Feldman then became the chief writer and script editor on The Frost Report (1966–67). He co-wrote the much-shown "Class" sketch with John Law, in which John Cleese, Ronnie Barker, and Ronnie Corbett faced the audience, with their descending order of height, suggesting their relative social status as upper class (Cleese), middle class (Barker), and working class (Corbett).

The television sketch comedy series At Last the 1948 Show raised Feldman's profile as a performer. The other three participants, (future Pythons, Graham Chapman and John Cleese, and future Goody, Tim Brooke-Taylor) needed a fourth cast member and had Feldman in mind. In a sketch on 1 March 1967, Feldman's character harassed a patient shop assistant (played by Cleese) regarding a series of fictitious books, achieving success with Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying. His character in At Last the 1948 Show was often called Mr Pest, according to John Cleese. Feldman was co-author, along with Cleese, Chapman, and Brooke-Taylor of the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch, which was written for At Last the 1948 Show.

Feldman was given his own series on the BBC called Marty in 1968; it featured Brooke-Taylor, John Junkin, and Roland MacLeod, with Cleese as one of the writers. Feldman won two BAFTA awards. The second series in 1969 was renamed It's Marty.

In 1971, Feldman gave evidence in favour of the defendants in the Oz trial. He would not swear on the Bible, choosing instead to affirm. Throughout his testimony, he mocked the judge after it was implied that he had no religion because he was not Christian. By this time, The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine (1971–72) was in preparation, a TV series co-produced by Associated Television (ATV) and the American Broadcasting Company which was produced at ATV's Elstree Studios, near London. This show lasted for one season.

In 1974, Dennis Main Wilson produced a short BBC sketch series for Feldman titled Marty Back Together Again, – a reference to reports about the star's health, but it never captured the impact of the earlier series. The Marty series proved popular enough with an international audience to launch a film career. His first feature role was in Every Home Should Have One (1970). Feldman spent time in Soho jazz clubs, as he found a parallel between "riffing" in a comedy partnership and the improvisation of jazz.


On film, in Mel Brooks's Young Frankenstein (1974), he was Igor.
Many lines in Young Frankenstein were improvised. Gene Wilder says he had Feldman in mind when he wrote the part. At one point, Dr Frankenstein (Wilder) scolds Igor with the phrase, "Damn your eyes!" Feldman turns to the camera, points to his misaligned eyes with a grin and says, "Too late!"

In 1975, He appeared in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother and Brooks' Silent Movie, as well as directing and starring in The Last Remake of Beau Geste. He guest-starred in the "Arabian Nights" episode of The Muppet Show with several Sesame Street characters, especially Cookie Monster with whom he shared a playful cameo comparing their eyes side by side.

During the course of his career, Feldman recorded one LP, I Feel a Song Going Off (1969), re-released as The Crazy World of Marty Feldman. The songs were written by Denis King, John Junkin, and Bill Solly (a writer for Max Bygraves and The Two Ronnies).
It was re-released as a CD in 2007.

Feldman was married to Lauretta Sullivan from January 1959 until his death in 1982. She died, aged 74, in Studio City, Los Angeles. Feldman's peers have reported, in a number of biographies, that he was highly attractive to women in spite of his unconventional facial appearance.

Politically, Marty Feldman has been described as an "avowed socialist" telling one interviewer "I'm a socialist by conviction, if not by lifestyle" and another "I'm a socialist from way back but in order to pay my back taxes I have to live in America to earn enough money to pay the back tax I owe to the socialist government that I voted in." He joked later that when a Labour cabinet minister said to him "Of course you vote Labour," Feldman replied, "No I don't because I'm a socialist!" However, he generally did not seriously discuss politics in public. An exception was when during a promotional tour for The Last Remake of Beau Geste he denounced Anita Bryant's campaign against homosexuality. He was an atheist.

Feldman died from a heart attack in a hotel room in Mexico City on 2 December 1982 at age 48, during the making of the film Yellowbeard. On the DVD commentary of Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks cites factors that may have contributed to Feldman's death: "He smoked sometimes half-a-carton (5 packs) of cigarettes daily, drank copious amounts of black coffee, and ate a diet rich in eggs and dairy products."
He is buried in Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery near his idol, Buster Keaton, in the Garden of Heritage

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