DVD of first series of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin starring Leonard Rossiter

Leonard Rossiter (21 October 1926 – 5 October 1984) was a distinguished English actor, known for his comedy roles in two British television series of the 1970s, and for his roles in two Stanley Kubrick films. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is a novel and British sitcom starring Leonard Rossiter in the title role. ... is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see 5th October (Serbia). ... This article is about the year. ... “UK” redirects here. ... “Kubrick” redirects here. ...

Rossiter was born in Liverpool. He began acting when he picked up a girlfriend from her amateur dramatics class and was challenged to do better when he criticised her and her fellow performers. He soon gave up his job in insurance to enroll in repertory theatre and turn professional as an actor at the comparatively late age of 27. For other uses, see Liverpool (disambiguation). ... Amateur Dramatics is how Community Theater is referred to in the UK. Categories: Theatre stubs ... Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent loss. ... Properly, repertory is a style of a number of repertory companies which rehearsed and performed plays in a fortnight. ...

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 hugely 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) and The Avengers ('Dressed to Kill', 1963). In 1968 he played the supporting role of undertaker Mr Sowerberry in the film version of Lionel Bart's musical Oliver! and further came to wider public notice when he landed one of the few speaking supporting roles in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey as the Russian scientist Smyslov (he was to work with Kubrick again, in Barry Lyndon seven years later). Continuing the science fiction theme, in the same year as 2001, he appeared in the prescient BBC TV play The Year of the Sex Olympics by Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale. Billy Liar is a 1963 film based on the novel by Keith Waterhouse. ... Z-Cars (sometimes written as Z Cars, and always pronounced zed, never zee) was a British television drama series centred around the work of regular beat police officers in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby near Liverpool, in the north-west of England. ... Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two rag and bone men living in Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherds Bush, London. ... The Avengers is a British 1960s television series featuring secret agents in a fantasy 1960s Britain. ... This article is about the vocation of a mortician and the death metal band; for the World Wrestling Entertainment superstar, see The Undertaker. ... Lionel Bart (1930-1999) was a British composer of songs musicals, best known for Oliver! Bart was born Lionel Begleiter in London to Galician Jews, and grew up in Stepney. ... Oliver! is an Academy Award winning film and 1968 musical film directed by Carol Reed and based on the stage musical Oliver!. Both the film and play are based on the famous Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. ... “Kubrick” redirects here. ... Barry Lyndon (1975) is an award-winning period film by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844) by William Makepeace Thackeray. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... The Live-Life Show, the horrific public entertainment depicted in The Year of the Sex Olympics. ... Information Gender Male Age 50s–70s Occupation Rocket scientist Title Professor Children 1 daughter, Paula Relatives 1 granddaughter, Hettie Portrayed by Various Created by Nigel Kneale Professor Bernard Quatermass is a fictional character, originally created by the writer Nigel Kneale for BBC Television. ... Nigel Kneale (born Thomas Nigel Kneale on April 18, 1922 in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England, UK) is a Manx television and film scriptwriter, who has worked mostly in the UK. He is best known for his creation of the character of Professor Bernard Quatermass, who has appeared in three...

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. He returned to the BBC sitcom Steptoe and Son for the 1972 episode 'The Desperate Hours' as an escaped convict, before winning his two leading roles in sitcoms which made him a household name. {{dy justified his choice of form, and from about 1929 on he began to interpret its penchant for contradictions, much as had Eisenstein, in terms of the dialectic. ... The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (original German title: Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui) is a play by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, originally written in 1941. ... For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... A sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. ... Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two rag and bone men living in Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherds Bush, London. ...

In Rising Damp, on ITV, he played Rigsby, the lecherous landlord of a house converted to a block of 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 enormous critical acclaim, including from his co-stars. During this period, he was given a surprise tribute on This Is Your Life in 1975. Rising Damp was a UK television sitcom produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV, first broadcast from 1974 to 1978. ... Independent Television (generally known as ITV, but also as ITV Network) is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority (ITA) to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK. Since 1990 and the Broadcasting... The word lust means sexual desire (this meaning is sometimes metaphorically extended to other forms of desire, e. ... A landlord, is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called the tenant. ... The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is a novel and British sitcom starring Leonard Rossiter in the title role. ... David Gordon Nobbs (born March 13, 1935) is a British comedy writer. ... The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin was a British sitcom starring Leonard Rossiter in the title role. ... This Is Your Life was a television documentary series hosted by its producer, Ralph Edwards. ...

At the same time he starred alongside Joan Collins as her bumbling suitor in a series of successful and endearing Cinzano commercials, in which somehow the drink would be spilled down the female character's dress. 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 had referred to Collins as "The Prop". Joan Henrietta Collins OBE (born May 23, 1933) is a Golden Globe Award winning English actress and bestselling author. ... Cinzano is an Italian brand of sweet vermouth. ... This article is about the British television station. ...

In 1976 he starred in an HTV TV thriller with comedic elements - Machinegunner, in which he played a private detective (given the eponymous nickname because of his relentless knocking) drawn into a conspiracy after accepting an apparently straightforward divorce investigation. ITV Wales & West Ltd (formally and more commonly known as HTV) is the ITV contractor for Wales and the West of England[1]. It is owned by ITV plc. ...

In the animated adaptation of The Perishers he provided the voice for Boot the dog. He reprised Rigsby for a movie version of Rising Damp in 1980 — meaning he had now played the role on stage, TV and film — and his last TV role was that of the eponymous supermarket manager in Tripper's Day, an ITV sitcom which was not up to the standards of the shows he had previously adorned. The Perishers was a British comic strip about a group of urban children and a dog. ... The Perishers was a British comic strip about a group of urban children and a dog. ... Packaged food aisles in a Fred Meyer store in Portland, Oregon A supermarket is a departmentalized self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise. ... Trippers Day was a UK television sitcom produced by Thames Television for ITV. The plot involved Leonard Rossiter as Norman Tripper, a Northern manager assigned to a London supermarket with a problemmatic staff. ... Independent Television (generally known as ITV, but also as ITV Network) is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority (ITA) to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK. Since 1990 and the Broadcasting...

He continued to make a steady stream of cinema appearances, including a role in Lindsay Anderson's dark parable Britannia Hospital (1982). Lindsay Anderson (April 17, 1923 - August 30, 1994), English film and documentary director. ... Britannia Hospital is a cult film by British director Lindsay Anderson, released in 1982. ...

In 1981, Rossiter came out with a book entitled The Lowest Form of Wit. The book was a collection of biting bon mots, stinging retorts, and insults showing Rossiter's acid wit, plus a definitive guide to sarcasm. It was published later as a paperback in 1983. The book is divided into six main sections and illustrated with cartoons, and includes a history of sarcasm. This page lists English translations of several French phrases used in English texts and presumed to be understood by the English reader. ... Sarcasm[1] Mockery, sarcasm is sneering, jesting, or mocking a person, situation or thing. ...

He played the title roles in the BBC Shakespeare production of King John and also in the short film Le Pétomane, the stage name of Josef Pujols who, due to an unusual accident he suffered in youth, was able to take in and expel an almost limitless amount of gas through his anus, an ability he exploited to become for several years the main attraction at the Moulin Rouge. Rossiter's last film appearance was in Water. Shakespeare redirects here. ... The Life and Death of King John is one of the Shakespearean histories, plays written by William Shakespeare and based on the history of England. ... Le Pétomane Le Pétomane was the stage name of the French professional farter and entertainer Joseph Pujol (June 1, 1857 - 1945). ... For other uses, see Moulin Rouge (disambiguation). ... Water is a 1985 film scripted by Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenais, directed by Clement, and starring Michael Caine. ...

Death

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. He left behind his second wife Gillian (he had previously been married to actress Josephine Tewson) and a daughter Camilla. His affair with broadcaster Sue MacGregor was not revealed until long afterwards. Rossiter's death came as a surprise as he was very fit — he played squash, football and tennis regularly — and had been given an 'all clear' by his doctor prior to accepting the role in Loot. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, is a disease of the myocardium (the muscle of the heart) in which a portion of the myocardium is hypertrophied (thickened) without any obvious cause. ... The Lyric Theatre in April 2007 The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Joe Orton Joe Orton (Born: John Kingsley Orton 1 January 1933, Leicester, England. ... Loot has several meanings: Loot is a stage play by Joe Orton; see loot (play). ... Josephine Tewson (born February 26, 1939) is a British actress, best known for her role as Elizabeth Warden in Keeping Up Appearances (1990–1995). ... Sue MacGregor CBE (born Susan Katriona MacGregor in Oxford on August 30, 1941) is a British writer and Broadcaster. ... Squash racquet and ball Players in a glass-backed squash court International Squash Singles Court, as specified by the World Squash Federation Squash is an indoor racquet sport that was formerly called Squash racquets, a reference to the squashable soft ball used in the game (compared with the harder ball... A player (wearing the red kit) has penetrated the defence (in the white kit) and is taking a shot at goal. ... For other uses, see Tennis (disambiguation). ...

Selected Filmography

Year 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... Rising Damp was a UK television sitcom produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV, first broadcast from 1974 to 1978. ... Year 1976 Pick up sticks(MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. ... The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is a novel and British sitcom starring Leonard Rossiter in the title role. ...

External links

Leonard Rossiter at the Internet Movie Database The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ...

• LeonardRossiter.com: His Life and Career