Warren Mitchell (born Warren Misell;[1] 14 January 1926– 14 November 2015) was a British actor. He was a BAFTA TV Award winner and twice a Laurence Olivier Award winner.
Mitchell was born and raised in Stoke Newington, London. His father was a glass and china merchant. His family were Russian Jews[3] (originally surnamed "Misell"[4]).
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),[5] a state grammar school at Palmers Green, Middlesex. He then studied physical chemistry at University College, Oxford, as a Royal Air Force cadet student[6] on a six-month university short course which the armed services sponsored for potential officers.[7] There he met his contemporary, Richard Burton, and together they joined the RAF in October 1944.[8] He completed his navigator training in Canada just as the Second World War ended.[9]
His wife, Constance Wake (1928–2017) was a film and TV actress in Behind the Headlines (1956 film), Maigret (1960 TV series) and others.
Career
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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
By the late 1950s, 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.[10] 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, as in the second episode of the first season, "The Latin Touch" in 1962, depicting an Italian taxi driver.[9]
In 1965, Mitchell was cast in the role for which he became best known, as the Conservative-voting, bigoted cockneyWest 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 Anthony Booth. The part of Mum, played by Franklin, was recast with Dandy Nichols in the role when the programme was commissioned as a series.[11] 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 30-minute episodes. While the series aimed to satirise racism, it actually also gained the support of many bigoted racists who perceived Alf as "the voice of reason".[12]
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 character of Alf Garnett was retired at Mitchell's request.
Mitchell had a number of musical roles in his lengthy career, beginning with the role of Theophile in the original London production of Can-Can and the small role of Crookfinger Jake in The Threepenny Opera. He also sang briefly in the film Till Death Do Us Part and played Alfred Doolittle on the studio album of My Fair Lady, Music Hall Songs, songs of the First World War, and other recordings such as The Writing's on the Wall, from 1967, on CBS, all in the Alf Garnett persona, were released in LP and 45 rpm single form, too, in Britain and Australia.
Mitchell described himself in an interview as an atheist, but also stated that he "enjoy[ed] being Jewish".[25] He was a patron of the British Humanist Association.[26] In 1951, he married Constance Wake,[27] an actress who appeared in early 1960s television dramas such as Maigret. They had three children, son Daniel and daughters Rebecca and Anna.[20][28]
For over 20 years, Mitchell suffered pain from nerve damage, caused by transverse myelitis, and was a supporter of the Neuropathy Trust.[29][30][31] 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.[32]
Mitchell died at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London, on 14 November 2015, two months short of his 90th birthday after a long illness.[1][29]
Selected filmography
Films
Five Days (1954) as Laughing Man in Bar (uncredited)
The Shark Net (2003) as Ralph Wheatley (2 episodes)
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