Leonard Rossiter

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Leonard Rossiter (born October 21, 1926 in Liverpool , Merseyside , † October 5, 1984 in London ) was a British actor .

biography

After attending school, Rossiter initially worked as an employee of an insurance company before he began his career as an actor and made his stage debut in 1954 . His hawk-like facial features, combined with expert timing and energetic demeanor, allowed him to portray both a devious villain and a manic comedian.

In 1962 he made his film debut in A Kind of Loving . In the next few years numerous other film roles followed such as Emanuel Shadrack in Billy Liar (Beloved Crazy) (1963) and Barry Lyndon (1975). In 1967 the role of Henry Bridgenoth in the agent comedy Hot Cats followed . In 1968 he played Dr. Andrei Smyslov in 2001: A Space Odyssey and the role of Johnson in Unlucky Otley , in 1974 he took on the role of Brother Weinand in Luther , in 1979 he played the art farther Joseph Pujol in the short film Le Pétomane by Ian MacNaughton . Britannia Hospital , in which he also worked, was shown at the 1982 Cannes International Film Festival . This was later followed by the portrayal of Sir Malcolm Leveridge in water - the film that only had its cinema premiere after his death in 1985.

His most notable roles in stage work include The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui ( 1968-1969 ) and Banana Box (1973), which aired between 1974 and 1978 as a television series under the title Rising Damp and which expanded him in the role of the smirking landowner Rigsby Brought notoriety. For this he received the first Peter Sellers - British Film Award from the daily Evening Standard in 1981 .

His later television roles included the title role in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976-1980), while he was most recently seen in the Theater in Tartuffe (1976) and Loot (1984). In the 1970s , he and Joan Collins starred in a series of slapstick skits for Cinzano Vermouth , which in 2000 was voted # 11 best television commercials by the Sunday Times and Channel 4.

In the BBC - Shakespeare adaptation The Life and Death of King John (1984) by David Giles , he played the leading role of King John.

Rossiter is also one of the honored on the Avenue of Stars in London , the British Walk of Fame .

Filmography (selection)

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literature

personal data
SURNAME Rossiter, Leonard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Liverpool , Merseyside
DATE OF DEATH 5th October 1984
Place of death London