BAFTA and Olivier Award-winning British actor Warren Mitchell has passed away today aged 89, with his family announcing that, “He has been in poor health for some time, but was cracking jokes to the last.”
After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Mitchell worked steadily throughout the 1950s and early 1960s with roles in the likes of the BBC’s Requiem for a Heavyweight, Manuela, Carry On Cleo and Help!, but his big breakthrough came in 1965 when he was cast as Alf Garnett.
First starting as a Comedy Playhouse pilot, Till Death Us Do Part saw Mitchell earning a BAFTA TV Award for his role as the bigoted cockney. The BBC show ran between 1965 and 1975, and also spawned the feature films Till Death Us Do Part (1969) and The Alf Garnett Saga (1972), before being revived under the title of Till Death… by ITV in 1981. He would then return to the role at the BBC for the follow-up series In Sickness and in Health between 1985 and 1992.
Along with his screen work, Mitchell was an accomplished stage actor, winning Olivier Awards for his performances in Death of a Salesman in 1979 and The Price in 2004.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=lJSdv333_EI
Originally published November 14, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
