Warren Mitchell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Warren Mitchell, (born Warren Misel, 14 January 1926, Stoke Newington, London) is an English-born actor with Australian citizenship.
Best known for his role as the bigoted Cockney West Ham United F.C. supporter, Alf Garnett in the BBC television sitcom Till Death Us Do Part, Warren Mitchell has a long and distinguished career on stage and television. Ironically, his real life persona is quite the opposite, being a left-winger, Jewish, and a staunch supporter of Tottenham Hotspur F.C..
Mitchell joined the RAF in company with his contemporary Richard Burton in 1944 and completed his navigator training just as the war ended.
Mitchell had been reading physics at University College, Oxford. Richard Burton's description of the acting profession convinced him that it would be better than completing his physics degree and so Mitchell attended RADA for two years. In 1951, Mitchell became a professional actor but his big break did not occur until 1965 with the role of Alf Garnett in a Comedy Playhouse play. This was the pilot edition of the series Till Death Us Do Part with Dandy Nichols, Una Stubbs and Anthony Booth (now Tony Blair's father-in-law).
Other small screen roles include performances in Lovejoy, Waking the Dead and Gormenghast.
On stage he received extensive critical acclaim for his performances in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and Harold Pinter's The Caretaker at the National Theatre; and Pinter's The Homecoming and Miller's The Price in the West End.
Even after the cancellation of In Sickness And In Health, Mitchell played Alf on a number of occasions. ITV aired a series of mini episodes called A Word With Alf featuring Alf and his friends. When Johnny Speight died in 1998, the series was cancelled at the request of Mitchell saying he no longer wanted to play Alf now that Speight was dead.
Warren Mitchell suffered a stroke in August 2004 and was back on stage a week later performing in Arthur Miller's "The Price", a two-hour play that featured four actors.
Warren Mitchell is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.
