Andrew Sachs
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| Andrew Sachs | |
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| Born | Andreas Siegfried Sachs 7 April 1930 Berlin, Germany |
| Spouse(s) | Melody Lang |
Andrew Sachs (born Andreas Siegfried Sachs, 7 April 1930) is a German-British actor.
Sachs was born in Berlin, Germany. His family moved to England when he was eight years old to escape the Nazi persecution of Jews.[1]
Sachs is known for his role as Manuel, the Spanish waiter in the sitcom Fawlty Towers (1975 and 1979), and is now frequently heard as a narrator of television and radio documentaries, as well as audio books, including C. S. Lewis's Narnia series. He is married to Melody Lang, who appeared in one episode of Fawlty Towers, "Basil the Rat," as Mrs. Taylor. In 1998 onwards, he was the narrator for Peter Kay's That Peter Kay Thing. His stepson is John Sachs, erstwhile Capital Radio DJ and Gladiators commentator. Andrew's brother Thomas Sachs now resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
From 1984 to 1986, Sachs starred as Father Brown in a BBC Radio series based on the stories of G. K. Chesterton. Sachs performed all the voices in the English-language version of Jan Švankmajer's 1994 film Faust.
Sachs also appeared on many children's TV shows, such as William's Wish Wellingtons, Starhill Ponies and AlfTales. In addition, he has been a narrator on many television documentaries, including ITV's …from Hell series and the Eyewitness videos.
In 2002 and again in 2004, he played Dr. John Watson in two series of original Sherlock Holmes stories for BBC Radio 4, which starred Clive Merrison as the famous consulting detective. These were transmitted as The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and have been released on compact disc and cassette.
On 9 April 2006, Sachs appeared in BBC Radio 4's Classic Serial adaptation of The Code of the Woosters as Jeeves with Marcus Brigstocke as Bertie Wooster.
He has also appeared as a featured guest star in at least two "unusual format" stories for long-running BBC series. In a role reversal to his Fawlty Towers work, he was the hotel manager in the 1977 Are You Being Served? movie. Later, he played "Skagra" in the webcast/audio version of the Doctor Who story Shada, completed by Big Finish Productions.
Sachs has released four singles as Manuel; the first was 'Manuel's Good Food Guide' in 1977, which came in a picture sleeve with Manuel on the cover. Sachs also had a hand in writing (or adapting) the lyrics. This was followed in 1979 by 'O Cheryl' with 'Ode to England' on the B side. This was recorded under the name 'Manuel and Los Por Favors'. Sachs shares the writing credits for the B side with "B. Wade", who also wrote the A side.
In 1981, "Manuel" released a cover version of Joe Dolce's UK number one 'Shaddap You Face' also called 'Shaddap You Face' with 'Waiter, there's a Flea in my Soup' on the B side. Sachs also adapted 'Shaddap You Face' into Spanish, but was prevented from releasing it before Dolce's version by a court injunction. When finally released it, reached 138 in the UK Chart.
Dolce remarked that Manuel's cover version of his single was his third favourite cover version behind an Aboriginal version (which he helped write with an Aboriginal elder) and an Italian version which Dolce describes as "out of this world".
