| Al Hunter Ashton | |
|---|---|
| Born | 26 June 1957 Solihull, West Midlands |
| Died | 27 April 2007 (aged 49) High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire |
Al Hunter Ashton (26 June 1957 – 27 April 2007), born Alan Hunter, was an English actor and script writer.
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Al came from a working class background. Born Alan Hunter (he later changed his name by deed poll to Al Hunter), he wrote scripts for his own amusement from the age of 15. He worked in his spare time as a stand-up comedian in clubs for £15 a night but became a stripper on discovering that he could earn the same amount for shedding his clothes every evening. "My stripping routine was actually funnier than my stand-up one," he said.
He acted under the name "Al Ashton", choosing this to ensure he appeared high up in any alphabetical credits. He wrote under the name "Al Hunter". He later combined the two acting and writing under the name "Al Hunter Ashton".
His first professional acting work was with a Theatre In Education company in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, and he was subsequently cast in Willy Russell plays such as Breezeblock Park (at Liverpool Playhouse) and Blood Brothers (at Derby Playhouse). Russell also later commissioned him to write the BBC Schools television play Teaching Matthew (in which Hunter also had a small role as a policeman, 1985), a satire on Russell's own Educating Rita.
Al worked very closely with the Stage 22 School of Arts Network in the UK and upon his death, children from the school made their own version of the Queen hit Only the Good Die Young which was dedicated to him and his three young children.
In April 2007, Al Hunter Ashton died of heart failure at the age of 49. Episode eight Mad Dogs of series five of New Tricks was dedicated to his memory.