Vivian MacKerrell

Vivian Alan James MacKerrell (23 May 1944 – 2 March 1995) was a British actor of the 1960s and 1970s. As a student at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, he shared a house in Albert Street, Camden, London with the musician David Dundas and film director Bruce Robinson, writer and director of Withnail & I (1987). He was the basis for Withnail, a memorable character in British cinema. MacKerrell had only a handful of television and film credits, which included the Play for Today Edna, the Inebriate Woman (1971) and Ghost Story (1974), a horror film which also starred Marianne Faithfull. His career was curtailed by heavy drinking and he suffered a premature death from throat cancer, which Robinson once attributed to MacKerrell drinking lighter fluid . This is portrayed in a notorious scene from Withnail & I; MacKerrell was reputedly unable to see for days after the incident.

Fellow house mate and actor Michael Feast, described MacKerrell as a "Splenetic wastrel of a fop", whilst Robinson has said he was a "Jack of all but a master of none", declaring himself a great actor but doing nothing to prove this. The Withnail creator has also claimed that MacKerrell was the funniest person he has ever met.

A biography of Mackerrell, Vivian and I, by Penzance-based author Colin Bacon was published in 2010.^[1][2]

Acting roles

• Les Misérables - as Marius (1967, BBC1 - four of ten episodes)
• Thirty-Minute Theatre - And Was Invited to Form a Government - as Kevin Croft (1969, BBC2)
• Play for Today - Edna, the Inebriate Woman - as Tramp (1971, BBC1)
• Ghost Story - as Duller (1974)
• Romance with a Double Bass - as Footman (1974, short)

Bibliography

• Vivian and I, Colin Bacon, Quartet Books, 30 Sep 2010, ISBN 0-7043-7194-4

References

External links

• Vivian MacKerrell at IMDb
• Mark Morris, "The Real Withnail" (2002)
• Western Morning News article with photographs of Mackerrell