Leonard Rossiter

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Birthday:

21 October 1926, Liverpool, England, UK

Height:

175 cm

Leonard Rossiter was born on October 21st, 1926 in Liverpool. Unable to afford to go to university, he worked in an insurance office until he was 27, when he joined Preston repertory company and made his professional stage debut in "The Gay Dog". After Preston, he starred in productions at Wolverhampton, Salisbury and The Old Vic Company at Bristol's Theatre Royal. In 1962, he made his first big-screen appearance in A Kind of Loving (1962), followed by other films throughout the 1960s, including Billy Liar (1963) and TV appearances such as Z Cars (1962), The Avengers (1961) and Steptoe and Son (1962). His portrayal of "Adolf Hitler" in the 1969 play, "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui", made him a West End star. His roles as "Rigsby" in Rising Damp (1974) and the title role in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) made him a household name, and his Cinzano commercials with Joan Collins were comic masterpieces. A keen sportsman, he excelled in squash, tennis and football. He was also a connoisseur of fine wines. His busy career came to a tragically premature end on October 5th 1984, just sixteen days short of his 58th birthday. During a performance of Joe Orton's play "Loot", Leonard suffered a heart attack in his dressing room. He was married to actress Gillian Raine and had a daughter, Camilla. Show less «

You get a much greater sense of doing the job more successfully working in the theater ...Theatre is my favorite, I suppose, audiences are v...Show more »

You get a much greater sense of doing the job more successfully working in the theater ...Theatre is my favorite, I suppose, audiences are very important to me. Show less «

Partly because of my lack of interest in history and partly because of an in-built conviction that too much research leads to cranky perform...Show more »

Partly because of my lack of interest in history and partly because of an in-built conviction that too much research leads to cranky performances, I never dug too deeply into the private lives of any historical characters I've attempted - Voltaire, Hitler, Giordano Bruno or Richard III. If the author doesn't achieve his aim between pages 1 and 80 no amount of research by an actor will do it. Show less «

When I worked over there (America) I came to a firm conclusion - we are separated by a mutual language.

It's not that I can't tolerate fools, I can, providing that I don't have to put up with them for too long.