1. Leonard Rossiter had a long career in the theatre but achieved his highest profile for his television comedy roles starring as Rupert Rigsby in the ITV series Rising Damp from 1974 to 1978, and Reginald Perrin in the BBC's The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin from 1976 to 1979.
Leonard Rossiter was educated at the Liverpool Collegiate School.
In September 1939, when the Second World War began, Leonard Rossiter was an evacuee, along with his schoolmates, and went to Bangor in north Wales, where he stayed for 18 months.
Leonard Rossiter then had to support his mother, therefore he could not take up the place he had been offered at the University of Liverpool.
Leonard Rossiter started acting after his actress girlfriend challenged him to try it, after he had scoffed at the performances of the amateur group she was in.
Leonard Rossiter joined the Wavertree Community Centre Drama Group and made his first appearance with the Adastra Players in Terence Rattigan's Flare Path.
Leonard Rossiter gave up his insurance job to enrol in Preston repertory theatre and became a professional actor at the age of 27.
Leonard Rossiter made his professional stage debut in Joseph Colton's The Gay Dog in Preston on 6 September 1954.
Leonard Rossiter later became assistant stage manager there, and then went on to Wolverhampton and Salisbury repertory companies.
Leonard Rossiter joined the Bristol Old Vic and was there for two years, from 1959 to 1961, a time he described as "the bedrock of his career", followed by other stage work, in, among other plays, The Strange Case of Martin Richter, Disabled, The Heretic, The Caretaker and Semi-Detached.
Leonard Rossiter soon established himself as a character actor in films and television, as well as on stage.
Leonard Rossiter had guest roles in series as diverse as The Avengers and Steptoe and Son.
Leonard Rossiter worked with Stanley Kubrick again in Barry Lyndon, in the role of Captain John Quin.
Leonard Rossiter appeared opposite Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther Strikes Again as Superintendent Quinlan.
In Rising Damp, on ITV, Leonard Rossiter played Rupert Rigsby, the lecherous landlord of a house converted into shabby bedsits, reprising the role from the successful stage version, The Banana Box.
Leonard Rossiter was given a surprise tribute on This Is Your Life in 1975.
From 1978 to 1983, Leonard Rossiter performed in ten commercials for Cinzano.
The series of adverts was created by film director Alan Parker and, at Leonard Rossiter's suggestion, used an old music hall joke where he spills a drink over his wife, played by Joan Collins.
Leonard Rossiter reprised Rigsby for a film version of Rising Damp in 1980, thus achieving the distinction of playing the same role on stage, television, and film.
Leonard Rossiter continued to make a steady stream of film appearances, including a role in Lindsay Anderson's Britannia Hospital.
Leonard Rossiter performed comic monologues in The Green Tie on the Little Yellow Dog, which was recorded 1982, and broadcast by Channel 4 in 1983.
Leonard Rossiter played the title role in the BBC Television Shakespeare production of The Life and Death of King John.
Leonard Rossiter narrated an abridged version of the Charles Dickens book A Christmas Carol, which was released on cassette in 1979.
Leonard Rossiter appeared on the BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs in 1980.
Leonard Rossiter narrated a three-part series of the children's story Harlequin and Columbine for Story Teller magazine in 1984.
Leonard Rossiter voiced the King of Hearts in two episodes of Anglia Television's version of Alice In Wonderland, which was broadcast in April 1985, six months after Rossiter's death.
Leonard Rossiter wrote the introduction to cook Keith Floyd's 1981 book Floyd's Food.
Leonard Rossiter had met Raine when he played the lead role of Fred Midway in David Turner's play Semi-Detached, in a production directed by Tony Richardson.
Leonard Rossiter was a wine connoisseur, and converted his attic into a sort of wine cellar.
Leonard Rossiter's wife had not been aware of the affair until she received a letter from MacGregor breaking the news that her memoirs, which were about to be published, would include an account of the affair.
On 5 October 1984, Leonard Rossiter died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy while waiting to go onstage at the Lyric Theatre, London, where he was performing in Joe Orton's play Loot.
Leonard Rossiter's funeral took place at St Mary's Church, The Boltons, London.
Leonard Rossiter was posthumously nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for "Comedy Performance of the Year", for his role as Inspector Truscott in Loot.