1. Maxwell George Lorimer, known professionally as Max Wall, was an English actor and comedian whose performing career covered music hall, films, television and theatre.
18 Facts About Max Wall
1. 2.
Max Wall was born near the Oval, at 37 Glenshaw Mansions, Brixton Road, Lambeth, London SW9.
3.
Max Wall auditioned for a part with a touring theatre company, and made his stage debut at the age of 14 as Jack in Mother Goose with a travelling pantomime company in Devon and Cornwall featuring George Lacey.
4.
Max Wall became determined not to rely on his father's name, so abbreviated Maxwell to Max, and his stepfather's name Wallace, to Wall.
5.
Max Wall is best remembered for his ludicrously attired and hilariously strutting Professor Wallofski.
6.
Max Wall then joined the Royal Air Force during World War II and served for three years until he was invalided out in 1943.
7.
Max Wall married dancer Marion Pola and the couple had five children.
8.
Max Wall divorced his wife and married Jennifer in 1956.
9.
In 1957 Max Wall experienced mental health issues that affected his work.
10.
Max Wall re-emerged during the 1970s when producers and directors rediscovered his comic talents, along with the expressive power of his tragic clown face and the distinctive sad falling cadences of his voice.
11.
Max Wall secured television appearances and, having attracted Samuel Beckett's attention, he won parts in Waiting for Godot in 1979 and Krapp's Last Tape in 1984.
12.
Max Wall appeared in Crossroads, Coronation Street and what was then Emmerdale Farm.
13.
Max Wall played ex-con Ernie Dodds in Minder in 1982, with George Cole.
14.
Max Wall played one of the inventors in the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and in 1977 he was seen as King Bruno the Questionable in Terry Gilliam's film Jabberwocky.
15.
Max Wall appeared onstage with Dury at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1978, but was poorly received, and said "They only want the walk".
16.
In 1981, Max Wall played "Ernie", a central character in the Minder TV series episode "The Birdman of Wormwood Scrubs".
17.
Max Wall appeared in Thames Television's 1978 twelve-part series Born and Bred as retired music hall legend Tommy Tonsley, trying with various degrees of success, to keep his huge south London family in line.
18.
Max Wall was conveyed by ambulance to Westminster Hospital in an unconscious state, but never regained consciousness, and died there early in the next morning, at the age of 82.