26 Facts About Warren Mitchell

Warren Mitchell was a BAFTA TV Award winner and twice a Laurence Olivier Award winner.

Warren Mitchell reprised the role in the television sequels Till Death.

Warren Mitchell held both British and Australian citizenship and enjoyed considerable success in stage performances in both countries, winning Olivier Awards in 1979 for Death of a Salesman and in 2004 for The Price.

Warren Mitchell was interested in acting from an early age and attended Gladys Gordon's Academy of Dramatic Arts in Walthamstow from the age of seven.

Warren Mitchell then studied physical chemistry at University College, Oxford, as a Royal Air Force cadet student on a six-month university short course which the armed services sponsored for potential officers.

Warren Mitchell completed his navigator training in Canada just as the Second World War ended.

Richard Burton's description of the acting profession had convinced him that it would be better than completing his chemistry degree and so Warren Mitchell attended RADA for two years, performing in the evening with London's Unity Theatre.

Warren Mitchell had roles in The Avengers in addition to many ITC drama series including: William Tell, The Four Just Men, Sir Francis Drake, Danger Man and as a recurrent guest in The Saint, as in the second episode of the first season, "The Latin Touch" in 1962, depicting an Italian taxi driver.

In 1965, Warren Mitchell was cast in the role for which he became best known, as the Conservative-voting, bigoted cockney West Ham United supporter Alf Garnett in a play for the BBC Comedy Playhouse series, broadcast on 22 July 1965.

Warren Mitchell reprised the role of Alf Garnett in the films Till Death Us Do Part and The Alf Garnett Saga, in the ATV series Till Death.

Warren Mitchell had a long and distinguished career on stage and television.

In 2001, Warren Mitchell appeared in a Christmas Special episode of Last of the Summer Wine, "Potts in Pole Position".

Warren Mitchell was a subject of the television programme This Is Your Life in 1972 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.

On stage, Warren Mitchell received extensive critical acclaim for his performances as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman at the National Theatre directed by Michael Rudman ; Harold Pinter's The Caretaker at the National Theatre; Pinter's The Homecoming at London's Comedy Theatre and Miller's The Price at the Apollo Theatre in 2003.

Warren Mitchell had a number of musical roles in his lengthy career, beginning with the role of Theophile in the original London production of Can-Can and the small role of Crookfinger Jake in The Threepenny Opera.

Warren Mitchell sang briefly in the film Till Death Do Us Part and played Alfred Doolittle on the studio album of My Fair Lady, Music Hall Songs, songs of the First World War, and other recordings such as The Writing's on the Wall, from 1967, on CBS, all in the Alf Garnett persona, were released in LP and 45 rpm single form, too, in Britain and Australia.

In 2008, at the age of 82, Warren Mitchell was performing alongside Ross Gardiner at the Trafalgar Studios, in London's West End, as a retired dry-cleaner in Jeff Baron's portrait of Jewish-American life Visiting Mr Green.

In 1976, Warren Mitchell's one-man show The Thoughts of Chairman Alf won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for best comedy in London's West End.

Warren Mitchell received two Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards: for playing Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and as best supporting actor in a 2003 performance of The Price, by Miller.

Warren Mitchell described himself in an interview as an atheist, but stated that he "enjoy[ed] being Jewish".

Warren Mitchell was a patron of the British Humanist Association.

For over 20 years, Warren Mitchell suffered pain from nerve damage, caused by transverse myelitis, and was a supporter of the Neuropathy Trust.

Warren Mitchell was back on stage a week later, reprising his lauded role as a cantankerous old Jew in Arthur Miller's The Price.

In sharp contrast to his signature Alf Garnett character, who was a staunch Conservative, Warren Mitchell was a socialist and Labour Party supporter.

Warren Mitchell believed that the 2010 Labour Party leadership election had a lack of firebrands.

Warren Mitchell died aged 89, at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London, on 14 November 2015, following a long illness.