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Warren Mitchell
Life Time
14 January 1926 - 14 November 2015
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He was born on January 14, 1926 in London, to an Orthodox Jewish family who emigrated to Britain from Russia in 1910. His real name is Misell. Michelle spent his childhood in London’s West End, where his grandmother ran a grocery store. In the forties, while serving in the air force, he, like the famous actor Richard Barton, took a six-month course at Exeter College, Oxford University. After the war, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, played in amateur theater, until he made his professional
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He was born on January 14, 1926 in London, to an Orthodox Jewish family who emigrated to Britain from Russia in 1910. His real name is Misell. Michelle spent his childhood in London’s West End, where his grandmother ran a grocery store. In the forties, while serving in the air force, he, like the famous actor Richard Barton, took a six-month course at Exeter College, Oxford University. After the war, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, played in amateur theater, until he made his professional debut in the mid-fifties. At the same time, he changed his name to an Anglicized Mitchell and began acting in films. Looking much older than his years, he often played characters much older than himself. One of his early films was the Ealing studio comedy Old Sailor Bill (1957, dir. Charles Friend) starring Alec Guinness. He can also be seen in small roles in the films "Roman Holiday Mrs. Stone" (1961, dir. Jose Quintero), "Promise Her Something" (1964, dir. Arthur Hiller), "Help!" (1965, dir. Richard Lester, with the participation of the group “The Beatles”) and “The Spy Who Came from the Cold” (1965, dir. Martin Ritt).
He became famous thanks to television – in 1965 he first starred in the comedy series “Until Death Do Us Part”, in which he played the grumpy father of the family Elf Garnett (in the first series the character bore a different surname – Ramsey). It was Elf Garnett, the short-sighted, vociferous, far-right and downright conservative old Cockney, who for years became Mitchell’s most famous role and, to some extent, his alter ego. Set from 1965 to 1968, the series enjoyed such success that it was repeatedly renewed under different titles in the seventies, eighties and nineties, and based on it were made two feature films - "Till death do us part" (1969, Norman Cohen) and "The Saga of Elf Garnett" (1972, dir. Bob Kellett). In addition, throughout the sixties, Mitchell repeatedly appeared in various roles in the super-popular British television series “Avengers”. In 1968, he starred in the comedy thriller Basil Dearden "Assassin's Bureau", in which the main female role was played by the star of "Avengers" - actress Diana Rigg.
During his work on television, Mitchell had to work with some members of the famous troupe "Monty Python" - Michael Palin, Terry Jones and John Cleese, and in 1977 he played Mr. Fishfinger in the eccentric fairy tale "Jabberwaukee" - the debut film of Terry Gilliam, another member of this famous actor. Despite the status of a star of comedy series, Warren Mitchell has repeatedly demonstrated his abilities as a dramatic actor - in 1979 he was nominated for the West End Theatre Society Award (the British equivalent of the American Theatre Award "Tony") for the role of Willie Loman in Arthur Miller's play "The Death of a Salesman", and the next year he again attracted attention in the role of Shylock in the television production of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" (Direct. Jack Gold). In Australia, he continued to play in theatre in classical repertoire plays and starred in several passing films. However, Mitchell always returned to the UK to participate in new television projects or theater productions, and in 2004 was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for his role as Solomon in the play "Price" by Arthur Miller. One of the last successful works in the film by Warren Mitchell was the role of Barkentin in the television film Gormengast (2000), based on the works of writer Mervyn Peake.
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