- Michael Crawford, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, TV, 1973-1978. The young, child-like klutz of a husband had been created for the British prat-falling comic, Norman Wisdom, who passed to Ronnie Barker, who passed to Dudley Moore. What was the BBC thinking? They were all too old and incapable of Crawford’s stunts (sometimes live) as the accident-prone Frank – the rôle that sent him on to Broadway’s Phantom of the Opera.
- Joss Ackland, These Foolish Things, 2006. No, sorry, I’m packing it in – retiring – said Wizzy on reaching 90. Dead at 95, he was Chaplin’s favourite clown – and Albania’s! His were the only Western films allowed in the Communist state.
Birth year: 1915Death year: 2010Other name: Casting Calls: 2