Anthony Booth
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Antony George Booth (born October 9, 1931 in Liverpool, better known as Tony Booth) is an English actor, best known for his role as Mike Rawlins in the BBC series Til Death Us Do Part. His daughter, Cherie, a prominent Queen's Counsel, is married to Prime Minister Tony Blair. His great great grandfather Algernon Sydney Booth was the uncle of John Wilkes Booth, the actor who assassinated Abraham Lincoln.
Booth developed a taste for acting while serving in the armed forces in Paris, where he sired his first daughter, whom he has never met. He spent five years honing his acting skills in repertory theatre, before venturing into films and television in the 1960s. Since then he has worked in all three media. He has played roles in over twenty films, including Priest (1994), Owd Bob (1997) and Treasure Island (1999). He appeared in the popular British television series Coronation Street in 1960 and in an episode of The Avengers, but it was his role as the left-wing son-in-law in Til Death Us Do Part (1965) that brought him recognition. He has made guest appearances in many other television series. He starred alongside Robin Askwith in the Confessions of... series as Signey Noggett between 1974 and 1977. Some of the titles included Confessions of a Driving Instructor, Confessions of a Pop Performer and Confessions from a Holiday Camp. Also appearing were Bill Maynard and Doris Hare. One of his most recent television appearances was playing a tramp named Nobby Stuart in a special two-hander episode of EastEnders, where he acted alongside Shane Richie.
He came from a working-class background and is a strong supporter of the Labour Party. He served as president of Equity, the actors union.
He has been married four times. His first wife was Gale Smith, by whom he had Cherie and Lyndsey, his eldest children. Gale Smith is a devout Roman Catholic and their daughters were raised in her faith after he left the family to be cared for by his long suffering mother Vera. Booth went on to marry former Coronation Street actress Pat Phoenix in 1986, just days before her death from lung cancer, having previously lived together for some years. He then married Nancy Jaeger in 1988. She left him and was granted a divorce in 1996 and Booth then married Stephanie Buckley on the rebound. He has eight daughters, Cherie, Lyndsey, Jenia, Bronwen, Sarah (aka Lauren Booth), Emma, Jo, and Lucy.
Booth nearly burned to death in 1979 when, during a drunken attempt to get into his locked flat, he fell into a drum of paraffin. He spent six months in hospital and needed 26 skin graft operations.
In a rebuke to the British government's treatment of pensioners, Booth has retired to the Republic of Ireland, although many in his family believe his real motives for moving there had to do with avoiding the CSA.
[edit] Memoirs
- Tony Booth, A Labour of Love (1997)
- Tony Booth, What's Left? (2002)
