Warren Mitchell
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Warren Mitchell (born 14 January 1926) is an English actor.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Mitchell was born Warren Misel in Stoke Newington, London. He is Jewish.[1] Mitchell joined the RAF in company with his contemporary Richard Burton in 1944 and completed his navigator training just as the war ended.
Mitchell had been reading physics at University College, Oxford. Richard Burton's description of the acting profession convinced him that it would be better than completing his physics degree and so Mitchell attended RADA for two years. In 1951, Mitchell became a professional actor but his big break did not occur until 1965 with the role of Alf Garnett in a Comedy Playhouse play. This was the pilot edition of the series Till Death Us Do Part with Dandy Nichols, Una Stubbs and Anthony Booth (now Tony Blair's father-in-law).
[edit] Career
Mitchell is known for his role as the bigoted Cockney West Ham United F.C. supporter, Alf Garnett in the BBC television sitcom Till Death Us Do Part. He has a long and distinguished career on stage and television. Ironically, his real life persona is quite the opposite, being a left-winger, Jewish, and a staunch supporter of Tottenham Hotspur F.C.. Other small screen roles include performances in Lovejoy, Waking the Dead, Kavanagh QC and Gormenghast.
On stage he received extensive critical acclaim for his performances in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and Harold Pinter's The Caretaker at the National Theatre; and Pinter's The Homecoming and Miller's The Price in the West End.
Even after the cancellation of the Alf Garnett sequel series In Sickness And In Health, Mitchell still played him on a number of occasions. ITV aired a series of mini episodes called A Word With Alf featuring Alf and his friends. When Johnny Speight died in 1998, the series was cancelled at the request of Mitchell saying he no longer wanted to play Alf now that Speight was dead.
[edit] Personal life
Mitchell suffered a stroke in August 2004 and was back on stage a week later performing in Arthur Miller's "The Price", a two-hour play that featured four actors. Mitchell is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.
