| Wilfred Brambell |
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| 1912 births | |
| brambell, wilfrid | |
| 1985 deaths | |
| irish film actors | |
| gay actors | |
| irish television actors | |
| people from dublin | |
| brambell, wifrid | |
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On leaving school he worked part-time as a reporter for the Irish Times , part-time as an actor at the Abbey Theatre , Dublin, before becoming a professional actor for the Gate Theatre . In World War II he joined the Forces entertainment organisation ENSA . His television career began during the '' ( 1953 ), as both an old man in a pub and later a prisoner in '' Nineteen Eighty-Four '' ( 1954 ) and as a tramp in '' Quatermass II '' ( 1955 ). All of these roles earned him a reputation for playing old men, though he was only at the time in his forties. It was this ability to play old men that led to his casting in his most famous role, as Albert Steptoe, the irascible father in '' and into the 1970s . There were also two feature film spin-offs, a stage show and an American re-make entitled '' Sanford And Son '', based on the original British scripts. In the latter, Brambell's part was taken by Red Foxx . The success of ''Steptoe and Son'' made Brambell a high profile figure on British television, and earned him the major role of Paul McCartney 's grandfather in The Beatles ' first film, '' A Hard Day's Night ''. A running joke is made throughout the film of his character being "a very clean old man." This is in reference to his on-screen son, Harold, in ''Steptoe and Son'' constantly referring to his father as "you dirty old man!" (In real life too, he was nothing like his ''Steptoe'' persona, being dapper and well-spoken). In 2002, Channel 4 broadcast a documentary film on the off-screen life of Brambell and his relationship with Harry H. Corbett , who played Harold Steptoe in ''Steptoe and Son''. The film revealed that the two men detested each other and were barely on speaking terms outside of takes by the end of the programme's run. In a series almost entirely based around the pair of them with no other regular characters, this made production of the series difficult and stressful. This tension partly related to Brambell's difficult private life. He was Alcoholic , which made him forget his lines and caused other problems both on and off the set. He was also a Homosexual at a time when it was almost impossible for public figures to be openly gay. Brambell was arrested and charged for ' Cottaging ' in the early 1960s and subsequently holidayed annually in Asia. Earlier in his life he had been married, from 1948 to 1955 , to Molly Josephine but the relationship ended after she gave birth to the child of their lodger, Roderick Fisher in 1953 . After the final series of ''Steptoe and Son'' was made in in 1982 . The following year Brambell appeared in Terence Davies ' Film '' Death And Transfiguration '', playing a dying elderly man who finally comes to terms with his homosexuality. Brambell himself died in London less than three years later, of Cancer . He was seventy-two. News of his death received far less attention than that of his co-star, and his funeral was sparsely attended. He left £170,000 to his partner. REFERENCES
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