Warren Mitchell

British actor Warren Mitchell's turn as a cantankerous Cockney bigot on the BBC series "Till Death Do Us Part (1966-1975) provided him with a lengthy career on the English stage and in features, and inspired one of the best American sitcoms in television history, "All in the Family" (CBS, 1971-79). Born Warren Misell in the Stoke Newington neighborhood of London, England on January 14, 1928, he was interested in acting from an early age, and studied at a dramatic arts academy in his early adolescence. Mitchell shifted his interest towards chemistry as a student at Oxford, but upon meeting fellow student Richard Burton, he decided to make performing his profession. After completing his training as a navigator with the Royal Air Force shortly before the end of World War II, Mitchell attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art while gaining practical experiences with the Unity Theatre. Roles in radio dramas and comedies led to appearances on television and in feature films like "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" (1961) and Richard Lester's "Help!" (1965) with the Beatles. That same year, he made his first appearance in the role that would make him famous: the bigoted, hypocritical Alf Garnett on "Till Death Do Us Part." Loudmouthed and opinionated, Garnett was frequently at odds with his family and neighbors, who ridiculed him for his wrongheaded tirades; the character became an audience favorite for decades, and earned Mitchell a TV Actor BAFTA in 1967. More significantly, the character and series served as the inspiration for Norman Lear's groundbreaking American sitcom "All in the Family." Mitchell would reprise Garnett numerous times throughout his career, most notably in two feature films, two follow-up series ("Till Death," ATV, 1981, and "In Sickness and in Health, BBC, 1982-85), and an award-winning one-man theatrical production, "The Thoughts of Chairman Alf" in 1976. The popularity of the character never conflicted with other roles, and Mitchell enjoyed a long and fruitful career in British features, television series and on stage, including an Olivier Award-winning turn as Willy Loman in a production of "Death of a Salesman" in 1979. Mitchell reprised Garnett one final time in the ITV series "A Word with Alf" (1997), but requested that the series be cancelled after the death of producer Johnny Speight, who had created the character. Mitchell continued to act in the subsequent decade, netting another Olivier in 2004 for Arthur Miller's "The Price." He suffered a mild stroke during the latter play's theatrical run in 2004, but returned to the show after a week of recuperation. Mitchell made his last screen appearance in the short film "The 10th Man" in 2006, but remained active in theater until 2008; he died after a long illness on November 14, 2015.