ANDREW SACHS

Written by Michael Darvell
 

(7 April 1930 - 23 November 2016)

Andrew Sachs

The Berlin-born actor Andrew Sachs will forever be remembered as Manuel, the hapless waiter from Barcelona – “I know nothing!” – in the BBC TV sitcom Fawlty Towers. After studying at Rada for two terms he went into repertory, before making his West End debut in 1958 in the Whitehall farce Simple Spymen, with Brian Rix. His first credited film performance was in The Night We Dropped a Clanger (1959) also with Brian Rix, with whom he worked on various TV shows and in other films. He was in Hitler: The Last Ten Days, and a couple of Pete Walker horror films, Frightmare and House of Mortal Sin. He appeared in Revenge of the Pink Panther, Mel Brooks’ History of the World Part I, Consuming Passions, and played Durdles in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Some of his later film work included roles in Nowhere in Africa (2001, which was nominated for a best foreign language Oscar), Dustin Hoffman’s Quartet (2012), Breaking the Bank (2014) with Kelsey Grammer and, finally, the uncredited role of the Mantel Clock in Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016).

MICHAEL DARVELL

 
Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

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