LOUIS MAHONEY

Written by Michael Darvell
 

(8 September 1938 - 28 June 2020)

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The Gambian-born actor Louis Mahoney, who has died aged 81, arrived in the UK to train as a doctor. Instead he went to the Central School of Speech and Drama in the 1960s and later worked in rep at the Mercury in Colchester before joining the Royal Shakespeare, the National, the Royal Court, the Almeida and the Bridge Theatre companies. From 1962 he was one of the first black actors to appear on television in such series as Public Eye, Danger Man, Dixon of Dock Green, Z-Cars, Doctor Who, Fawlty Towers, Yes, Prime Minister, The Bill and Casualty, etc. His feature film work included Guns at Batasi, The Plague of the Zombies, Praise Marx and Pass the Ammunition, Live and Let Die, The Final Conflict, The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin, Cry Freedom, White Mischief, Shooting Dogs and Captain Phillips. As well as being an actor, Mahoney was an activist in the theatre, a member of the acting profession’s union Equity and its Afro-Asian Committee, and co-creator of the Black Theatre Workshop and the Equity Performers Against Racism group.

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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