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Leonard Rossiter (21 October 1926 – 5 October 1984) was an English actor with a long career in the theatre. His enduring popularity and fame came in particular from playing Rupert Rigsby in the British comedy television series and film ''Rising Damp'' from 1974 to 1980, and Reginald Perrin, in ''The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin'' from 1976 to 1979.〔 ==Early life and stage work== Rossiter was born on 21 October 1926 in Wavertree, Liverpool, the second son of Elizabeth (née Howell) and John Rossiter.〔(Rossiter profile at FilmReference.com )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Leonard Rossiter, Character Driven: review )〕 The family lived over the barber shop owned by his father. He was educated at Liverpool Collegiate Grammar School (1939–46).〔R.Tanitch ''Leonard Rossiter'' p149〕 His ambition was to go to university to read modern languages and become a teacher. However, his father, who served as a voluntary ambulanceman during the Second World War, was killed in an air raid in 1942 and Rossiter had to support his mother. He therefore could not take up the place he had been offered at Liverpool University.〔''Leonard Rossiter'' by Robert Tanitch; ISBN 0-947728-19-8〕 Instead he did his National Service as a sergeant, initially in the Intelligence Corps, then in the Army Education Corps, spending much of the time in Germany writing letters home for other soldiers. After being demobbed he worked for six years as an insurance clerk in the claims and accident departments of the Commercial Union Insurance Company.〔Interview on BBC R4 Desert Island Discs 12 April 1980〕 From childhood he was an apparently unlikely but in fact enthusiastic and capable sportsman in football, cricket, tennis and later squash. Rossiter joined the Wavertree Community Centre Drama Group and made his first appearance with the Adastra Players in Terence Rattigan's ''Flare Path''. The local critic said that he "was particularly outstanding, his one fault being a tendency to speak too fast on one or two occasions".〔Tanitch, p. 8〕 He gave up his insurance job to enrol in Preston repertory theatre and became a professional actor at the comparatively late age of 27. He made his professional stage debut in Joseph Colton's ''The Gay Dog'' in Preston on 6 September 1954. He later became assistant stage manager there, and then went on to Wolverhampton and Salisbury repertory companies. In his first 19 months in the business he played some 75 roles. He said later: "There was no time to discuss the finer points of interpretation. You studied the part, you did it and then you studied the next part. I developed a frightening capacity for learning lines. The plays became like Elastoplast, which you just stuck on and then tore off. It was the perfect preparation for rehearsing situation comedy on television at the rate of one episode a week."〔Tanitch, p. 25〕 In 1957–58 he played in the musical ''Free as Air'' and then toured in Eugene O'Neill's ''The Iceman Cometh''. He joined the Bristol Old Vic and was there for two years, from 1959 to 1961, a time he described as "the bedrock of his career", followed by other stage work, in, among other plays, ''The Strange Case of Martin Richter'', ''Disabled'', ''The Heretic'', ''The Caretaker'' and ''Semi-Detached'' (in New York). His performance in the premiere of Michael Blakemore's stage production of Bertolt Brecht's ''The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui'' in 1969 met with critical acclaim:〔Tanitch, p. 47〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Leonard Rossiter」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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