Peter Sallis

Peter John Sallis (1 February 1921 – 2 June 2017) was an English actor, known for his work on British television.

Peter John Sallis was born on 1 February 1921 in Twickenham, Middlesex (now in Greater London), the only child of bank manager Harry Sallis (1889–1964) and Dorothy Amea Frances (née Barnard; 1891–1975).

After attending Minchenden Grammar School in Southgate, also in Middlesex (also now Greater London), Sallis went to work in a bank, working on shipping transactions.

After the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the RAF.

He was unable to serve as aircrew because of a serum albumin disorder and was told he might black out at high altitudes.

He became a wireless mechanic instead and went on to teach radio procedures at RAF Cranwell.

Sallis began his career as an amateur actor during his four years with the RAF when one of his students offered him the lead in an amateur production of Noël Coward's Hay Fever.

After his success in the role, he resolved to become an actor after the war, winning a Korda scholarship and training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

He made his first professional appearance on the London stage in September 1946 in a walk-on part in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Scheming Lieutenant (1775).

Sallis then spent three years in repertory theatre before appearing in his first speaking role on the London stage in 1949.

Other roles followed in the 1950s and 1960s including Orson Welles' 1955 production of Moby Dick—Rehearsed.

Sallis appeared in more than a Hundred Films and in more than a Hundred and Forty TV Shows with his first extended television role was as Samuel Pepys in the BBC serial of the same name in 1958.

He appeared in many British films of the 1960s and 1970s including Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), Doctor in Love (1960), The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), The V.I.P.s (1963), Charlie Bubbles (1967), Scream and Scream Again (1969), Taste the Blood of Dracula, Wuthering Heights (1970), The Incredible Sarah (1976) and Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978).

Sallis's film appearances include the Hammer horror films The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) and Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970).

He appeared in Danger Man in the episode "Find and Destroy" (1961) as Gordon.

In his autobiography, Fading into the Limelight, Sallis recounts a later meeting with Welles where he received a mysterious telephone call summoning him to the deserted Gare d'Orsay in Paris where Welles announced he wanted him to dub Hungarian bit-players in his cinema adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Trial (1962).

Sallis wrote that "the episode was Kafka-esque, to coin a phrase".

Sallis appeared in the Hal Prince-produced musical She Loves Me in 1963.

Though not a success it led to him making his Broadway debut the following year.

Prince was producer of a musical based on the work of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes called Baker Street.

Sallis was asked by Prince to take the role of Dr. Watson to Fritz Weaver's Sherlock Holmes.

The show ran for six months on Broadway.

Just before Baker Street ended he was offered the role of Wally in John Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence, which had been played by Arthur Lowe in London with Nicol Williamson reprising the lead role.

The production was troubled with Williamson hitting producer David Merrick with a bottle and walking out before being persuaded to continue.

The show was a minor success and ran for six months in New York, opening at the Belasco Theater before transferring to the Shubert Theater.

He appeared in the BBC Doctor Who story "The Ice Warriors" (1967), playing renegade scientist Elric Penley; and in 1983 was due to play the role of Striker in another Doctor Who serial, "Enlightenment", but had to withdraw.

Later, he was in the first West End production of Cabaret in 1968 opposite Judi Dench.

Sallis reprised his role in the 1968 film adaptation.

Additionally in 1968, he was cast as the well-intentioned Coker in a BBC Radio production of John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids.

He appeared as schoolteacher Mr Gladstone in an episode of the first series of Catweazle in 1970.

He was cast in the BBC comedy series The Culture Vultures (1970), which saw him play stuffy Professor George Hobbs to Leslie Phillips's laid-back rogue Dr Michael Cunningham.

During the production, Phillips was rushed to hospital with an internal haemorrhage and as a result, only five episodes were completed.

Sallis acted alongside Roger Moore and Tony Curtis in an episode of The Persuaders! ("The Long Goodbye", 1971).

He was the voice of Wallace in the Academy Award-winning Wallace and Gromit films and played Norman "Cleggy" Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine from its 1973 inception until the final episode in 2010, making him the only actor to appear in all 295 episodes.

Additionally, he portrayed Norman Clegg's father in the prequel series First of the Summer Wine.

Among his television credits, Sallis appeared in Danger Man, The Avengers, Doctor Who ("The Ice Warriors"), The Persuaders! and The Ghosts of Motley Hall.

He played a priest in the TV film Frankenstein: The True Story (1973), and the following year he played Mr Bonteen in the BBC period drama The Pallisers.

Sallis was cast in a pilot for Comedy Playhouse which became the first episode of Last of the Summer Wine (retrospectively titled "Of Funerals and Fish", 1973), as the unobtrusive lover of a quiet life, Norman Clegg.

The pilot was successful and the BBC commissioned a series.

Sallis had already worked on stage with Michael Bates, who played the self-appointed leader Blamire in the first two series.