Goodbye to the great Warren Mitchell.
We knew him mostly from Till Death Do Us Part but if you
were lucky enough to see him on stage there was a rare actor.
Took my mother to see him do Death of a Salesman in London
back in the 1970s. Fabulous performance which went a long way towards
reconciling me to Arthur Miller and his dour works.
She had written him a letter after being bowled over by his
playing Mozart on the clarinet on TV. I think she’d even gotten a reply. So
afterwards I suggested she go round and say hello at the stage door.
Now Mum, despite being theatre mad, had a habit of nodding
off in shows and we were down in the front rows.
Warren Mitchell comes out of the stage door and immediately
says, ‘You’re the woman who was falling asleep down the front!’
Mother mortified but they had a lovely chat.
Alanna Maclean
