John Mortimer, the barrister who was also the creator of Rumpole of the Bailey, giving Australian actor Leo McKern the role of his life, has died.
Mortimer, a Queen's Counsel who fought to gain recognition and publication for the more controversial books of D.H. Lawrence and James Joyce, among others, was also a playwright who tried to expiate the ghost of his domineering father when he wrote eloquently about this brilliant, blind and bitter man in Voyage Round My Father, which was made into a film in 1981 with Laurence Olivier in the lead. Mortimer was 85 years old and had been ill for some time. His memoirs, “Clinging to the Wreckage” (1982), “Murderers and Other Friends: Another Part of Life” (1994) are very funny and observant about the famous, infamous and obscure individuals he knew during his long life.
His obituary can be seen here.
John Mortimer: One more passing...
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moira finnie
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My wife and I love the "Rumpole of the Bailey" series, both the TV show and the stories and novels that inspired them (and went beyond them.) My wife has also read the Leslie Titmuss novels and a few of Mortimer's non-series novels.
As an example of dumb our society is getting, last night I happened to have the PBS Newshour on. (This is an extremely rare occurrence and will not happen again.) The anchor was running through the day's headlines. He mentioned the death of Andrew Wyeth, and then mentioned the death of John Mortimer.
Mortimer, he told us, was most famous for writing about Horace Rumpole, a British barrister with a taste for cigars and high living.
That's what PBS, which aired "Rumpole of the Bailey" in the US, has to say about the show???? That "Rumpole of the Bailey" is all about cigars and high living?
The end is near.
As an example of dumb our society is getting, last night I happened to have the PBS Newshour on. (This is an extremely rare occurrence and will not happen again.) The anchor was running through the day's headlines. He mentioned the death of Andrew Wyeth, and then mentioned the death of John Mortimer.
Mortimer, he told us, was most famous for writing about Horace Rumpole, a British barrister with a taste for cigars and high living.
That's what PBS, which aired "Rumpole of the Bailey" in the US, has to say about the show???? That "Rumpole of the Bailey" is all about cigars and high living?
The end is near.
Moira
It became public knowlege that John Mortimer had a long term affair, which he kept secret with the actress Wendy Craig, who starred in The Servent with James Fox and The Nanny with Bette Davis before becoming queen of the Brit sit-com with Not In Front Of The Children, Mother Makes Three (Then Five) and her classic Butterflies with Geoffrey Palmer. She's now a Matron in 60s set medical soap The Royal., which in its early yrs also starred Ian Charmichael.
Wendy has two sons, one of whom Ross was a product of her affair with John.
John's wife Penelope wrote the novel The Pumkin Eater, which later starred Anne Bancroft and Peter Finch in a movie version
I remember disgraced Tory peer and Politition Jeffrey Archer on a tv review program discussing American legal show LA Law. He said Britain was lucky. America has LA Law and we have Rumploe. I liked Leo Mckern's reference to his wife She who must be obeyed It reminds me of Alistair Sim's sidekick George Cole, who in the 80s referred to his unseen screen wife as Her indoors in Minder.
I recall in Rumpole the supporting cast. Judge Peter Bowles and his wife Patricia Hodge (The Loves Of A She Devil and played Margaret Thatcher on tv in a play about The Falklands War), who were often seen sharing a bath. Also there was old Uncle Tom (who spent his time on the show putting golf balls), as played by Richard Stinker Murdoch, who yrs before was a side-kick of Arhur Askey and starred with him in the The Bandwaggon, a film version of their war time radio show,
John was a regular on David Frost's Sunday morning show Breakfest With Frost with him often reviewing the Sunday papers with a female celebrity, as was the norm.
It became public knowlege that John Mortimer had a long term affair, which he kept secret with the actress Wendy Craig, who starred in The Servent with James Fox and The Nanny with Bette Davis before becoming queen of the Brit sit-com with Not In Front Of The Children, Mother Makes Three (Then Five) and her classic Butterflies with Geoffrey Palmer. She's now a Matron in 60s set medical soap The Royal., which in its early yrs also starred Ian Charmichael.
Wendy has two sons, one of whom Ross was a product of her affair with John.
John's wife Penelope wrote the novel The Pumkin Eater, which later starred Anne Bancroft and Peter Finch in a movie version
I remember disgraced Tory peer and Politition Jeffrey Archer on a tv review program discussing American legal show LA Law. He said Britain was lucky. America has LA Law and we have Rumploe. I liked Leo Mckern's reference to his wife She who must be obeyed It reminds me of Alistair Sim's sidekick George Cole, who in the 80s referred to his unseen screen wife as Her indoors in Minder.
I recall in Rumpole the supporting cast. Judge Peter Bowles and his wife Patricia Hodge (The Loves Of A She Devil and played Margaret Thatcher on tv in a play about The Falklands War), who were often seen sharing a bath. Also there was old Uncle Tom (who spent his time on the show putting golf balls), as played by Richard Stinker Murdoch, who yrs before was a side-kick of Arhur Askey and starred with him in the The Bandwaggon, a film version of their war time radio show,
John was a regular on David Frost's Sunday morning show Breakfest With Frost with him often reviewing the Sunday papers with a female celebrity, as was the norm.