Anthony Booth
Encyclopedia
Antony George Booth is an English
actor
, best known for his role as Mike Rawlins in the BBC
series Till Death Us Do Part. His daughter, Cherie, a prominent Queen's Counsel
, is married to former Prime Minister
Tony Blair
. He is a cousin to the Booth family
of 19th-century American actors.
, his mother was of Irish descent. He attended St Edmunds Infant's School and spent a year in hospital as a child with diphtheria
. He then passed the 11 plus examination and attended St. Mary's College, Crosby
where he was awarded a bursary
to cover the cost of his books. Hopes that he could progress to university were dashed when he had to leave school and get a job after his father was badly injured in an industrial accident. He then worked as a clerk in a docklands warehouse and at the United States Consulate in Liverpool, before being called up for national service
with the Royal Corps of Signals
.
in Paris. He spent five years honing his acting skills in repertory theatre, before venturing into films and television in the 1960s. Since then he has worked in all three media. He has played roles in over twenty films, including Priest (1994), Owd Bob (1997) and Treasure Island (1999). He appeared in the popular British television series Coronation Street
in 1960 and in an episode of The Avengers
, but it was his role as the left-wing son-in-law in Til Death Us Do Part
(1965) that brought him recognition. He has made guest appearances in many other television series. He starred alongside Robin Askwith
in the Confessions of... series as Sidney Noggett between 1974 and 1977. Some of the titles included Confessions of a Driving Instructor
, Confessions of a Pop Performer
and Confessions from a Holiday Camp
. Also appearing were Bill Maynard
and Doris Hare
. From 1985-1986, Booth appeared as pub landlord Ted Pilkington in the short-lived ITV soap Albion Market
. In 2001, Booth appeared in several episodes of Family Affairs
playing Barry Hurst, Sadie Hargreaves' brother-in-law. One of his most recent television appearances was playing a tramp named Nobby Stuart in a special two-hander episode of EastEnders
. In 2007, he also played a tramp called Errol Michaels in Emmerdale
in 2007. Both of these characters have played the purpose of a spiritual guide to a down-and-out character, in EastEnders, Alfie Moon
(Shane Richie
) and in Emmerdale, Bob Hope
(Tony Audenshaw
).
In 2009, Booth will reprise the role of Sidney Noggitt for a feature length television special, Confessions Of a Member Of Parliament, alongside co star, Robin Askwith
. Noggitt is now in an old people's home), while brother in law, Timmy Lea (Askwith) is a Conservative Candidate for Scraggs End North. The production was filmed in February 2009 and will be shown on Irish channel RTE.
. He served as president of Equity
, the actors' union.
He has been married four times. Booth nearly burned to death in 1979 when, during a drunken attempt to get into his locked flat, he fell into a drum of paraffin. He spent six months in hospital and needed 26 skin graft operations. Shortly after his release from hospital, he went to visit an 'old flame', Coronation Street
actress Pat Phoenix
. She took him in and nursed him back to full health, and they lived together for 6 years, but eventually, Pat Phoenix's own health was failing; they were married in 1986, just days before her death from lung cancer
.
In a rebuke to the British government's treatment of pensioners, Booth retired to Blacklion
, County Cavan
, in the Republic of Ireland
but has since returned and lived in Broadbottom
, 10 miles east of Manchester. He currently resides in Todmorden
, West Yorkshire. He suffered a stroke in 2010.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, best known for his role as Mike Rawlins in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
series Till Death Us Do Part. His daughter, Cherie, a prominent Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
, is married to former Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
. He is a cousin to the Booth family
Booth family
The Booth family were an English-American theatrical family of the 19th century. It's most famous and well known members were Edwin Booth, one of the leading actors of his day, and John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Abraham Lincoln....
of 19th-century American actors.
Early life
Booth was born into a working class family in Jubilee Road, Liverpool. His father was a merchant seaman during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, his mother was of Irish descent. He attended St Edmunds Infant's School and spent a year in hospital as a child with diphtheria
Diphtheria
Diphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
. He then passed the 11 plus examination and attended St. Mary's College, Crosby
Crosby, Merseyside
Crosby is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, in Merseyside, England. Historically part of Lancashire it is situated north of Bootle, south of Southport, Formby and west of Netherton-History:...
where he was awarded a bursary
Bursary
A bursary is strictly an office for a bursar and his or her staff in a school or college.In modern English usage, the term has become synonymous with "bursary award", a monetary award made by an institution to an individual or a group to assist the development of their education.According to The...
to cover the cost of his books. Hopes that he could progress to university were dashed when he had to leave school and get a job after his father was badly injured in an industrial accident. He then worked as a clerk in a docklands warehouse and at the United States Consulate in Liverpool, before being called up for national service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
with the Royal Corps of Signals
Royal Corps of Signals
The Royal Corps of Signals is one of the combat support arms of the British Army...
.
Acting
Booth developed a taste for acting when posted in the army to SHAPESupreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe is the central command of NATO military forces. It is located at Casteau, north of the Belgian city of Mons...
in Paris. He spent five years honing his acting skills in repertory theatre, before venturing into films and television in the 1960s. Since then he has worked in all three media. He has played roles in over twenty films, including Priest (1994), Owd Bob (1997) and Treasure Island (1999). He appeared in the popular British television series Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
in 1960 and in an episode of The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
, but it was his role as the left-wing son-in-law in Til Death Us Do Part
Til Death Us Do Part
Till Death Us Do Part is a British television sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1965 to 1968, 1970, and from 1972 to 1975. First airing as a Comedy Playhouse pilot, the show aired in seven series until 1975. Six years later, ITV continued the sitcom, calling it Till Death......
(1965) that brought him recognition. He has made guest appearances in many other television series. He starred alongside Robin Askwith
Robin Askwith
Robin Askwith , is an English film actor, most famous for his role as Timmy Lea in the Confessions... sex comedies.-Confessions...:...
in the Confessions of... series as Sidney Noggett between 1974 and 1977. Some of the titles included Confessions of a Driving Instructor
Confessions of a Driving Instructor
Confessions of a Driving Instructor is a 1976 British sex-farce film. This was the third instalment of the Confessions sequence on the erotic adventures of Timothy Lea, based on the novels published under the name by Christopher Wood.-Premise:...
, Confessions of a Pop Performer
Confessions of a Pop Performer
Confessions of a Pop Performer is a 1975 British sex-farce film. This second instalment continues the erotic adventures of Timothy Lea and is based on the novels written under the name by Christopher Wood. In this case, the original novel was called Confessions from the Pop Scene, but was later...
and Confessions from a Holiday Camp
Confessions from a Holiday Camp
Confessions from a Holiday Camp is a 1977 British comedy film. It is the last film in the series which began with Confessions of a Window Cleaner.-Plot:...
. Also appearing were Bill Maynard
Bill Maynard
Walter Frederick George Williams , better known by the stage name Bill Maynard, is an English comedian and actor.-Early life and career:...
and Doris Hare
Doris Hare
Doris Hare MBE was a Welsh actress, best known for her appearances as "Mum" in the popular sitcom On the Buses alongside Reg Varney and Stephen Lewis....
. From 1985-1986, Booth appeared as pub landlord Ted Pilkington in the short-lived ITV soap Albion Market
Albion Market
Albion Market was a short-lived British soap opera, intended as a companion to Coronation Street on ITV.Coronation Street, ITV's perennial soap opera, celebrated its 25th anniversary in December 1985. Granada TV launched Albion Market in August of that year, six months after the BBC's EastEnders...
. In 2001, Booth appeared in several episodes of Family Affairs
Family Affairs
Family Affairs was a British soap opera broadcast on Five, from 1997 to 2005. It was the second programme to be broadcast on the channel on 30 March 1997, the channel's launch night...
playing Barry Hurst, Sadie Hargreaves' brother-in-law. One of his most recent television appearances was playing a tramp named Nobby Stuart in a special two-hander episode of EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
. In 2007, he also played a tramp called Errol Michaels in Emmerdale
Emmerdale
Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
in 2007. Both of these characters have played the purpose of a spiritual guide to a down-and-out character, in EastEnders, Alfie Moon
Alfie Moon
Alfred William "Alfie" Moon is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Shane Richie. He made his first appearance on 21 November 2002, and left on 25 December 2005...
(Shane Richie
Shane Richie
Shane Richie is an English actor, comedian, singer and media personality, known for his portrayal of the character Alfie Moon in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders.-Early life and career beginnings:...
) and in Emmerdale, Bob Hope
Bob Hope (Emmerdale)
Robert Reginald "Bob" Hope is a fictional character in the British ITV soap opera Emmerdale. He is played by Tony Audenshaw.-Character's background:...
(Tony Audenshaw
Tony Audenshaw
Antony Audenshaw is an English actor best known for his role as Bob Hope on the popular ITV1 soap Emmerdale. In 1995 and 1996, he had a brief appearance as PC Ian Coban in the Channel 4 Soap Brookside...
).
In 2009, Booth will reprise the role of Sidney Noggitt for a feature length television special, Confessions Of a Member Of Parliament, alongside co star, Robin Askwith
Robin Askwith
Robin Askwith , is an English film actor, most famous for his role as Timmy Lea in the Confessions... sex comedies.-Confessions...:...
. Noggitt is now in an old people's home), while brother in law, Timmy Lea (Askwith) is a Conservative Candidate for Scraggs End North. The production was filmed in February 2009 and will be shown on Irish channel RTE.
Personal life
From a working-class background, he is a strong supporter of the Labour PartyLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
. He served as president of Equity
British Actors' Equity Association
Equity is the trade union for actors, stage managers and models in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1930 by a group of West End performers....
, the actors' union.
He has been married four times. Booth nearly burned to death in 1979 when, during a drunken attempt to get into his locked flat, he fell into a drum of paraffin. He spent six months in hospital and needed 26 skin graft operations. Shortly after his release from hospital, he went to visit an 'old flame', Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
actress Pat Phoenix
Pat Phoenix
Patricia "Pat" Frederica Phoenix was an English actress who became one of the first sex symbols of British television through her role of Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street.-Early life and career:Born in Ireland to Anna Maria Josephine Noonan and Tom Manfield, but moved to Manchester before...
. She took him in and nursed him back to full health, and they lived together for 6 years, but eventually, Pat Phoenix's own health was failing; they were married in 1986, just days before her death from lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
.
In a rebuke to the British government's treatment of pensioners, Booth retired to Blacklion
Blacklion
Blacklion is a border village in west County Cavan, Ireland. It is situated on the N16 national primary road, just across the border from the County Fermanagh village of Belcoo.- History :The village is within the townland of Tuam...
, County Cavan
County Cavan
County Cavan is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Cavan. Cavan County Council is the local authority for the county...
, in the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
but has since returned and lived in Broadbottom
Broadbottom
Broadbottom is a suburban village within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside in Greater Manchester, England. It lies within the ancient county boundaries of Cheshire, by the River Etherow, on Greater Manchester's border with Derbyshire.-Description:...
, 10 miles east of Manchester. He currently resides in Todmorden
Todmorden
Todmorden is a market town and civil parish, located 17 miles from Manchester, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It forms part of the Upper Calder Valley and has a total population of 14,941....
, West Yorkshire. He suffered a stroke in 2010.
Selected filmography
- SuspectSuspect (1960 film)Suspect is a 1960 British thriller film directed by Roy Boulting and John Boulting. It starred Tony Britton, Virginia Maskell, Ian Bannen, Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasence...
(1960) - Pit of DarknessPit of DarknessPit of Darkness is a 1961 British thriller film, directed by Lance Comfort and starring William Franklyn and Moira Redmond. The film is an amnesia thriller dealing with a man's attempts to piece together a sequence of strange events in which he seems to have been involved during the time of which...
(1961) - The ValiantThe Valiant (1962 film)The Valiant is a 1962 film directed by Roy Ward Baker, and starring John Mills, Ettore Manni, Roberto Risso, Robert Shaw, and Liam Redmond. Based on the Italian manned torpedo attack against two British battleships at the port of Alexandria in December 1941.- See also :*HMS Valiant*Luigi Durand de...
(1962) - Mix Me a PersonMix Me a PersonMix Me a Person is a 1962 British crime drama film directed by Leslie Norman and starring Anne Baxter, Donald Sinden, Adam Faith, Walter Brown and Carole Ann Ford. A young London criminal is faced with a hanging for murdering a policeman...
(1962) - The L-Shaped RoomThe L-Shaped RoomThe L-Shaped Room is a 1962 British drama film, directed by Bryan Forbes, which tells the story of a young French woman, unmarried and pregnant, who moves into a London boarding house, befriending a young man in the building...
(1962) - The Hi-JackersThe Hi-JackersThe Hi-Jackers is a 1963 film directed by Jim O'Connolly. It stars Antony Booth and Jacqueline Ellis.-Cast:* Antony Booth as Terry McKinley* Jacqueline Ellis as Shirley* Derek Francis as Jack Carter* Patrick Cargill as Inspector Grayson...
(1963) - Till Death Us Do PartTill Death Us Do Part (film)Till Death Us Do Part is a 1969 film based on the BBC television series Till Death Us Do Part which aired from 1965 until 1975. The film was directed by Norman Cohen and written by Johnny Speight, the creator of the television version.-Plot:...
(1969) - BranniganBrannigan (film)Brannigan is a British action film set principally in London, directed by Douglas Hickox, and starring John Wayne and Richard Attenborough...
(1975)
Memoirs
- Tony Booth, "Stroll On" (1989)
- Tony Booth, A Labour of Love (1997)
- Tony Booth, What's Left? (2002)