Arthur Lowe
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| Arthur Lowe | |
|---|---|
 Lowe as Captain George Mainwaring in Dad's Army |
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| Born | 22 September 1915 Hayfield, Derbyshire, England [1] |
| Died | 15 April 1982 (aged 66) Birmingham, England [2] |
| Spouse(s) | Joan Cooper (1948-1982) [3] |
Arthur Lowe (22 September 1915 — 15 April 1982) was a BAFTA Award winning English actor. He was best known for playing Captain George Mainwaring in the popular British sitcom Dad's Army from 1968 until 1977.
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[edit] Early life
Arthur Lowe was born in Hayfield, Derbyshire, the only child of Arthur (1888—1971) and his wife Mary Annie (Nan) née Ford (1885—1981). His father worked for a railway company, in charge of shunting theatrical touring companies around Northern England and the Midlands in special trains.[4] Young Arthur went to Chapel Street Junior School in Chapel Street, Levenshulme, Manchester. Lowe’s original intention was to join the Merchant Navy but this idea was thwarted due to his poor eyesight. Working at an aircraft factory he joined the British Army on the eve of World War II, but not before experiencing his first brush with the acting world by working as a stagehand at the Manchester Palace of Varieties. Lowe served in the Middle East with the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry, and began to take part in shows put on for the troops, which appears to have sparked his desire to act. He left the Army at the end of the war with the rank of Sergeant-Major.
[edit] Early career
Lowe made his debut at the Hulme Hippodrome repertory theatre, Manchester in 1945,[4] where he was paid £5 per week for twice-nightly performances.[5] He worked with various reps around the country and became known for his character roles including parts in the West End musicals Call Me Madam, Pal Joey and The Pajama Game and eventually featured in at least fifty films. He briefly appeared as a reporter at the end of the Ealing comedy film Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).
By the 1960s Lowe had successfully made the transition to television and landed a regular role as draper/lay preacher Leonard Swindley in the Northern drama series Coronation Street (1960-65). So popular was his role with viewers that he was eventually given his own spin off series Pardon the Expression (1966) and its sequel Turn out the Lights (1967).
However, Leonard Swindley was not a role Lowe relished and he longed to move on to other parts. During the months he was not playing Swindley he was busy on stage or making guest roles in other TV series including Z-Cars and The Avengers. He also had prominent parts in the Lindsay Anderson films This Sporting Life (1963), if.... (1968) and multiple roles in O Lucky Man! (1973).
Lowe married Joan Cooper on 10 January 1948. They had met in 1945 when she was his leading lady at Hulme Hippodrome[4][5] and they remained together until his death. Their son Stephen Lowe was born in January 1953.
[edit] Dad's Army
In 1968, Lowe was cast in his most famous role, Captain George Mainwaring in the BBC sitcom Dad's Army. It has often been remarked by his former colleagues that this was the role Lowe played which most resembled himself: pompous and bumbling, although he also successfully played Mainwaring's drunken brother Barry Mainwaring in the 1975 Christmas episode "My Brother and I". He went on to take the character into a radio series, a stage play and a feature length film.
When not involved in Dad's Army Lowe was kept busy with appearances in plays at the National Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre. He continued to appear in films, including Spike Milligan's surreal The Bed Sitting Room, in which he mutates into a parrot, as a drunken butler in The Ruling Class with Peter O'Toole (for which he received great personal acclaim) and a jokey Vincent Price horror movie Theatre of Blood as one of the unfortunate critics.
On television he appeared as a guest performer on The Morecambe and Wise Show, alongside Richard Briers in a series of Ben Travers farces for the BBC, as the pompous Dr Maxwell in the ITV comedy Doctor at Large and Redvers Bokin, a snooty, old-fashioned butler in the short-lived sitcom The Last of the Baskets (1971-72).
Between 1971 and 1973 Lowe joined Dad's Army colleague Ian Lavender on the BBC radio comedy Parsley Sidings. In 1974 he played Mr Micawber in the BBC serial David Copperfield. He employed a multitude of voices on the 1975 BBC animated television series Mr. Men, where he voiced all the characters as well as narrated.
[edit] Later Career
When Dad's Army ended in 1977, Lowe was still very much in demand with starring roles in television programmes such as Bless Me Father with Daniel Abineri (1978-81, as the Irish priest Father Charles Clement Duddleswell) and Potter (1979-80, as busybody Redvers Potter).
He made many television commercials, but his later stage career mainly involved touring the provinces, appearing in plays and pantomimes with his wife, Joan. In 1981 he reprised his role as Captain Mainwaring for the pilot episode of It Sticks Out Half a Mile, a radio sequel to Dad's Army. His last film role was in Lindsay Anderson's Britannia Hospital.
While touring at coastal theatres, accompanied by Joan, he used his distinctive 1885 former steam yacht Amazon as a floating base. He bought Amazon as a houseboat in 1968, but realised her potential and took her back to sea in 1971; this unique vessel is still operating in the Mediterranean today.
[edit] Death
Lowe collapsed of a stroke in his dressing room at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham before a performance of Home at Seven (in which he appeared with wife Joan) on 15 April 1982, having given a live interview on the BBC 1 afternoon show Pebble Mill at One only hours earlier. He died in hospital shortly afterwards, aged 66.
His last sitcom, A J Wentworth, BA was shown posthumously from July to August 1982. His ashes were scattered at Sutton Coldfield Crematorium and a memorial service was held in May 1982 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, attended by his family, former colleagues and many showbiz friends.
Whether it was denial or her strong belief that the show must go on, Joan did not miss a performance and was in Belfast doing the play when Arthur was laid to rest. In fact, there were very few present at the funeral.
An alcoholic, Joan never got over his death, saw little of their old friends and died of stomach cancer in 1989, having spent the last years of her life in retirement in the village of Hayfield, in the house where Arthur had spent his childhood.
[edit] Statue
In December 2007 plans were unveiled for a statue of Lowe to be erected in Thetford, where the outside scenes for Dad's Army were filmed.[6]
[edit] Further reading
Two biographies of Arthur Lowe have been published: Arthur Lowe - Dad's Memory by his son Stephen which was issued in 1997 and more recently Arthur Lowe by Graham Lord in 2002. In 2000 The Unforgettable Arthur Lowe was part of The Unforgettable… series of TV biographies of famous comedy performers.
[edit] Television roles
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1960 to 1965 1965 to 1966 1967 |
Coronation Street Pardon the Expression Turn out the Lights |
Leonard Swindley |
| 1968 to 1977 | Dad's Army | Captain Mainwaring |
| 1971 | Doctor at Large | Dr Maxwell |
| 1971 to 1972 | The Last of the Baskets | Redvers Bodkin |
| 1972 | It's Murder, But Is It Art? | Phineas Drake |
| 1978 | A Car Across the Pass | (Galton & Simpson Playhouse) |
| 1978 to 1981 | Bless Me Father | Father Charles Clement Duddleswell |
| 1979 to 1980 | Potter | Redvers Potter |
| 1982 | A J Wentworth, BA | Arthur James Wentworth, BA |
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Awards
Won
| Year | Award | Category | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | BAFTA Film Awards | Best Supporting Actor | O Lucky Man! | Mr. Duff / Charlie Johnson / Dr. Munda |
Nominated
| Year | Award | Category | TV Show | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | BAFTA TV Awards | Best Actor Role: Captain George Mainwaring |
Dad's Army | Edward Woodward, OBE Callan Role: David Callan |
| 1970 | BAFTA TV Awards | Best Light Entertainment Performance Role: Captain George Mainwaring |
Dad's Army | Eric Morecambe, OBE and Ernie Wise, OBE The Morecambe & Wise Show Role: Themselves |
| 1972 | BAFTA TV Awards | Best Light Entertainment Performance Role: Captain George Mainwaring |
Dad's Army | Eric Morecambe, OBE and Ernie Wise, OBE The Morecambe & Wise Show Role: Themselves |
| 1974 | BAFTA TV Awards | Best Light Entertainment Performance Role: Captain George Mainwaring |
Dad's Army | Stanley Baxter The Stanley Baxter Moving Picture Show Role: Himself |
| 1974 | BAFTA TV Awards | Best Actor Role: Louis Pasteur Role: Wilkins Micawber |
Microbes and Men David Copperfield |
Peter Barkworth Crown Matrimonial Role: Edward VIII |
| 1977 | BAFTA TV Awards | Best Light Entertainment Performance Role: Captain George Mainwaring |
Dad's Army | Ronnie Barker, OBE Porridge and The Two Ronnies Role: Norman Stanley Fletcher and Himself |
[edit] References
- ^ GRO Register of Births: DEC 1915 7b 1413 HAYFIELD - Arthur Lowe, mmn = Ford
- ^ GRO Register of Deaths: JUN 1982 32 0628 BIRMINGHAM - Arthur Lowe, DoB = 22 Sep 1915
- ^ GRO Register of Marriages: MAR 1948 5d 800 MARYLEBONE - Arthur Lowe = Gatehouse or Cooper
- ^ a b c "The Stardom of Suburban Man", Evening News, London, 28 October 1977
- ^ a b "Arthur Lowe - The Proud Father", TV Times, 14-20 October 1978
- ^ Steven Nolan Show Radio Five Live 23:30 GMT, Saturday 1 December 2007
[edit] External links
- Arthur Lowe at the Internet Movie Database
- Arthur Lowe at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
- Performances in the Theatre Archive University of Bristol
- Arthur Lowe at Find a Grave
