We regret to report that German-born British actor Andrew Sachs has died at the age of 86. While his death was announced last night, Deadline report Sachs passed away on November 23rd, in a London nursing home.
Active on the stage, as well as both the big and small screens, Sachs is perhaps best known for playing Spanish waiter Manuel in the Fawlty Towers TV show, opposite John Cleese. Only two seasons totaling 12 episodes of the classic comedy series were ever made. Cleese produced the BBC Two sitcom with then-wife Connie Booth, but the couple divorced after the first season ran in 1975. Season two did not air until 1979. US viewers may have caught the sitcom on PBS.
Andrew Sachs Has Died at 86
Here is more on Mr. Sachs, from the BBC:
He was born Andreas Siegfried Sachs on 7 April 1930 in Berlin. His insurance broker father was Jewish while his mother, who worked as a librarian, was a Catholic of part-Austrian ancestry.
Nazism was already on the rise in Germany. His father was arrested by the authorities in 1938, but later released after intervention by a friend in the police.
The incident was enough to persuade the family to flee Germany, and they moved to London.
They lived in several parts of north London, once acting as caretakers in the house of the noted anthropologist, Bronislaw Malinowski. Sachs later recalled being fascinated, at the age of 10, by piles of images of naked women he came across while exploring the house.
He was a keen cinema-goer in his teens and auditioned for Rada but only had enough money to complete two terms. He eventually secured an assistant stage manager’s job at a theatre in Bexhill, East Sussex.
He endured the gruelling routine of rep, performing a play one week while, at the same time, learning lines and rehearsing for a completely different performance the next. Eventually he secured a job as stage manager at the Liverpool Playhouse.
A move to the Globe theatre in London followed, where he was spotted by the producer Brian Rix, who signed him up to appear in his Whitehall Farces. This gave Sachs more stable employment and a base to map out his future career.
A tenacious individual, he bombarded the BBC with material and requests for auditions. He was eventually hired by the Corporation where he wrote scripts, appeared in a number of radio productions and, occasionally, worked in the BBC German section.
His film debut came in the 1959 comedy, The Night They Dropped a Clanger, which also starred Brian Rix and the future first Doctor Who, William Hartnell. He followed this up with a minor part in another Rix film, Nothing Barred.
But despite a steady stream of work his profile remained low. He had a role in a 1962 BBC drama The Six Proud Walkers, and there there were appearances in a number of 1960s TV series, including The Saint.
He appeared in the 1973 film, Hitler: The Last Ten Days, featuring Alec Guinness as the dictator shut up in his bunker. Sachs didn’t miss the irony of a half-Jewish actor playing Walter Wagner, the Nazi lawyer who married Hitler to his mistress Eva Braun shortly before the pair committed suicide.
Sachs encountered John Cleese when both men were working on a series of training films. When Cleese finally managed to persuade the BBC to make Fawlty Towers – Corporation executives were sceptical – Sachs got the part that catapulted him into the public eye.
In addition to playing Manuel, Sachs also voiced the character Skagra in the 2003 Doctor Who: Shada mini-series. His other TV roles include playing Ramsay Clegg on Coronation Street (2009). His final TV series work was on two 2015 episodes of EastEnders, on which he portrayed Cyril Bishop.
John Cleese on Andrew Sachs
Last night, Cleese paid tribute to his former co-star in a series of tweets, writing:
Just heard about Andy Sachs. Very sad…. I knew he was having problems with his memory as his wife Melody told me a couple of years ago and I heard very recently that he had been admitted to Denham Hall, but I had no idea that his life was in danger. A very sweet gentle and kind man and a truly great farceur.I first saw him in Habeas Corpus on stage in 1973. I could not have found a better Manuel. Inspired.”
Just heard about Andy Sachs. Very sad….
I knew he was having problems with his memory as his wife Melody told me a couple of years ago…— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) December 1, 2016
…and I heard very recently that he had been admitted to Denham Hall,but I had no idea that his life was in danger. A very sweet gentle…
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) December 1, 2016
…and kind man and a truly great farceur.I first saw him in Habeas Corpus on stage in 1973.I could not have found a better Manuel. Inspired
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) December 1, 2016
We invite you to remember Andrew Sachs and his career, below.
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