Leonard Rossiter made comic self-importance look like hard physical labour, with stiff limbs, rapid speech and a stare that could turn nasty. We rate the precision; the danger was always doing too much.
Fi1m perspective
The arms revolve, the joints seem reluctant to bend, and the words keep coming. Leonard Rossiter's comedy often begins with the effort of getting through a conversation. We rate the precision: rapid speech, mobile features and a hard stare could make a man funny and faintly threatening at once. He was also capable of doing too much, particularly when the physical activity began to compete with the dialogue.
Steptoe and Son, in which he appears as Johnny Spooner, places him in a comedy whose father-and-son quarrels can be funny enough to hurt. Harry H. Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell are the reason we recommend the programme, and Rossiter's contribution should be kept in proportion. The repeated arguments can become wearing. It is a reservation worth remembering when considering his own taste for comic unpleasantness: making someone objectionable is only the beginning of making them funny.
In 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), he plays Dr. Andrei Smyslov for Stanley Kubrick. The exact, unsettling filmmaking earns its slow pace, and we would recommend it even to people who normally leave science fiction alone. Its people can feel remote, however, so this supporting appearance is hardly the place to seek the full force of Rossiter's comedy. It does usefully complicate the familiar picture of him, placing an actor associated with rapid speech and busy limbs inside a film we admire for its patience.
The television leads made that physical agitation the main attraction. As the seedy, obnoxious landlord Rigsby in Rising Damp (1974–78), Rossiter had a character well suited to his ability to put menace into comedy. The title role in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–79) gave him a mid-life crisis to work through instead. These were the parts that made him a major television presence, though the speed and movement are worth watching as carefully as the jokes.
Kubrick also cast him as Captain John Quin in Barry Lyndon (1975). We laughed at the comically staged duel because Quin's haughty foolishness makes the confrontation so ridiculous. Start with Rising Damp for Rossiter at length; try Barry Lyndon for what he could do with a supporting part.
Biography
Leonard Rossiter (21 October 1926 – 5 October 1984) was an English actor. Born in Wavertree, Liverpool, he worked in an insurance office before joining Preston repertory company in his late twenties and making his professional stage debut there.
He appeared in supporting roles in films including Billy Liar (1963), Oliver! (1968) as Mr Sowerberry, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) as Dr Andrei Smyslov, Barry Lyndon (1975) as Captain Quin, and The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) as Superintendent Quinlan. On television he starred as Rupert Rigsby in the sitcom Rising Damp (1974–78) and as Reginald Perrin in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–79). He also featured in a series of Cinzano television commercials with Joan Collins from 1978 to 1983.
