Leonard Rossiter

Leonard Rossiter (21 October 1926 – 5 October 1984) was an English actor with a long career in the theatre. His enduring popularity and fame came in particular from playing Rupert Rigsby in the British comedy television series and film Rising Damp from 1974 to 1980, and Reginald Perrin, in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin from 1976 to 1979.

Early life and stage work

Rossiter was born on 21 October 1926 in Wavertree, Liverpool, the second son of Elizabeth (née Howell) and John Rossiter. The family lived over the barber shop owned by his father. He was educated at Liverpool Collegiate Grammar School (1939–46). His ambition was to go to university to read modern languages and become a teacher. However, his father, who served as a voluntary ambulanceman during the Second World War, was killed in an air raid in 1942 and Rossiter had to support his mother. He therefore could not take up the place he had been offered at Liverpool University. Instead he did his National Service as a sergeant, initially in the Intelligence Corps, then in the Army Education Corps, spending much of the time in Germany writing letters home for other soldiers. After being demobbed he worked for six years as an insurance clerk in the claims and accident departments of the Commercial Union Insurance Company.