BRIAN RIX

(27 January 1924 - 20 August 2016)

Although popular in his day as a farceur, Lord Rix will leave as his legacy his tireless campaigning for the rights of disabled people. He and his wife, actress Elspeth Gray, had a Down’s syndrome daughter, Shelley, the first of their four children. In the 1950s there was no provision for children with that condition but Rix was determined to improve the situation by joining many charities for the mentally handicapped. He worked for Mencap from 1987 and was their president until he died. Before that Brian Rix was mostly known as an actor-manager at London’s Whitehall Theatre from 1950. His successes are part of theatrical history with farces such as Reluctant Heroes, Worm’s Eye View, Dry Rot, Simple Spymen, One For the Pot and Chase Me, Comrade. In 1966 he moved to the Garrick Theatre with a similar repertoire. He also appeared in television adaptations from 1952 until he retired from acting in 1977. Rix was a skilled performer even if some of his productions were hardly subtle affairs but they appealed to a wide audience. He appeared in a few films including Reluctant Heroes (1951), What Every Woman Wants (1954), Up to His Neck (1955), Dry Rot (1956), Not Wanted on Voyage (1957), And the Same to You (1960), The Night We Dropped a Clanger and The Night We Got the Bird (both 1961). Rix was also involved with the Arts Council on arts and disability topics, the support of national, regional and ethnic minority theatres. Other campaigns Rix headed were respite for carers, childcare provision for those with disabilities, pensions for widows and widowers, and he was a founder member of ASH, the anti-smoking lobby. Before he died he expressed a wish to have voluntary euthanasia legalised, 

MICHAEL DARVELL