Nicholas Smith obit

Are You Being Served? actor Nicholas Smith dies aged 81

He was not on the list.Nicholas Smith, the actor who played store manager Mr Rumbold in the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served?, has died aged 81.

He had been the last surviving member of the original cast.
"It is with great sadness we can confirm that our client passed away yesterday," his agents at Michelle Braidman Associates said.
"He was a lovely man and a terrific actor. He will be much missed by all who knew him."
Mollie Sugden as Mrs Slocombe, Nicholas Smith as store manager Mr Rumbold, and Frank Thornton as Captain Peacock 

Are You Being Served? got more than 20 million viewers
They added that their thoughts were with his family.
Smith's daughter is the actress Catherine Russell, who plays Serena Campbell in Holby City. She tweeted some recent footage of him on YouTube playing his own composition at the piano called The Music Lesson. 

She said: "My dad died. But before he did we got this gem. One of his own compositions."
Smith, who died in hospital on Sunday, had been in hospital for seven weeks following a fall at home.
Are You Being Served? was set in fictitious department store Grace Brothers and ran from 1972 to 1985, often attracting audiences of more than 20 million. Written by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, much of its humour was based on innuendo and slapstick.
It also starred John Inman, Mollie Sugden, Frank Thornton and Wendy Richard alongside Smith, who played Cuthbert "Jug Ears" Rumbold, the manager.
Born in 1934 in Banstead, Surrey, Smith's other TV roles included parts in Doctor Who, The Frost Report, The Saint and The Avengers. 

He played PC Yates in several episodes of the BBC police series Z Cars between 1972-75.
Nicholas Smith as the Vicar, Mike Grady as Barry and Robert Fyfe as Howard
More recently, he was the voice of the eccentric Reverend Clement Hedges in Wallace & Gromit film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). In 2008 he appeared as a vicar in Last of the Summer Wine.

Partial filmography

 

    Partners in Crime (1961) - Pawn Shop Assistant

    Doctor Who (1964, season 2) - Resistant

    Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965) - Fireman (uncredited)

    Salt and Pepper (1968) - Constable

    The Fiction-Makers (1968) - Bishop

    A Walk with Love and Death (1969) - Pilgrim

    The ChampionsProject Zero (1969)-Postmaster.

    The Twelve Chairs (1970) - Actor in Play

    The Canterbury Tales (1972) - Friar

    Baxter! (1973) - 1st Taxi Driver

    Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974) - Death Wish (uncredited)

    The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975) - Hunkston

    Are You Being Served? (1977) - Mr. Rumbold

    What Rats Won't Do (1998) - Chaplain

    The Ghouls (2003)

    Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) - Reverend Clement Hedges (voice), Nominated - Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production

    Every Hidden Thing (2006) - Abel