Andrew Sachs obit

Andrew Sachs, Manuel from Fawlty Towers, dies aged 86

This article is more than 7 years old

British actor much loved for his role as Manuel was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2012

 He was not on the list.

Andrew Sachs, the actor best known for playing Manuel the bemused Spanish waiter abused by John Cleese’s bullying hotelier in the BBC comedy series Fawlty Towers, has died aged 86.

Cleese led tributes to his co-star, describing him as a “brilliant farceur” and a “sweet, sweet man”.

Sachs’s wife, Melody Lang, revealed that he died in a care home last week after suffering from vascular dementia for four years.

“My heart has been broken every day for a long time,” she said, explaining that she had collapsed while caring for her husband. Nevertheless, she said they were happy, adding that she “never once heard him grumble”.

Sachs, whose father was a Jewish insurance broker, was born in Berlin before his family fled the Nazis to settle in Britain.

He became a household name in Britain as the hapless Manuel in the 1970s sitcom. Worried that he could not do a Spanish accent, Sachs initially wanted to play the role as a German.

But Cleese, who played Basil Fawlty, insisted that the character should be Spanish. He said despite his anxiety Sachs took to the role instantly.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Cleese said: “If you met him you would never think for a moment that he was a comedian, you would think he was a rather cultivated bank manager possibly retired, because he was quite quiet and poised and thoughtful. And then you stuck that moustache on him and he turned into a completely different human being. He was wonderful.”

He added: “He is one of the easiest to work with. Not just in the sense that he was totally agreeable – he was a very nice sweet man – but he was just a brilliant farceur. It was so easy for us to work out all the physical business. Farce is the hardest form of acting.”

Sachs tried to persuade Cleese to stop short of physical violence during rehearsals and the scenes. But he still ended up being frequently hit, often with spoons. He also suffered acid burns from chemicals used to produced smoke in a memorable scene when Manuel’s white waiter’s jacket caught fire in the Fawlty Towers kitchen.

Speaking of his on-screen chemistry with Sachs, Cleese said: “It’s like playing tennis with someone who is exactly as good as you are. And you play with them every week, sometimes he wins and sometimes you win, but somehow there is a rapport. It comes from the very deepest part of ourselves. We never had to work at it, it all happened so easily.”

He said his favourite scene with Sachs was when Manuel and Basil tried to hide a dead hotel guest in a laundry basket.

He said: “I think that was some of our very best physical comedy. Working out all that stuff about getting the body into the basket and then getting it out again. That was so much fun.”

Cleese said he was aware that Sachs had dementia. “I met him about eight or nine months ago. I realised then that although he was there, a very quiet sweet presence, he obviously wasn’t totally present.”

He added: “Very sad. He was a sweet, sweet man. And it’s still a little bit of shock, because, although I knew his memory was not so good, he was very special.”

Earlier, Cleese tweeted a series of tributes to Sachs.

The director of BBC content, Charlotte Moore, also paid tribute to the “wonderful actor”. She added: “He will be fondly remembered for his many appearances across television and radio, not least for making the nation laugh in the classic role of Manuel. He entertained millions across a brilliant career and will be greatly missed.”

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Lang said her husband was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2012. The condition left him in a wheelchair and unable to speak. “It wasn’t all doom and gloom,” she said. “He still worked for two years. We were happy, we were always laughing, we never had a dull moment. He had dementia for four years and we didn’t really notice it at first until the memory started going.

“It didn’t get really bad until quite near the end. I nursed Andrew, I was there for every moment of it. Dementia is the most awful illness. It sneaks in in the night, when you least expect it. It took a long time for Andy’s brain to go. Even about a month before he died, he was sitting in the garden and chatting away.”

She added: “Don’t feel sorry for me because I had the best life with him. I had the best husband and we really loved each other ... We were married for 57 years, we loved each other very deeply and it was a pleasure looking after him. I miss him terribly.”

She said her husband died on 23 November and his family and friends attended his funeral on Wednesday.

And she paid tribute to her husband, saying he was a “very handsome guy” who “always looked gorgeous”. She added: “Everybody says it but it’s true, he’s one of the nicest people I’ve met in my entire life. He’s loved and respected and the public adore him.”

He would go on to play Ramsay Clegg in Coronation Street in 2009 – a year after the scandal in which Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand left the BBC after a prank call to him on the radio about his granddaughter. But he slipped from public life as his illness took hold.

Blackadder actor and comedian Sir Tony Robinson paid tribute to his “true friend”.

Samuel West, whose mother, Prunella Scales, starred alongside Sachs in Fawlty Towers, added: “Creator of one of our most beloved EU migrants. Such warmth and wit; impossible to think of him without smiling.”

The comedy writer and director Edgar Wright said Sachs “spun comic gold as Manuel in Fawlty Towers”.

The Jewish group Jewish Voice criticised the Daily Mail for putting a picture of Andrew Sachs on its front page next to its lead story about a rise in migrant numbers.

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