Andrew Sachs, who brought laughter and joy to audiences as one of the best parts of Fawlty Towers, and enjoyed a career that spanned decades, has died. He was 86.
Andreas Siegfried Sachs was born in Berlin in April, 1930 and moved with his family to England at the age of eight when his parents fled Germany to escape the Nazis. He studied shipping management at college, but became interested in radio and began to pursue a career in acting, writing and voice-over.
Working as a stage manager in various theatres, he began to win roles and started to audition for TV shows on the BBC, while also landing assignments as a writer. After a couple of uncredited appearances, he made his proper film debut in 1959's The Night We Dropped A Clanger and went on to work on several movies, including the film version of sitcom Are You Being Served?, Revenge Of The Pink Panther, History Of The World: Part 1, Quartet and Run For Your Wife.
But it was TV where he had the most impact, performing on BBC play programmes that led to a vast wealth of guest appearances on shows as varied as The Basil Brush Show, Bergerac, Minder, Coronation Street and EastEnders. He became truly famous for portraying bumbling Spanish waiter Manuel in John Cleese's Fawlty Towers, where he quickly became an audience favourite across the show's two series. "Just heard about Andy Sachs. Very sad. I knew he was having problems with his memory as his wife Melody told me a couple of years ago and I heard very recently that he had been admitted to Denham Hall, but I had no idea that his life was in danger,” Cleese wrote on Twitter. “A very sweet gentle and kind man and a truly great farceur. I first saw him in Habeas Corpus on stage in 1973. I could not have found a better Manuel. Inspired."
Sachs enjoyed success as a voiceover artist and worked on a variety of radio shows, including the Fawlty Towers adaptations. He retired from acting in 2012 after a diagnosis of vascular dementia, and died on November 23. He's survived by Melody Lang, his wife of 56 years, his children and grandchildren.