Maxwell George Lorimer (12 March 1908 – 21 May 1990), known professionally as Max Wall, was an English actor and comedian whose performing career covered music hall, films, television and theatre.
Early years
Wall was born Maxwell George Lorimer, son of the successful music hall entertainer Jack (Jock) Lorimer, a Scottish comedy actor from Forres, known for his songs and dancing, and his wife Stella (born Maud Clara Mitchison). He was born near the Oval, at 37 Glenshaw Mansions, Brixton Road, Lambeth, London SW9. In 1916, during a World War I air raid, Max and his elder brother Alex were saved from death by a cast-iron bed frame, but his younger brother Bunty and their Aunt Betty, who was looking after them, were killed by a bomb dropped from a German Zeppelin which also destroyed their house.
Max and Alex went to live with their father and his family, whilst their mother went to live with Harry Wallace, whom she had met on tour. When their father died of tuberculosis in 1920, aged 37, their mother married Harry Wallace, and they all moved to a pub in Essex.
Career
Early career
Wall auditioned for a part with a touring theatre company, and made his stage début at the age of 14 as Jack in Mother Goose with a travelling pantomime company in Devon and Cornwall featuring George Lacey. In 1925 he was a speciality dancer in the London Revue at the Lyceum. He became determined not to rely on his father's name, so he abbreviated Maxwell to Max, and his stepfather's name Wallace, to Wall.
He is best remembered for his ludicrously attired and hilariously strutting Professor Wallofski. John Cleese has acknowledged Wall's influence on his own "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch for Monty Python's Flying Circus. After appearing in many musicals and stage comedies in the 1930s, Wall's career went into decline, and he was reduced to working in obscure nightclubs. He then joined the Royal Air Force during World War II and served for three years until he was invalided out in 1943. and in 1972 he toured with Mott the Hoople on their "Rock n' Roll Circus Tour", gaining a new audience. Wall re-emerged during the 1970s when producers and directors rediscovered his comic talents, along with the expressive power of his tragic clown face and the distinctive sad falling cadences of his voice. He secured television appearances and, having attracted Samuel Beckett's attention, he won parts in Waiting for Godot in 1979 and Krapp's Last Tape in 1984. His straight acting gained him this review in 1974: "Max Wall makes Olivier look like an amateur in The Entertainer at Greenwich Theatre...".
He also appeared in Crossroads (as Walter Soper, 1982 to 1983), Coronation Street (as Harry Payne, 1978) and what was then Emmerdale Farm (as Arthur Braithwaite, 1978).
Later work
Wall played one of the inventors in the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and in 1977 he was seen as King Bruno the Questionable in Terry Gilliam's film Jabberwocky.
On 1 April 1977, Wall's version of Ian Dury's song "England's Glory" (which featured in Dury's stage show Apples) was issued on Stiff Records (BUY 12), backed with "Dream Tobacco" and given away with the album Hits Greatest Stiffs. Wall also appeared onstage with Dury at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1978, but was poorly received, and said "They only want the walk".
In 1980 Wall appeared in Thames Television's twelve-part series Born and Bred as retired music hall legend Tommy Tonsley, trying with various degrees of success to keep his huge south London family in line. In 1981, he played "Ernie", a central character in the 'Minder' TV series episode "The Birdman of Wormwood Scrubs".
Between 1982 and 1984 he appeared as Tombs in the BBC Two adaptation of Jane based on the Daily Mirror comic-strip character and filmed with similar "comic-strip frames". In the second series his place in the castlist was upgraded to second, after Glynis Barber.
In 1987 Wall appeared as Flintwinch in the BBC mini-series Little Dorrit. His last film appearance was in 1989 in the 12-minute film A Fear of Silence, a dark tale of a man who drives a stranger to a confession of murder by answering only "yes" or "no" to his questions; those two words, repeated, were his only dialogue. The film won a gold award in the New York Film and TV Festival.
In his later years, Wall lived in a rented room at 45, Southbrook Road, Lee Green, South East London.
Wall had four sons and a daughter.
Filmography
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
| 1934
| On the Air
| Boots
|
|-
| 1938
| Save a Little Sunshine
| Walter
|
|-
| 1950
| Come Dance with Me
| Manager
|
|-
| 1968
| Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
| Inventor
|
|-
| 1969
| The Nine Ages of Nakedness
| Roundhead Leader
| Segment: The Cavaliers
|-
| 1974
| Thriller
| Jorg Kesselheim/George Thibedon
| Episode: A Killer in Every Coroner
|-
| 1975
| One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing
| Juggler
|
|-
| 1977
| Jabberwocky
| King Bruno the Questionable
|
|-
| 1978
| The Hound of the Baskervilles
| Arthur Barrymore
|-
| 1978-1980
| Born and Bred
| Tommy Tonsley
| Thames Television<br />10 episodes
|-
| 1978-1979
| Coronation Street
| Harry Payne
| 6 episodes
|-
| rowspan=2|1979
| Emmerdale
| Arthur Braithwaite
| 6 episodes
|-
| Hanover Street
| Harry Pike
|
|-
| 1983
| Max Wall – It's Got To Be Funny
| Himself in documentary
|
|-
| 1987
| Little Dorrit
| Flintwinch
|
|-
| 1988
| We Think the World of You
| Tom
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1990
| Strike It Rich
| Bowels
|
|-
| Dark River
| The Stranger
| TV film
|-
|}
See also
- Lorimer, a surname of Scottish origin
References
External links
- New York Times Obituary
- Max Wall's grandfather Will Mitcham and family