It’s with great sadness that Cult Faction must report the death of actor Warren Mitchell, most famous for his role as the iconic comedy character Alf Garnett.
Warren Mitchell was born to a working class family in Stoke Newington London on the fourteenth of January 1926. From early on in his life he showed an interest in acting and attended the ‘Gladys Gordons Academy of Dramatic Arts’ from the age of seven.
Whilst on basic training for the RAF in 1944 he met the actor Richard Burton, who would become a lifelong friend. It was Burton who would later persuade Mitchell to give up his degree in Chemistry & Physics and become an actor. On Burtons advice Mitchell enrolled in a two year course at RADA and began the road to becoming a professional actor.
After RADA he would spend a short time as a DJ on ‘Radio Luxemburg’. Blessed with natural timing Warren slipped easily into the world of comic acting. He was a regular on some of the most popular TV and radio shows of the 1960s; and would also pop up in small roles in many British films from the era including ‘The Beatles’ ‘Help’.
In real life Mitchell was a Tottenham Hotspur supporting, socialist, who was patron of the British Humanist Society and an atheist of Russian Jewish descent. This was nothing like his most famous character; the bigoted cockney West Ham fan known as ‘Alf Garnett’. First portraying Garnett in a one off pilot for the BBC; the original run of ‘‘Till death do us part’ was from 1965 to 1975 and included a 1969 feature. He would also reprise the role in 1981’s ‘‘Till Death’ sequel, ‘In Sickness & in Health’ which ran from 1985 to 1992 and the one off special ‘An Audience with Alf Garnett’ in 1997.
On reading the pilot script Mitchell immediately saw what writer Jonny Speight was trying to do. Warren would rejoice in telling real life bigots, when they congratulated him on Garnetts world view, it was them he was mocking and not the minorities; they were just too stupid to see it.
Although best known for his comedic roles Mitchell had a varied career. Taking in everything from Shakespeare to Python and TV dramas to childrens programs. Rarely out of work it was only after a stroke in 2004 that he finally retired.
Warren Mitchell will be fondly remembered as one of the greatest comic actors of his generation. A massive influence of both his contemporises and those who followed. On hearing of Warrens death Ricky Gervais tweeted ‘Alf Garnet was one of the most influential and important characters and performances in comedy history. RIP Warren Mitchell’. Both Warren and Alf will be missed.
Ogun Bat is a Japanese superhero created by Takeo Nagamatsu in 1931 and is considered to be the first Japanese superhero. The anime ran 52 episodes between April 1st 1967 and March 23rd Read more
Released in December 1980, Zork: The Great Underground Empire - Part I aka Zork I was an interactive fiction video game written by Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels and Tim Read more
The CW has released a new extended trailer for The Flash, offering up some new footage from several upcoming episodes and teasing the unmasking of Zoom:
Zoolander is back but a lot has happened since 2001! Rest assured the Ben Stiller comedy features familiar faces and a few new ones with plenty to get you excited. Read more
At a dinner party with their wives, NASA scientist Dr. Keith Ritchie (Tony Huston) reveals to his colleague Dr. Curt Taylor (John Agar) that he has secretly been in communication Read more
In Italy during World War II, an American military patrol discovers a spaceship that has crash-landed in the woods, along with its alien crew. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9fnNfLg8M A nearby Nazi unit also Read more
Zone Fighter was a tokusatsu science fiction/superhero television series produced by Toho Company Ltd. It aired from April 2nd 1973 to September 24th 1973, with a total of 26 episodes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdhcjsVLDQY The series follows Read more
Zone 414 is an upcoming American science fiction thriller film written by Bryan Edward Hill and directed by Andrew Baird. The film stars Guy Pearce, Matilda Lutz, Jonathan Aris, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Olwen Fouéré, Colin Salmon, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Read more
It is the final episode of Season 1, and as expected following the somewhat calmness of last week's episode this week is about to go off the scale. Our crew Read more
Episode 5 of Zomboat! is the penultimate episode of Season 1 and it gave the audience a chance to catch their breath before the grand finale. Instead of the fast Read more
In Zomboat! Episode 4 we discover that even a shopping trip can be hazardous to your health in post-apocalyptic Birmingham. With the boat moored and apparently safe Amar (Ryan McKen) Read more
After our diversion last week our Zomboat crew begin travelling in the right direction and end up back where they first got on the boat. This also happens to be Read more
Zomboat! burst onto our screens last week and while we loved it we noted that it felt "a bit rushed with lots crammed in." As Episode 2 washed over us Read more
Debuting on ITV2 in the UK, Zomboat! is filmed in the 2.35:1 widescreen ratio of most zombie movies and answers the life long question of what would happen if you Read more
When the government's latest crime deterrent, obmoz, goes completely off the rails and starts to destroy everything from the underfunded super team Planetronix to the president himself, who ya gonna Read more
Homemade horror-comedy feature Zomblogalypse received its UK premiere at Dead Northern Film Festival - in association with Fangoria and Shudder - at City Screen York on 26th September 2021. The Read more
Tony Todd is back in an all new zombie movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBlWz-n-nec When the world is in shambles, plagued by a zombie outbreak, only the strong will survive, but just how Read more
Columbus, Tallahasse, Wichita, and Little Rock move to the American heartland as they face off against evolved zombies, fellow survivors, and the growing pains of the snarky makeshift family... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL6NTQhEqn4 Read more
In Zombieland 2: Double Tap, Columbus, Tallahasse, Wichita, and Little Rock move to the American heartland as they face off against evolved zombies, fellow survivors, and the growing pains of Read more
Directed by Chris Watson and distributed by Troma Entertainment, Zombiegeddon begins as Satan creates a human-like race called zombies. When the zombies begin taking over the world, dirty cops Jeff Read more
1926 – not 1946…what would Alf say…y’ couldn’t even get the bleedin’ date right…
Oops, key stroke error 😀
Simply a Legend. Thank you for so many laughs. Rip. G x