Willie Ross (1938-2000) was a British character actor who appeared in The StoryTeller episode "Fearnot" as Mr. McKay the tinker.
With Peter Lambert in the 1950s, Ross formed the comedy team Lambert and Ross and performed in clubs, occasionally on television, and in pantomimes (as the ugly sisters in Cinderella). By 1987, the team split up and the Geordie accented Ross had become a character actor, often playing tramps and drunks, typified by Sue's drunken father in the film Rita, Sue and Bob Too (with George Costigan). Other film credits include The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (with Helen Mirren and Michael Gambon), FairyTale: A True Story (with Peter O'Toole), Blow Dry (with Alan Rickman), and Swept from the Sea (with Ian McKellen).
On TV, he played the alcoholic Mr. Dolls in a 1998 Our Mutual Friend adaptation and appeared in episodes of One Foot in the Grave (with Richard Wilson, as a garbageman), Our Friends in the North (another drunken father, to Daniel Craig), Minder, The Bill, Casualty, Grange Hill (a poacher), and Tales from the Crypt (a bartender).
External links[]
- IMDb
- The Telegraph and Argus. "Rita, Sue and Shakespeare Too." July 17th, 1998.