Max Wall

Small, spindly-legged, with a huge domed head, horse’s teeth and a face that could avalanche in despair or spread sideways in maniacal glee, sad-funny man Max Wall riveted an audience’s attention without saying a word or moving a limb.

But when he donned his bizarre costume, fell into his funny walk and dropped one of his wry asides, he was totally irresistible.

There were times in his career, though, when audiences found Wall totally resistible. During his blackest periods he was booed, pelted, driven off-stage and suffered a nervous breakdown.

Maxwell George Lorimer was not a lucky man.

Born in Brixton, south London in 1908, he was buried by rubble in the Zeppelin air raid which killed his brother. His father, Scottish comedian and music hall performer Jack Lorimer, drank himself to an early death.

His mother, a singer, was “unbalanced and hysterical”. She celebrated Max’s marriage to dancer Marion Pola by rushing from the house in her nightdress, screaming and throwing stones at the wedding car.

“No wonder I’m neurotic,” protested Wall.

Before becoming a big name in the 1940s and 1950s, Wall learnt his craft – as dancer, acrobat, skater, instrumentalist and clown – in Britain, France and America.

Wall is best remembered for his ludicrously attired and hilariously strutting Professor Wallofski. But after appearing in many musicals and stage comedies in the 1930s, his career declined, and he was reduced to working in obscure nightclubs.

He joined the RAF during World War II and served for three years until he was invalided out in 1943.

Two more marriages followed. The second – to beauty queen Jennifer Chimes (the 1955 Miss Great Britain) – caused a flood of self-righteous criticism from people who thought him “wicked” for “deserting” his family. Chimes and Wall divorced in 1962.

His third marriage was dissolved in 1972, and in 1973, he was declared bankrupt and convicted of driving under the influence of drink.

Wall often blamed women for his downfall. “I put them on a pedestal; that was my trouble.”

Wall re-emerged in the 1970s, when producers and directors rediscovered his comic talents, scoring hits in diverse productions such as the musical Cockie, Arnold Wesker’s The Old Ones, John Osborne’s The Entertainer, and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Knapp’s Last Tape.

He appeared in Coronation Street (as Harry Payne), Crossroads (as Walter Soper), and Emmerdale Farm (as Arthur Braithwaite); played an ex-con named Ernie Dodds in Minder in 1982; and appeared in the films Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and Jabberwocky (1977).

In 1980, Wall appeared in the 12-part Thames Television series Born and Bred as retired music hall legend Tommy Tonsley, and between 1982 and 1984 he starred as Tombs the butler alongside Glynis Barber in the BBC Two adaptation of Jane, based on the Daily Mirror comic-strip character.

On 20 May 1990, Max Wall fell at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand in London, fracturing his skull.

He was taken to hospital but never regained consciousness, and died early the next morning, aged 82.