Fawlty Towers star Sachs dies aged 86

Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs, who played hapless Spanish waiter Manuel in the BBC sitcom, has died aged 86, his family has confirmed.


The actor died on 23 November and was buried on Thursday, according to an interview with his wife Melody in the Daily Mail.

She told the newspaper that Sachs was diagnosed with dementia four years ago.

On his role of Manuel, Sachs said in 2014: "It was just a part I was playing and people seemed to laugh."

Manuel was one of the most imitated comedy characters of the 1970s. The waiter, who famously hailed from Barcelona, often said little more than the word "Que?" to generate laughs, but arguably his most famous line was "I know nothing".

The waiter was regularly shown being hit by John Cleese's hotel manager character, Basil Fawlty.

"I never got upset when he hit me," Sachs said in 2014.

"He's my friend, I must say yes, yes [it hurt], several times, more than once."

Cleese, 77, who was also the co-creator of Fawlty Towers, paid tribute to "a very sweet, gentle and kind man".

He wrote on Twitter: "Just heard about Andy Sachs. Very sad.

"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 had dozens of other acting roles, both serious and comic, including stints in TV's two biggest soaps.

In 2009, he played the role of Ramsey Clegg, half-brother of Norris Cole, in ITV's Coronation Street and in 2015 he briefly joined the BBC's EastEnders as Cyril Bishop.

He inadvertently became the subject of headlines in 2008 when he received a series of lewd answerphone messages from Russell Brand and fellow BBC Radio 2 presenter Jonathan Ross, relating to his granddaughter.

The so-called Sachsgate affair resulted in Brand and the controller of Radio 2 resigning. Ross was suspended from broadcasting for three months and a review was held into the way BBC output was vetted.

Andreas Siegfried Sachs was born in Berlin in 1930, the son of a Jewish insurance broker and a Catholic librarian.

The family fled Germany, where Nazism was on the rise, in 1938 and moved to London.

Blackadder actor Tony Robinson, a friend of Sachs, told BBC Radio 5 Live that Sachs was "very modest" and said that "it really came as a surprise to him that he had the success that he did".

"People know him for that one comedy performance but he was actually a magnificently talented man in a number of fields," Robinson said, adding that Sachs was "a very fine photographer" and "a very accomplished playwright".

He said: "He's worked in radio for very many years and in a way given how shy and retiring he was, it was a good form for him.

"His face wasn't shown, he could work a lot but he didn't have to be a celebrity and then suddenly he was thrown into the limelight."

Comedian Omid Djalili tweeted: "Sad to learn of the passing of Andrew Sachs.

Fond memories sharing a dressing room with him & Bill Bailey at We Are Most Amused in 2008."

BBC Radio 2 DJ Tony Blackburn tweeted: "So sad that Andrew Sachs has passed away. This terrible year goes on & on. He gave us all so many laughs on Fawlty Towers, thank you. R.I.P."