Peter Sallis

Peter John Sallis[1] was born on 1 February 1921 in Twickenham, Middlesex, the only child of bank manager Harry Sallis (1889–1964) and Dorothy Amea Frances (née Barnard; 1891–1975).[2][3] After attending Minchenden Grammar School in Southgate, North London, Sallis went to work in a bank, working on shipping transactions.

After the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the RAF. He was unable to serve as aircrew because of a serum albumin disorder and was told he might black out at high altitudes. He became a wireless mechanic instead and went on to teach radio procedures at RAF Cranwell.[4]

Sallis was cast in a pilot for Comedy Playhouse which became the first episode of Last of the Summer Wine (retrospectively titled "Of Funerals and Fish", 1973), as the unobtrusive lover of a quiet life, Norman Clegg.[5] The pilot was successful and the BBC commissioned a series. Sallis had already worked on stage with Michael Bates, who played the unofficial ringleader Blamire in the first two series. Sallis played the role of Clegg from 1973 to 2010, and was the only cast member to appear in every episode. He also appeared, in 1988, as Clegg's father in First of the Summer Wine,[8] a prequel to Last of the Summer Wine set in 1939.

He appeared in the children's series The Ghosts of Motley Hall (1976–78), in which he played Arnold Gudgin, an estate agent who did not want to see the hall fall into the wrong hands,[8] and he played Rodney Gloss in the BBC series Murder Most English (1977).[18] In the same period, he starred alongside Northern comic actor David Roper in the ITV sitcom Leave it to Charlie as Charlie's pessimistic boss.[19] The programme ran for four series, ending in 1980. Sallis also played the part of the ghost-hunter Milton Guest in the children's paranormal drama series The Clifton House Mystery (1978).[20]

Sallis was the narrator on Rocky Hollow (1983), a show produced by Bumper Films, who later produced Fireman Sam, and alternated with Ian Carmichael as the voice of Rat in the British television series The Wind in the Willows (1984–89), based on the book by Kenneth Grahame and produced by Cosgrove Hall Films. Alongside him were Michael Hordern as Badger, David Jason as Toad and Richard Pearson as Mole. The series was animated in stop motion, prefiguring his work with Aardman Animations. Also in 1983 he played the lead character Jim Bloggs, alongside Brenda Bruce as Hilda, in a BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Raymond Briggs' When the Wind Blows.[21][22] Sallis appeared in the last episode of Rumpole of the Bailey (1992)[23] and he later starred alongside Brenda Blethyn, Kevin Whately and Anna Massey in the one-off ITV1 drama Belonging (2004).[24]

Sallis also narrated a few stories of the children's television series Postman Pat for audio cassettes when the original voice actor Ken Barrie wasn't available at the time and also voiced Hugo in the animated series Victor and Hugo: Bunglers in Crime (filling in for The Wind in the Willows co-star David Jason who was the usual voice of Hugo, although Jason's voice of Hugo can still be heard in the opening and closing theme songs) for audio cassettes as well.

While a student in 1983, animator Nick Park wrote to Sallis asking him if he would voice his character Wallace, an eccentric inventor. Sallis agreed to do so for a donation of £50 to his favourite charity.[25] The work was eventually released in 1989 and Aardman Animations' Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out went on to win a BAFTA award.[25] Sallis reprised his role in the Oscar- and BAFTA Award-winning films The Wrong Trousers in 1993 and A Close Shave in 1995.[5]

Though the characters were temporarily retired in 1996, Sallis returned to voice Wallace in several short films and in the Oscar-winning 2005 motion picture Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, for which he won an Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production.[5] In 2008, Sallis voiced a new Wallace and Gromit adventure, A Matter of Loaf and Death.[5] After the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Sallis's eyesight began to fail as a result of macular degeneration and he used a talking portable typewriter with a specially illuminated scanner to continue working.[5] His last role as Wallace was in 2010's Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention.[5] Sallis then retired due to ill health, with Ben Whitehead taking over the role.[5]

In 2006, Sallis published an autobiography entitled Fading into the Limelight.[26] As well as his 36 years in Last of the Summer Wine, Sallis also recounts the early era of his relationship with Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park when it took six years for A Grand Day Out to be completed. He says that his work as Wallace has "raised his standing a few notches in the public eye".[27]

Sallis married actress Elaine Usher at St. John's Wood Church in London on 9 February 1957.[28][2][29] However, it was a turbulent relationship, with Usher leaving him sixteen times before they divorced in 1965 on grounds of desertion and adultery.[4] They were eventually reconciled and continued to live together until 1999. Sallis remained close to Usher until her death in 2014.[5][30] They had one son, Crispian Sallis (born 1959), who went on to become an Oscar-nominated film set designer.[5]

Sallis suffered from macular degeneration,[5] and in 2005 recorded an appeal on BBC Radio 4 on behalf of the Macular Society of which he was a patron.[31] He also recorded on behalf of the society a television appeal, which was broadcast on BBC One on 8 March 2009. Following his diagnosis of the disease, Aardman produced a short animated film for the society.[32]

Sallis was awarded the OBE in the 2007 Birthday Honours for services to Drama.[5] On 17 May 2009, he appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs, selecting Sibelius' Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major as his favourite.[33]

Sallis died at the Denville Hall nursing home in Northwood, London, on 2 June 2017 at the age of 96.[34][35] He was buried next to fellow Last of the Summer Wine actor Bill Owen in the churchyard of St John's Parish Church, Upperthong, near the town of Holmfirth in Yorkshire, the home of Last of the Summer Wine.[36]

• Peter Sallis at the British Film Institute
• Peter Sallis at IMDb
• "Desert Island Discs". Desert Island Discs. 17 May 2009. BBC. Radio 4.