article: It was a role he relished and he often returned to it over a period of four decades. He was a consummate character actor who took on a wide variety of roles on stage, screen and television. And despite playing Johnny Speight's infamous creation for such a long time, he managed to avoid being typecast as Britain's favourite bigot. Warren Mitchell was actually born as Warren Misell on 14 January 1926 in north London. His father, Monty, was English, while his mother Annie, who died when he was 15, was of Russian descent. He was chosen, aged five, to play Tiny Tim in his primary school's production of A Christmas Carol but never made the stage. His Orthodox Jewish grandmother vetoed the idea when she learned he would be breaking Jewish dietary law by eating Christmas pudding containing suet. In later years he developed a pathological loathing of Christmas, referring to it as "all that sentimental crap". However, his interest in acting grew and, at the age of seven, he was enrolled in Gladys Gordon's Academy of Dramatic Arts in Walthamstow, east London. He also developed a love of football, becoming a staunch supporter of Tottenham Hotspur. He did well at school and went on to read physical chemistry at University College, Oxford, where he met Richard Burton, who encouraged his interest in acting. They joined the RAF together in 1944 and Mitchell was sent to Canada to train as a navigator, although the war ended before he saw active service. Mitchell enrolled for a two-year course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, spending his evenings performing with the left-wing Unity Theatre in London, where he met his wife, Connie. Because she was an Anglican, Mitchell's Jewish father initially refused to have Connie in the house, but he eventually came round to the idea of his son marrying outside his faith. Mitchell was an atheist for most of his life and a keen supporter of the British Humanist Association. He changed his name in 1951 when he stood in for the DJ Pete Murray as a presenter on Radio Luxembourg. "They said, 'You can't have a name like that, nobody's ever going to write in their request to Warren Misell'," Mitchell later explained. By now he had become a competent character actor in straight and comedy roles, while premature baldness gave him the ability to play a wide age range. After appearing in the popular radio show Educating Archie, he got his TV break in 1955 in a number of episodes of Hancock's Half Hour. He became a TV regular with roles in shows such as The Avengers, Danger Man and The Saint. He also appeared in sitcom, notably with Charlie Drake in the BBC production Drake's Progress, which ran in 1957. By then he had already made his film debut, an uncredited role in the wartime drama The Battle of the River Plate. It was the first of many screen appearances although, with his baldness and command of eastern European accents, he was often cast in minor roles, usually as
summary: Warren Mitchell never completely distanced himself from his most famous character, Alf Garnett.