Editing Max Wall

{{Short description|English actor and music hall artist (1908–1990)}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{more citations needed|date=March 2013}}
{{Lead too short|date=May 2020}}
}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2013}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Max Wall
| image         = Comic_&_actor_Max_Wall.jpg
| caption       = Wall as Professor Wallofski
| birth_name    = Maxwell George Lorimer
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1908|3|12|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Lambeth, London]], England
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1990|5|21|1908|3|12|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[Westminster,  London]], England
| resting_place = [[Highgate Cemetery]], London, England
| occupation    = Actor, comedian
| known_for     = 
| spouse        = 
| children      = 5<ref name=nytimes>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/24/obituaries/max-wall-82-is-dead-acted-in-beckett-plays.html|title=Max Wall, 82, Is Dead; Acted in Beckett Plays|date=24 May 1990|work=The New York Times}}</ref>
| yearsactive   = 1934–1990
}}
'''Maxwell George Lorimer''' (12 March 1908 &ndash; 21 May 1990), known professionally as '''Max Wall''', was an English actor and comedian whose performing career covered [[music hall]], films, television and theatre.<ref name="bfi">{{cite web |title=Max Wall |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9efee33a |website=British Film Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220205624/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9efee33a |archive-date=20 December 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Early years==
Wall was born Maxwell George Lorimer, son of the successful [[music hall]] entertainer [[Jack Lorimer|Jack (Jock) Lorimer]], a [[Scotland|Scottish]] comedy actor from [[Forfar]], known for his songs and dancing, and his wife Stella (born Maud Clara Mitchison). He was born near [[the Oval]], at 37 Glenshaw Mansions, [[Brixton Road]], [[Lambeth]], London SW9. In 1916, during a [[World War I]] air raid, Max and his elder brother Alex were saved from death by a cast-iron bed frame, but his younger brother Bunty and their Aunt Betty, who was looking after them, were killed by a bomb dropped from a [[Germany|German]] [[Zeppelin]] which also destroyed their house.<ref name="maxwallsociety">{{cite web |title=Max's Life |url=http://www.maxwallsociety.org/page3.html |website=Max Wall Society |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180513050153/http://www.maxwallsociety.org/page3.html |archive-date=13 May 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Max and Alex went to live with their father and his family, whilst their mother went to live with Harry Wallace, whom she had met on tour. When their father died of [[tuberculosis]] in 1920, aged 37, their mother married Harry Wallace, and they all moved to a pub in [[Essex]].<ref>An Audience with Max Wall – BBC Radio 4 – first broadcast 3 December 2007</ref>

==Career==

===Early career===
Wall auditioned for a part with a touring theatre company, and made his stage début at the age of 14 as Jack in ''[[Mother Goose]]'' with a travelling [[pantomime]] company in [[Devon]] and [[Cornwall]] featuring [[Pantomime dame|George Lacey]]. In 1925 he was a speciality dancer in the London Revue at the [[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum]].  He became determined not to rely on his father's name, so abbreviated Maxwell to Max, and his stepfather's name Wallace, to Wall.<ref name=voices>{{cite web|url=http://voices-of-variety.com/max-wall/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140112192922/http://voices-of-variety.com/max-wall/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=12 January 2014 |title=Max Wall |publisher=Voices of Variety |access-date=27 May 2014}}</ref>

He is best remembered for his ludicrously attired and hilariously strutting ''Professor Wallofski''. [[John Cleese]] has acknowledged Wall's influence on his own "[[Ministry of Silly Walks]]" sketch for ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-23-mn-33-story.html|title=Max Wall; British Dancer-Comedian Gained Fame in Beckett Plays|date=23 May 1990|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> After appearing in many [[Musical theatre|musical]]s and stage comedies in the 1930s, Wall's career went into decline, and he was reduced to working in obscure [[nightclub]]s. He then joined the [[Royal Air Force]] during [[World War II]] and served for three years until he was invalided out in 1943.<ref name=voices/>

Wall married dancer Marion Pola and the couple had five children. In an interview with the family in the mid-1950s, ''[[Tit-Bits]]'' magazine wrote: "The kind of private jokes you find in all the nicest families flourish with the Walls. After Max and his wife, Marion, had their first son, Michael, it seemed kind of natural to make a corner in names beginning with 'M', and there are now Melvyn (aged nine), Martin (nearly five) and the four-month-old twins Meredith and Maxine. ... In the same way, because the Walls, like other couples married during the war, were eventually thrilled when they found a house with four walls of their own, they decided to call it just that, only Martin arrived and made it 'Five Walls'."<ref name=voices/>

In a rare outing to the musical stage he played Hines in the original London production of ''[[The Pajama Game]]'', which opened at the [[London Coliseum]] in October 1955 and ran for 588 performances. In that year he began an affair with Jennifer Chimes, the 1955 [[Miss Great Britain]]. He divorced his wife and married Jennifer in 1956. The relationship attracted widespread press condemnation. In 1957 Wall experienced mental health issues that affected his work. Jennifer and Max divorced in 1962.<ref name=voices/>

===Re-emergence===
In 1966, he appeared as Père Ubu in [[Alfred Jarry]]'s ''[[Ubu Roi]]'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.npg.org.uk/support/individual/face-to-face/my-favourite-portrait/my-favourite-portrait-by-bill-paterson.php|title=National Portrait Gallery – My Favourite Portrait by Bill Paterson}}</ref> and in 1972 he toured with [[Mott the Hoople]] on their "Rock n' Roll Circus Tour", gaining a new audience.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mottthehoople.com/main/?page_id=103|title=MTH Timeline}}</ref> Wall re-emerged during the 1970s when producers and directors rediscovered his comic talents, along with the expressive power of his tragic clown face and the distinctive sad falling cadences of his voice. He secured television appearances and, having attracted [[Samuel Beckett]]'s attention, he won parts in ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'' in 1979 and ''[[Krapp's Last Tape]]'' in 1984.<ref name=page3>{{cite web|url=http://www.maxwallsociety.org/page3c.html|title=Max's Life Page 4}}</ref> His straight acting gained him this review in 1974: "Max Wall makes [[Laurence Olivier|Olivier]] look like an amateur in ''The Entertainer'' at Greenwich Theatre...".<ref>''The Guardian'', 27 November 1974</ref>

He also appeared in ''[[Crossroads (British TV series)|Crossroads]]'' (as Walter Soper, 1982 to 1983), ''[[Coronation Street]]'' (as Harry Payne, 1978) and what was then ''[[Emmerdale|Emmerdale Farm]]'' (as Arthur Braithwaite, 1978).<ref name=bfi/> He played ex-con Ernie Dodds in ''[[Minder (TV series)|Minder]]'' in 1982, with [[George Cole (actor)|George Cole]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b744ba705|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819232048/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b744ba705|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 August 2016|title=Birdman of Wormwood Scrubs (1982)}}</ref>

===Later work===
Wall played one of the inventors in the 1968 film ''[[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang]]'' and in 1977 he was seen as King Bruno the Questionable in [[Terry Gilliam]]'s film ''[[Jabberwocky (film)|Jabberwocky]]''.<ref name=bfi/> In the 1970s and 80s, Wall occasionally performed a one-man stage show, ''Aspects of Max Wall'', in which he recaptured the humour of old-time [[music hall]] theatre.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6eede21f|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819233828/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6eede21f|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 August 2016|title=Aspects of Max Wall (1975)}}</ref>

On 1 April 1977, Wall's version of [[Ian Dury]]'s song "England's Glory" (which featured in Dury's stage show ''[[Apples (album)|Apples]]'') was issued on [[Stiff Records]] (BUY 12), backed with "Dream Tobacco" and given away with the album ''[[Hits Greatest Stiffs]]''.<ref>[http://www.stiff-records.com/docs/stiff_discography.xls Stiff Records Catalogue] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716143556/http://www.stiff-records.com/docs/stiff_discography.xls |date=16 July 2011 }} Retrieved 6 April 2009</ref> Wall also appeared onstage with Dury at the [[Hammersmith Odeon]] in 1978, but was poorly received, and said "They only want the walk".<ref>{{cite book
| first= Richard
| last= Balls
| year= 2000
| title= Sex & Drugs & Rock'N'Roll: The Life of Ian Dury 
| edition= 1st
| publisher= Omnibus Press.
| location= London
| pages= 195–196
| isbn= 978-0-7119-8644-2}}</ref>

In 1980 Wall appeared in Thames Television's twelve-part series ''Born and Bred'' as retired music hall legend Tommy Tonsley, trying with various degrees of success to keep his huge south London family in line.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/max_wall/|title = Max Wall}}</ref> In 1981, he played "Ernie", a central character in the ''[[Minder (TV series)|''Minder'']]'' TV series episode "The Birdman of Wormwood Scrubs".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.minder.org/episodeguide/S03E07_TheBirdmanOfWormwoodScrubs.htm|title = #3.7 the Birdman of Wormwood Scrubs}}</ref>

Between 1982 and 1984 he appeared as Tombs in the [[BBC Two]] [[Jane (British TV series)|adaptation of ''Jane'']] based on the ''[[Daily Mirror]]'' [[Jane (comic strip)|comic-strip character]] and filmed with similar "comic-strip frames".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/541765327c81d|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819231002/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/541765327c81d|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 August 2016|title=Jane (1982)}}</ref> In the second series his place in the castlist was upgraded to second, after [[Glynis Barber]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b730a6350|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819233005/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b730a6350|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 August 2016|title=Jane in the Desert (1984)}}</ref>

In 1987 Wall appeared as Flintwinch in the BBC mini-series ''[[Little Dorrit (1987 film)|Little Dorrit]]''. <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095530/characters/nm0908458|title=Max Wall: Flintwinch}}</ref> His last film appearance was in 1989 in the 12-minute film ''A Fear of Silence'', a dark tale of a man who drives a stranger to a confession of murder by answering only "yes" or "no" to his questions; those two words, repeated, were his only dialogue.  The film won a gold award in the New York Film and TV Festival.<ref name=page3/>

==Death==
[[File:MaxWallGrave.jpeg|thumb|upright|Wall's grave in Highgate Cemetery]]
On the afternoon of 20 May 1990 Wall fell at [[Simpson's-in-the-Strand]] in [[central London]], fracturing his skull. He was conveyed by ambulance to [[Westminster Hospital]] in an unconscious state, but never regained consciousness, and died there early in the next morning, at the age of 82. His body was buried at [[Highgate Cemetery]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/may/23/max-wall-dies-comedian-clown|title=Master-clown Max Wall dies – archive, 23 May 1990|first=John|last=Ezard|date=23 May 2016|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref>

In his later years, Wall lived in a rented room at 45, Southbrook Road, Lee Green, South East London.

Wall had four sons and a daughter.<ref name=nytimes/>

==Legacy==
There is a Max Wall Society, which aims to perpetuate his memory. In 2006 the Society placed an unofficial [[blue plaque]] on Wall's birthplace in South London.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.maxwallsociety.org/|website=maxwallsociety.org/|title=Max Wall Society|access-date=2020-07-05}}</ref>

==Filmography==
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
| 1934
| ''[[On the Air (film)|On the Air]]'' 
| Boots
|
|-
| 1938
| ''[[Save a Little Sunshine]]'' 
| Walter
|
|-
| 1950
| ''[[Come Dance with Me (1950 film)|Come Dance with Me]]'' 
| Manager
|
|-
| 1968
| ''[[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang]]'' 
| Inventor
|
|-
| 1969
| ''[[The Nine Ages of Nakedness]]'' 
| Roundhead Leader 
| Segment: ''The Cavaliers''
|-
| 1974
| ''[[Thriller (British TV series)|Thriller]]''
| Jorg Kesselheim/George Thibedon
| Episode: ''A Killer in Every Coroner''
|-
| 1975
| ''[[One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing]]'' 
| Juggler
|
|-
| 1977
| ''[[Jabberwocky (film)|Jabberwocky]]'' 
| King Bruno the Questionable
|
|-
| 1978
| ''[[The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978 film)|The Hound of the Baskervilles]]'' 
| Arthur Barrymore
|-
| 1978-1980
| ''Born and Bred''
| Tommy Tonsley
| [[Thames Television]]<br />10 episodes
|-
| 1978-1979
| ''[[Coronation Street]]'' 
| Harry Payne
| 6 episodes
|-
| rowspan=2|1979
| ''[[Emmerdale]]'' 
| Arthur Braithwaite
| 6 episodes
|-
| ''[[Hanover Street (film)|Hanover Street]]'' 
| Harry Pike
|
|-
| 1983 
| ''Max Wall – It's Got To Be Funny'' 
| Himself in documentary 
|
|-
| 1987 
| ''[[Little Dorrit (1987 film)|Little Dorrit]]'' 
| Flintwinch
|
|-
| 1988
|  ''[[We Think the World of You (film)|We Think the World of You]]'' 
| Tom
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1990
| ''[[Strike It Rich (1990 film)|Strike It Rich]]'' 
| Bowles
|
|-
| ''[[Dark River (1990 film)|Dark River]]''
| The Stranger
| TV film
|-
|}

== See also ==
* [[Lorimer (surname)|Lorimer]], a surname of Scottish origin

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* {{IMDb name|0908458}}
* [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE6D71639F937A15756C0A966958260 ''New York Times'' Obituary]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180827235731/http://www.armadale.org.uk/wellsgenealogy/Mitcham/wilmitcham.htm Max Wall's grandfather Will Mitcham and family]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wall, Max}}
[[Category:1908 births]]
[[Category:1990 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery]]
[[Category:Accidental deaths in London]]
[[Category:Accidental deaths from falls]]
[[Category:English male film actors]]
[[Category:English male comedians]]
[[Category:Slapstick comedians]]
[[Category:English people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:English male soap opera actors]]
[[Category:English male stage actors]]
[[Category:British music hall performers]]
[[Category:Actors from the London Borough of Lambeth]]
[[Category:20th-century English male actors]]
[[Category:20th-century English comedians]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Male actors from London]]
[[Category:Comedians from the London Borough of Lambeth]]
[[Category:People from Brixton]]
[[Category:People from Stockwell]]