Andrew Sachs

Andrew Sachs was born in Berlin in 1930, but his family moved to England in 1938 to escape Germany (his father being Jewish) - they setlled in Kilburn, where the actor spent the rest of his life.

His acting career encompass stage, television and screen, with appearances in series like The Saint, Randall & Hopkirk Deceased, and the film The Night We Dropped A Clanger. However, it was as Spanish waiter Manual alongside John Cleese in Fawlty Towers that was to become his most famous role and a household name. He later appeared in some 27 episodes of Coronation Street as Ramsey, and also in the 2008 Christmas special of Casualty.

On radio, he portrayed Father Brown in the 1980s, and Doctor Watson in original Sherlock Holmes stories for BBC Radio 4 during the 2000s. He also played Professor Chronitis in a 2007 adaptation of Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, and Tooley in Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere in 2013.

He also played the voice of the Book in the live tour of Douglas Adams's The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy in 2012.

Though he never appeared in the television series, his Doctor Who credentials included playing Skagra in the Big Finish/BBC Online adaptation of another Douglas Adams creation, Shada, and also Big Finish audio adventures TheBoyThatTimeForgot and Orbis. He also appeared as Temmosus in the BBC Radio 4 audio play Whatever Happened To... Susan Foreman?.

As well as acting he was also a veteran narrator of numerous television and radio documentaries, including all five series of Troubleshooter; he also narrated several audio books, such as the Narnia series by CS Lewis.

In 2012 he was diagnosed with vascular dementia, but this was kept secret until his death in 2016.

His autobiography, I Know Nothing!, was published in 2014.

He married his wife Melody in 1960 (who also appeared in an episode of Fawlty Towers), and had a stepson John and grand-daughter Georgina.