Leonard Sachs


Leonard Meyer Sachs was a South African-born British actor.

Life and career

Sachs was born in the town of Roodepoort, Transvaal, South Africa. He was Jewish. He emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1929 and had many television and film roles from the 1930s to the 1980s, including Mowbray in the 1950 version of Richard II, John Wesley in the 1954 film of the same name and Lord Mount Severn in East Lynne from 1976.
He founded an Old Time Music Hall, named the Players' Theatre, in Villiers Street, Charing Cross, London. He appeared as the Chairman of the Leeds City Varieties in the long-running BBC television series The Good Old Days, which ran from 1953 to 1983, and became well known for his elaborate, erudite introductions of the performers. Sachs was honoured in a 1977 episode of This is Your Life.
Sachs appeared in Danger Man with Patrick McGoohan. He had two appearances in the science fiction series Doctor Who: as Admiral Gaspard de Coligny in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve in 1966 and as Lord President Borusa in Arc of Infinity in 1983. He also appeared in the 1985 Royal Variety Performance in a tribute to The Good Old Days.

Personal life

Sachs married the actress Eleanor Summerfield in 1947. They had two sons, the actor Robin Sachs and Toby Sachs.
In January 1984, he was fined £75 for "importuning men for an immoral purpose" at Notting Hill Gate tube station.
Sachs died in Westminster, London in 1990 at the age of 80.

Selected filmography