Philip Lowrie obituary

As Dennis Tanner within the unique solid of Coronation Street, the actor Philip Lowrie, who has died elderly 88, portrayed a personality newly launched from borstal and looking for to make one thing of his existence – whilst dwelling within the shadow of his previous. “In those streets, there is always a bad ’un, a wrong ’un – and he was the wrong ’un,” mentioned the TV cleaning soap’s author, Tony Warren, of Dennis.

Lowrie was once presented to the serial in episode one, broadcast continue to exist 9 December 1960, along Pat Phoenix as his mom, the tempestuous Elsie, who accused him of stealing two shillings (10p) from her handbag. “You stooped to goin’ in a lady’s handbag,” she says. “Just listen to it,” he responds. “A lady. Is that what you crack on you are these days?”

The drama persisted off display when a girl slapped Lowrie around the face as he and Phoenix had been making a private look at a cinema. “That’s for being so bloody cheeky to your mother,” shouted his assailant.

Lowrie and Kenneth Farrington had been each screen-tested with Phoenix for the position of Dennis. Although Lowrie landed it, the a part of Billy Walker – son of Jack and Annie Walker, who ran the Rovers Return – was once specifically written for Farrington.

Dennis was once observed going via a string of jobs, as a gross sales rep, warehouse labourer, taxi motive force, hair stylist, auctioneer, builder’s labourer and bookie, however his real love was once display industry. He was once a compere, singer and assistant supervisor on the Orinoco Club, and likewise labored as a ability scout.

Lowrie’s persona was once given further display time when a seven-month actors’ strike, operating from 1961 to 1962, intended that handiest 13 solid contributors on long-term contracts may seem in Coronation Street. Suddenly, those regulars had been supplemented by way of Dennis’s personal solid of animals employed to accomplish in his membership – snakes, sea lions, pigeons, canines and a chimp referred to as Cheetah.

The actor then left the programme to fulfill his thirst for functioning on degree, however returned in 1963 after 13 months away. He was once therefore allowed two six-week breaks a yr to seem in theatre performs, however he in spite of everything walked out on his Street position in 1968, giving up a £250-a-week TV wage for simply £20 every week in repertory theatre. He complained that enjoying Dennis – who married Jenny Sutton (Mitzi Rogers) and moved to Bristol – not introduced him with a problem and the nature had no longer been allowed to develop up, closing a jack the lad as he approached the age of 30.

Forty-three years later, in 2011, Lowrie returned to Coronation Street. After being found out at a soup kitchen on turning into homeless, Dennis wooed and married Rita Sullivan, performed by way of Barbara Knox, who had seemed in a 1964 episode when Dennis employed Rita as an unique dancer on the Orinoco Club. In 2014, he ditched her for Gloria Price (Sue Johnston), then attempted to go back to Rita, however was once given the boot, and Lowrie left the cleaning soap for just right. Six years later, Rita was once despatched Dennis’s ashes and the inside track that he had died after affected by dementia.

Born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, Philip was once the son of Bertha (nee Collins) and Philip Sr, a paper mill manager. As a kid, he had a stammer that was once remedied via elocution categories, and he loved showing in performs at Stand grammar college. He then skilled at Rada along Christine Hargreaves, who was once to play Christine Hardman in Coronation Street from episode two.

Rep theatre adopted sooner than he seemed at the West End degree as Willie Bosworth within the John Vari play Farewell, Farewell, Eugene (Garrick theatre, 1959), along Margaret Rutherford and Peggy Mount, and as Karl Schill within the Friedrich Dürrenmatt tragicomedy The Visit (Royalty theatre, 1960), directed by way of Peter Brook and starring the American appearing couple Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.

Lowrie made his TV debut within the Allan Prior play A Young Affair (1958). During breaks from Coronation Street, his degree roles integrated a farm labourer in a Royal Court manufacturing of Edward Bond’s first play, The Pope’s Wedding (1962), and Claudio in Measure for Measure on the Ludlow pageant (1967). “I used to return to the Street with a fresh enthusiasm,” he mentioned.

On leaving the cleaning soap, he confirmed his hobby for appearing in entrance of are living audiences by way of taking an astonishing collection of portions in regional theatres over the following few many years. He had name roles in Romeo and Juliet (Ludlow pageant, 1969) and The Boy Friend (Liverpool Playhouse, 1970), carried out the classics on the Bristol Old Vic (1969-70 and 1980-81), the Chichester pageant (1973 and 1990) and the Greenwich theatre (1974-75), and in particular loved his stints as a member of the firms on the Belgrade theatre in Coventry (1968-88) and at Perth theatre (1968-92). One Perth newspaper critic wrote of Lowrie that he “can always be relied on to dig deeper into a character”. He was once again within the West End for a yr (2004-05) as Major Metcalf in The Mousetrap (St Martin’s theatre).

Throughout this, Lowrie persisted to pop up on tv. He performed a French captain in War and Peace (1973) and Nigel Quinn within the chilly battle mystery Rules of Engagement (1989). However, he was once maximum distinguished in sitcoms, as Billy Hawkes, one of the most making a song trio – along Maria Aitken and Simon Williams – in Company and Co (1980) and Mr Watson in Andy Capp (1988), a model of the newspaper cartoons.

He additionally seemed in Victoria Wood’s eponymous 1989 collection, performed quite a lot of characters in her 1992 particular Victoria Wood’s All Day Breakfast and was once observed as a TV warm-up artist in her acclaimed feature-length drama Pat and Margaret (1994).

Following his 2d run in Coronation Street, Lowrie persisted to behave in theatre with roles reminiscent of Klever in The Case of The Frightened Lady (2018) and Eric in The Lady Vanishes (2019), each traveling productions.