| Buster Merryfield | |
|---|---|
 Merryfield as Uncle Albert in Only Fools and Horses |
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| Born | 27 November 1920 Battersea, London, England |
| Died | 23 June 1999 (aged 78) Poole, Dorset, England |
| Occupation | Army Officer, Bank Manager, Actor |
| Years active | 1966–1996 (As an actor) |
| Spouse(s) | Iris (m. 1942–1999) |
Harry "Buster" Merryfield [1] (27 November 1920 – 23 June 1999) was an English actor who became a national institution after joining the hit BBC comedy Only Fools and Horses.
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Early life
Born in Battersea, South London, England, Merryfield was from a working-class background in Battersea, South London. His father, also called Harry Merryfield, was a packer, and his mother Lily Merryfield (née Stone), was a part-time waitress. Harry jnr was given the name "Buster" by his grandfather, as he weighed nine pounds at birth, and it stuck throughout his entire life.
He always prided himself on his fitness, following a strict fitness regime of daily press-ups and swimming sessions. Unlike his TV character, forever replenishing his mariner's pipe, Merryfield never smoked. His efforts to stay fit could be traced back to his time as a child Boxing star in the 1930s. He was British schoolboy champion in 1936 and Southern Command army champion in 1945. Merryfield was also a keen amateur Association Football player.
War record
Merryfield was called up for war service by the Army in September 1939. He served with the Royal Artillery firstly as a gunner, but gained promotion to Lance-Bombardier, then Bombardier, then Physical Training Instructor. After over two years of service, Merryfield was offered the chance to train as an Officer, and took it, becoming an officer in March 1942. He served as a physical training and warfare instructor, serving in India and South Africa. In 1943 he caught Malaria and Dysentry whilst in India, but recovered.
He also became a sports and entertainments officer, and in this role, he organized shows for the troops. It is believed that this is where his passion for acting originated. Merryfield was also a gifted pianist in real life, and could read music.
In the late summer of 1944 Merryfield returned to England. He was based in Kent, where he led a squadron shooting down V1 doodlebug flying bombs in the Autumn of that year. Merryfield remained there until the end of the war, and was de-mobilised from the army in 1946.
Career
Before turning professional as an actor Merryfield was a keen amateur actor and director. His productions of John Osborne's The Entertainer, The World-My Canvas by Ruth Dixon and A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller, for the now defunct amateur theatre group The Characters, won Best Play at the Woking Drama Festival in 1966, 1968 and 1969 respectively.[2] He also won the Best Actor trophy for his roles in The Entertainer and The World-My Canvas.[3].
Merryfield finally became a professional actor at the age of 57, after working for the Westminster Bank (later the National Westminster Bank) for nearly 35 years. He rose through the ranks, and by the time of his early retirement, in 1978, he was a bank manager at the Thames Ditton branch in Surrey.
When he retired, Merryfield persuaded a repertory company to take him on. He performed at the Connaught theatre in London, in plays such as "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat", and in "Equus" alongside Bernard Bresslaw. Also, small parts on Television came his way. Merryfield appeared in "Hannah" in 1980, as Professor Challis in "The Citadel" in 1983 and as a Bishop in "Strangers and Brothers" in 1984.
Merryfield joined Only Fools and Horses in January 1985, as the former seafaring Albert Gladstone Trotter, known as Uncle Albert, who was Grandad Trotter's globetrotting long-lost brother, and who was known for Uncle Albert's catchphrase of "During the war..." The character took over the role of senior citizen member of the irrepressible Trotter family from Lennard Pearce who played Grandad, after Pearce died suddenly and unexpectedly in December 1984. Coincidentally, nine months earlier, in March 1984, Merryfield appeared in two episodes of a Shroud for a Nightingale alongside Lennard Pearce.
In December 1997 he fell over at the British Comedy Awards whilst walking up to the stage to collect an award for David Jason for his part in Only Fools and Horses. Despite cutting his forehead, he continued on and collected the award. Even after Only Fools and Horses finished at the end of 1996, Merryfield appeared in Pantomime at Christmas 1997 and 1998.
Merryfield also did a lot of work for various charities, notably the Royal National Lifeboat Institute. He wrote his autobiography, "During the War and Other Encounters" in 1996.
Death
Buster Merryfield died in Poole General Hospital in June 1999, as a result of a brain tumour. He was survived by his wife Iris, whom he married in April 1942, his daughter, Karen, born in 1947, and two grandchildren. His body was buried in Verwood, Dorset, where he had resided.
Appeared in
References
External links
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