David Kossoff

David Kossoff (24 November 1919 – 23 March 2005) was a British actor. Following the death of his son Paul, a rock musician, he became an anti-drug campaigner. In 1971 he was also actively involved in the Nationwide Festival of Light protesting against the commercial exploitation of sex and violence, and advocating the teaching of Christ as the key to re-establishing moral stability in Britain.

Kossoff was born in London, the youngest of three children, to poor Russian-Jewish^[1] immigrant parents. His father was a tailor.

Kossoff started working in light entertainment on British television in the years following World War II. His first stage appearance was at the Unity Theatre in 1942 at the age of 23. He took part in numerous plays and films. He was a Member of the Society of Artists and Designers. In addition to this, he was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

He married Jennie and had two sons, Paul and Simon.

His best known television role was the hen-pecked husband Alf Larkins in The Larkins first broadcast in 1958, and his role as a Jewish furniture maker in A Little Big Business. Film credits included A Kid for Two Farthings (1955), his role as Morry in The Bespoke Overcoat (1956), Freud's father in Freud (1962) with Larry Parks, Professor Kokintz in The Mouse that Roared (1959) and its sequel The Mouse on the Moon (1963) with Bernard Cribbins.

He was also well known for his story telling skills, particularly with regard to reinterpreting the Bible. His most famous book, also a television series, is The Book of Witnesses (1971) in which he turned the Gospels into a series of lively monologues. He also retold dozens of Old Testament and Apocrypha stories in Bible Stories (1968).

In 1953, he played the character Lemuel "Lemmy" Barnet in the British sci-fi radio series, Journey Into Space.

Following the death in 1976 of his son Paul, guitarist with the band Free, Kossoff established the Paul Kossoff Foundation which aimed to present the realities of drug addiction to children. Kossoff spent the remainder of his life campaigning against drugs. His one-man stage performance about the death of his son, and its effect on the family, which he toured in the late 1970s and early 1980s, was both poignant and heartbreaking. He died in 2005 of liver cancer at age 85. He was cremated and interred at the Golders Green Crematorium.

His brother Alexander was a radio broadcaster under the name of Alan Keith, the longest serving and oldest presenter on British radio.

See also

• List of British Jews

Footnotes

External links

• David Kossoff at the Internet Movie Database
• David Kossoff at Find a Grave