Brian Murphy

Brian Trevor John Murphy (25 September 1932 – 2 February 2025) was an English comic actor born in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. His father, Gerald Murphy, worked as a grocer's assistant before becoming a restaurateur alongside Murphy's mother, Mabel. Two of his brothers, Ken and Eric, died during active service in the Second World War. During his national service at RAF Northwood, Murphy met actor Richard Briers, and the two subsequently performed together in productions staged by the Dramatic Society at the Borough Polytechnic Institute, now known as London South Bank University.

Murphy began his professional career as a member of Theatre Workshop, where he formed a working relationship with actress Yootha Joyce that would later prove central to his greatest success. In the early 1960s he combined stage work with television guest appearances on programmes including The Avengers, Z-Cars, Callan, and Dixon of Dock Green. He appeared opposite Joyce in the 1963 film Sparrows Can't Sing, and in 1964 he made his Broadway appearance in Oh, What a Lovely War, a production that brought Theatre Workshop's work to international audiences.

The role that established Murphy as a household name came with the ITV sitcom Man About the House, in which he played George Roper, an idle landlord seeking a quiet life, whose wife Mildred — portrayed by Joyce — was a domineering social climber. Their shared history at Theatre Workshop contributed to the immediate on-screen chemistry the pairing generated. When Man About the House concluded in 1976, a spin-off series, George and Mildred, was created for Murphy and Joyce and ran for five series until 1979. During that period, in 1978, Murphy released the single "Jogging" backed with "The Great Gnome Robbery" on the Pye label, recorded in the persona of George Roper. He reprised his role in feature film adaptations of both sitcoms. Joyce died in 1980, resulting in the cancellation of a planned final series of George and Mildred.

Two subsequent sitcoms created specifically for Murphy failed to replicate his earlier success. The Incredible Mr. Tanner, produced in 1981 and featuring regular Man About the House and George and Mildred co-star Roy Kinnear, did not find an audience. The following year he moved to the BBC for the driving school comedy L for Lester, which was cancelled after six episodes. Murphy continued working steadily in television throughout the 1980s and 1990s, taking roles in On Your Way, Riley, in which he played Arthur Lucan in 1985, as well as Lame Ducks, The Bill, Pond Life, One Foot in the Grave, and Brookside. He also played Stan the shopkeeper in the children's series Wizadora during the 1990s. In 1998 he was the subject of This Is Your Life.

From 2003 to 2010, Murphy appeared regularly as Alvin Smedley in Last of the Summer Wine. He played Maurice in all three episodes of the ITV comedy The Booze Cruise, appeared in the 2010 Hustle episode "The Thieving Mistake," and took roles in The Catherine Tate Show, This Is Jinsy, and Benidorm. He appeared as Frank Dobson in The Cafe between 2011 and 2013, and played music teacher Frank Field-Williams in the 2013 Christmas special of Man Down. In 2019 he recorded the role of Robert Collins in the Big Finish Productions audio Doctor Who story "The Home Guard." Murphy also appeared alongside his wife, actress Linda Regan, in the podcast sitcom Barmy Dale, playing the role of Mayor, Lord Palmer. In 2023 he wrote the introduction to the autobiography of his Oh, What a Lovely War co-star Larry Dann.

His stage credits included the title role of Sweeney Todd in Christopher Bond's Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at Theatre Royal Stratford East in 1973, Arthur Lucan in On Your Way, Riley at the Queen's Theatre in February and March 1983, Herbert Soppitt in When We Are Married at the Whitehall Theatre in 1986, and Jim in Roll on Friday at Watford Palace Theatre in October 1989. From October 1987 to July 1991 he played Ernest Bond in the BBC Radio 4 drama series Citizens.

Murphy married Carol Gibson in 1957, and the couple had two sons, Trevor and Kevin. He married Linda Regan in 1995, and the couple lived in Kent. His grandson Martin Murphy is a writer, director, and performer whose credits include The Ghost of White Hart Lane (2024), Midas (2023), and Jonny Feathers the Rock & Roll Pigeon (2022), the latter two staged at the Park Theatre. Murphy was set to appear in a film with his wife that was scheduled to begin shooting in June 2025. He died of cancer at his home in Kent on 2 February 2025, at the age of 92.