Leon Lissek

Leon Lissek (19 January 1939 – 13 January 2022) was an Australian-born British actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television across several decades. Born in Australia, he began acting at the Kadimah in Melbourne during his school years and continued performing as part of the Marlowe Society in the late 1950s while briefly enrolled in a law course at Melbourne University, which he left partway through. In 1963 he relocated to England, where he would build the majority of his professional career.

Lissek made his Broadway debut in 1965 and remained active on the New York stage through 1989. His Broadway credits include The Merchant of Venice and The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade. As a Jewish actor, Lissek publicly defended performing in The Merchant of Venice, a work that some regard as anti-Semitic. His stage work extended beyond Broadway; a 1980 production of Company performed in Exeter featured Lissek in a role described by reviewers as admirably cast.

His screen career encompassed more than 80 film appearances. The film adaptation of Marat/Sade in 1967, in which he played Lavoisier, marked the beginning of his work in cinema. Subsequent film roles included Avdeyev in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), the Chikana Proprietor in The Horsemen (1971), the First Refugee in Time Bandits (1981), and the Bald Man in Bar in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988).

On television, Lissek was recognized for his recurring role as Hans Kaufman in the Australian drama series The Sullivans, which he joined in 1976, and for his appearance as Bruno di Marco in the long-running British soap opera EastEnders in 1998. His television work also included roles in The Avengers, Shogun, The Professionals, Ever Decreasing Circles, and Noble House, among many others.

In his personal life, Lissek married actress Heather Canning in 1969; she died in 1996. Lissek himself died in Slough, Berkshire, in January 2022 at the age of 82. His death was publicly announced by the entertainment union Equity in June of that year.