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Max Wall
Wall as Professor Wallofski
Born	Maxwell George Lorimer (1908-03-12)12 March 1908 Lambeth, London, England
Died	21 May 1990(1990-05-21) (aged 82) Westminster, London, England
Resting place	Highgate Cemetery, London, England
Occupation(s)	Actor, comedian
Years active	1934–1990
Children	5[1]

Maxwell George Lorimer (12 March 1908 – 21 May 1990), known professionally asMax Wall, was an English actor and comedian whose performing career coveredmusic hall, films, television and theatre.^[2]

Wall was born Maxwell George Lorimer, son of the successfulmusic hall entertainerJack (Jock) Lorimer, aScottish comedy actor fromForfar, known for his songs and dancing, and his wife Stella (born Maud Clara Mitchison). He was born nearthe Oval, at 37 Glenshaw Mansions,Brixton Road,Lambeth, London SW9.^{[citation needed]} In 1916, during aWorld War I air raid, Max and his elder brother Alex were saved from death by a cast-iron bed frame, but his younger brother Bunty and their Aunt Betty, who was looking after them, were killed by a bomb dropped from aGermanZeppelin which also destroyed their house.^[3]

Max and Alex went to live with their father and his family, whilst their mother went to live with Harry Wallace, whom she had met on tour. When their father died oftuberculosis in 1920, aged 37, their mother married Harry Wallace, and they all moved to a pub inEssex.^[4]

Wall auditioned for a part with a touring theatre company, and made his stage début at the age of 14 as Jack inMother Goose with a travellingpantomime company inDevon andCornwall featuringGeorge Lacey. In 1925 he was a speciality dancer in the London Revue at theLyceum. He became determined not to rely on his father's name, so he abbreviated Maxwell to Max, and his stepfather's name Wallace, to Wall.^[5]

He is best remembered for his ludicrously attired and hilariously struttingProfessor Wallofski.John Cleese has acknowledged Wall's influence on his own "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch forMonty Python's Flying Circus.^[6] After appearing in manymusicals and stage comedies in the 1930s, Wall's career went into decline, and he was reduced to working in obscurenightclubs. He then joined theRoyal Air Force duringWorld War II and served for three years until he was invalided out in 1943.^[5]

Wall married dancer Marion Pola, and the couple had five children. In an interview with the family in the mid-1950s,Tit-Bits magazine wrote

The kind of private jokes you find in all the nicest families flourish with the Walls. After Max and his wife, Marion, had their first son, Michael, it seemed kind of natural to make a corner in names beginning with 'M', and there are now Melvyn (aged nine), Martin (nearly five) and the four-month-old twins Meredith and Maxine. ... In the same way, because the Walls, like other couples married during the war, were eventually thrilled when they found a house with four walls of their own, they decided to call it just that, only Martin arrived and made it 'Five Walls'.^[5]

In a rare outing to the musical stage he played Hines in the original London production ofThe Pajama Game, which opened at theLondon Coliseum in October 1955 and ran for 588 performances. In that year he began an affair with Jennifer Chimes, the 1955Miss Great Britain. He divorced his wife and married Chimes in 1956. The relationship attracted widespread press condemnation. In 1957 Wall experienced mental health issues that affected his work. Chimes and Wall divorced in 1962.^[5]

In 1966, he appeared as Père Ubu inAlfred Jarry'sUbu Roi,^[7] and in 1972 he toured withMott the Hoople on their "Rock n' Roll Circus Tour", gaining a new audience.^[8] Wall re-emerged during the 1970s when producers and directors rediscovered his comic talents, along with the expressive power of his tragic clown face and the distinctive sad falling cadences of his voice. He secured television appearances and, having attractedSamuel Beckett's attention, he won parts inWaiting for Godot in 1979 andKrapp's Last Tape in 1984.^[9] His straight acting gained him this review in 1974: "Max Wall makesOlivier look like an amateur inThe Entertainer at Greenwich Theatre...".^[10]

He also appeared inCrossroads (as Walter Soper, 1982 to 1983),Coronation Street (as Harry Payne, 1978) and what was thenEmmerdale Farm (as Arthur Braithwaite, 1978).^[2] He played ex-con Ernie Dodds inMinder in 1982, withGeorge Cole.^[11]

Wall played one of the inventors in the 1968 filmChitty Chitty Bang Bang and in 1977 he was seen as King Bruno the Questionable inTerry Gilliam's filmJabberwocky.^[2] In the 1970s and 80s, Wall occasionally performed a one-man stage show,Aspects of Max Wall, in which he recaptured the humour of old-timemusic hall theatre.^[12]

On 1 April 1977, Wall's version ofIan Dury's song "England's Glory" (which featured in Dury's stage showApples) was issued onStiff Records (BUY 12), backed with "Dream Tobacco" and given away with the albumHits Greatest Stiffs.^[13] Wall also appeared onstage with Dury at theHammersmith Odeon in 1978, but was poorly received, and said "They only want the walk".^[14]

In 1980 Wall appeared in Thames Television's twelve-part seriesBorn and Bred as retired music hall legend Tommy Tonsley, trying with various degrees of success to keep his huge south London family in line.^[15] In 1981, he played "Ernie", a central character in theMinder TV series episode "The Birdman of Wormwood Scrubs".^[16]

Between 1982 and 1984 he appeared as Tombs in theBBC Twoadaptation ofJane based on theDaily Mirrorcomic-strip character and filmed with similar "comic-strip frames".^[17] In the second series his place in the castlist was upgraded to second, afterGlynis Barber.^[18]

In 1987 Wall appeared as Flintwinch in the BBC mini-seriesLittle Dorrit.^[19] His last film appearance was in 1989 in the 12-minute filmA Fear of Silence, a dark tale of a man who drives a stranger to a confession of murder by answering only "yes" or "no" to his questions; those two words, repeated, were his only dialogue. The film won a gold award in the New York Film and TV Festival.^[9]

On the afternoon of 20 May 1990 Wall fell atSimpson's-in-the-Strand incentral London, fracturing his skull. He was conveyed by ambulance toWestminster Hospital in an unconscious state, but never regained consciousness, and died there early in the next morning, at the age of 82. His body was buried atHighgate Cemetery.^[20]

In his later years, Wall lived in a rented room at 45, Southbrook Road, Lee Green, South East London.

Wall had four sons and a daughter.^[1]

There is a Max Wall Society, which aims to perpetuate his memory. In 2006 the Society placed an unofficialblue plaque on Wall's birthplace in South London.^[21]

• Lorimer, a surname of Scottish origin

• Max Wall atIMDb
• New York Times Obituary
• Max Wall's grandfather Will Mitcham and family

• 1908 births
• 1990 deaths
• Burials at Highgate Cemetery
• Accidental deaths in London
• Accidental deaths from falls
• English male film actors
• English male comedians
• British slapstick comedians
• British comedy musicians
• English people of Scottish descent
• English male soap opera actors
• English male stage actors
• British music hall performers
• Actors from the London Borough of Lambeth
• 20th-century English male actors
• 20th-century English comedians
• Royal Air Force personnel of World War II
• Male actors from London
• Comedians from the London Borough of Lambeth
• People from Brixton
• People from Stockwell
• Pseudonymous actors
• Pseudonymous comedians
• Stiff Records artists

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