Kenneth MacDonald (English actor)

For the American actor, see Kenneth MacDonald (American actor).

Kenneth MacDonald (20 November 1950 – 6 August 2001) was an English actor who was best known for the parts of Gunner Nobby Clark in It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Mike Fisher in Only Fools and Horses.^[1]

Kenneth MacDonald
Born	(1950-11-20)20 November 1950 Manchester, England
Died	6 August 2001(2001-08-06) (aged 50) Hawaii, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1966–2001
Spouse	Sheila MacDonald
Children	2
Parent	Bill MacDonald

Early life

MacDonald was born in Manchester, the son of Scottish heavyweight wrestling champion Bill MacDonald, who died of kidney failure at the age of 43 when Kenneth was 13.^[2]

He attended Xaverian College preparatory school in Fallowfield, Manchester, St Anthony's preparatory school in Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, and went on to St Bernardine's Franciscan College in Buckingham, where he took part in school productions, notably The Business of Good Government, in which he played Herod, and Arsenic and Old Lace. Ken left school at eighteen to help support his mother Emily. He took a job at a Kellogg's cornflakes factory.^[3] During night shifts he would perform Hamlet and other Shakespeare plays that he had learned at school, earning the nickname "Hamlet".^[2]

Career

MacDonald's first television role was as Red Whiskers in the Television film Billy Budd in 1966. MacDonald would not act professionally for another six years before playing Benny in an episode of Softly, Softly in 1972.He moved to London in 1972 and joined the National Youth Theatre.^[4] He appeared in a 1977 episode of Dad's Army.^[5]

MacDonald featured regularly in the BBC sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum, running from 3 January 1974 to 3 September 1981.^[6] It was set in the jungles of Burma and India during the Second World War and MacDonald played the character Gunner "Nobby" Clark, a member of a Royal Artillery Concert Party.

MacDonald (far right) in the lineup of the It Ain't Half Hot Mum theme song, 1974

In 1975, he made a guest appearance in series 2, episode 1, of Last of the Summer Wine.

When he landed the part of pub landlord Mike Fisher in the Only Fools and Horses episode "Who's a Pretty Boy?" in 1983, it was initially believed to be a one-episode role.^[7] However, the character became a series regular, appearing until Christmas 1996.^[8] Also in 1996 he played Inspector Jennings in Heartbeat series 6 episode 16.

MacDonald also appeared in the Granada Television Rentals television adverts of the late 1970s and made a cameo appearance in one episode of Goodnight Sweetheart, playing Mr Jones alongside his Only Fools and Horses co-star Nicholas Lyndhurst.^[9] He also appeared in an episode of The Thin Blue Line as a club owner.^[10] In 1996 he played DI McCluskey in Crocodile Shoes II alongside Jimmy Nail.^[11] In 1992, MacDonald had a brief appearance on the Channel 4 soap Brookside as George Webb, a racist owner of a petrol station.^[12]

His last role to air before his death was as a Minder in a 2001 episode of Time Gentlemen Please.

Posthumous releases

Seven days after his death, MacDonald's guest appearance on BBC television drama Merseybeat was aired, with the episode dedicated to his memory.^[13] His last film role, as Pete in the film Dream, was first released to theatres on 26 August.^[14] His character Mike in Only Fools and Horses was not killed off; when the programme was revived for three episodes from 2001, after MacDonald's death, Mike was imprisoned for trying to embezzle money from the brewery.^[15] The last of his roles to be aired was as Stephen Pearce in an episode of The Last Detective aired in 2003.

Personal life

MacDonald met his wife Sheila while he was appearing in panto in Crewe in 1976.^[16] She was the costume designer at the time. They had two children, Charlotte and William, who were fourteen and fifteen at the time of his death.^[17]

Death

MacDonald died suddenly on 6 August 2001 at the age of 50 after suffering from a heart attack while on holiday with his family in Hawaii to celebrate the birthdays of his wife and daughter.^[1][17][18] He was buried in a private family-only funeral^[18] on 16 August 2001 in Section Z, Grave 140 at Teddington Cemetery, Teddington, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.^[19]

Only Fools and Horses star David Jason said of MacDonald's death: "It is like losing a member of the family, because he was one of the warmest, kindest people that I have had the good fortune to meet."^[17]

A few months before MacDonald's death, in February 2001, fellow It Ain't Half Hot Mum co-star Christopher Mitchell died of cancer aged 52.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	Breaking Glass[20]	Security Man[21]
1984	Laughterhouse [22]	Peter Armitage
1997	My Night with Reg	Benny
2001	Dream	Pete; Posthumous release[21][14]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1966	Billy Budd	Red Whiskers[21]	TV movie
1972	Softly, Softly: Task Force	Benny[21]	Episode: "Execution"
1973	Coronation Street [20]	Mr. Worsley[21]	2 episodes
	Z-Cars[20]	Len Fordham[21]	Episode: "Routine"
1974	Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt	Buzz[21]	Episode: "Oh No- It's Selwyn Froggit"
	Upstairs, Downstairs	Soldier[21]	Episode: "If You Were the Only Girl in the World"
1974–1981	It Ain't Half Hot Mum	Gunner 'Nobby' Clark[21]	56 episodes
1975	Last of the Summer Wine	Mechanic[21]	Episode: "Forked Lightning"[23]
1975–1981	Play for Today[20]	School Teacher / John[21]	2 episodes
1977	Dad's Army	The Army Sergeant[21]	Episode: "Number Engaged"[23]
1977–1979	The Dick Emery Show		3 episodes[21]
1978	Come Back Mrs. Noah	Space Hen[21]	Voice; Episode: "In Orbit"[23]
1979	The Famous Five	Policeman[21]	2 episodes
1980–1981	BBC2 Playhouse	Albie Warren / Bar Steward[21]	2 episodes
1983	The All Electric Amusement Arcade	Cllr. Hogan[21]	Episode: "Episode #1.4"
	Farmers Arms	Alvin[21]	TV movie
	Cannon and Ball	Ship Crew Member[21]	Episode: "Episode #5.3"
1983–1996	Only Fools and Horses	Mike Fisher[21]	30 episodes
1984	Tenko[20]	Corporal[21]	Episode: "Episode #3.7"
1985	Shine on Harvey Moon	Spiv 1[21]	Episode: "Love Is Blind"[23]
	Silas Marner	Bryce[21]	TV movie
1987	One by One	Sergeant Barnes[21]	Episode: "Remember the Humble Guinea-Pig"
1987–1990	Boon	Arthur Dixon / Moses Wilson[21]	2 episodes
1988	Brush Strokes	Reg[21]	Episode: "Episode #3.4"[23]
1990	Chain	Hickman[21]	Episode: "Lennox"
1991	About Face	Customs Supervisor[21]	Episode: "Monkey Business"[23]
1992	Press Gang	Marvin Bixby[21]	Episode: "Love and War"
	Surgical Spirit	Clifford[21]	Episode: "The Fence"[23]
	Brookside	George Webb[21]	24 episodes
1994	Capital Lives	Governor[21]	Episode: "Joan"
	Zig & Zag: Entertainment Cops	Mike Fisher[21]	TV Movie
1996	And the Beat Goes On	Lance Corporal Peck[21]	Episode: "Episode #1.7"
	No Bananas	Foreman[21]	Episode: "Dunkirk"
	Crocodile Shoes II	D.I. McClusky[21]	4 episodes
	Heartbeat	Inspector Jennings[21]	Episode: "Old Friends"
	The Thin Blue Line	Nightclub Manager[21]	Episode: "The Green Eyed Monster"[23]
1997	The Bill[20]	Graham Francis[21]	Episode: "A Policeman's Lot"
	Performance	Benny[21]	Episode: "My Night with Reg"
	Touching Evil[20]	Cyril[21]	4 episodes
1998	The Vanishing Man	Police Officer[21]	Episode: "Out on a Limb"
	A Rather English Marriage	Barman[21]	TV movie
1999	Goodnight Sweetheart	Mr. Jones[21]	Episode: "Something Fishie"[23]
	David Copperfield	Littimer[21]	Episode: "Episode #1.2"
2000	The Mrs Bradley Mysteries	Alf Wolstenholm[21]	Episode: "Laurels Are Poison"
	The Peter Principle	Ian Kopas[21]	Episode: "Greyhound Day"[23]
	Cor, Blimey!	Eddie[21]	TV Movie
	Heartburn Hotel	O'Hare[21]	Episode: "Siege"; credited as Kenneth Macdonald[23]
	The Sins	Oy[21]	7 episodes
2001	Time Gentlemen Please	Ms. Jackson's Minder[21]	Episode: "All the World's a Stag"; last role shown while still alive[23]
	Merseybeat	Rob Eliot[21]	Episode: "Dead Time"; Posthumous release
	Peak Practice	Neil Jones[21]	Episode: "Unhappy Will / Claire's Revenge"; Posthumous release
2003	The Last Detective	Stephen Pearce[21]	Episode: "Pilot"; Posthumous release