Britain’s king of farce, Brian Rix, dies at 92
ACTOR and disability campaigner Brian Rix has died aged 92, less than two weeks after he called for a law on assisted dying.
Lord Rix, who had been suffering from kidney failure, was for years a fixture on the West End stage. He found fame in a string of Whitehall farces, and in dozens of TV comedies.
He became a dedicated champion of people with learning difficulties after his eldest child, Shelley, was born with Down’s syndrome. Lord Rix became president of Mencap after also serving as secretary general and chairman.
He had previously opposed an assisted dying law, voting against such a Bill in 2006 because of his concern that people with learning disabilities might become unwilling victims of euthanasia. But earlier this month, he revealed he had changed his mind after his own illness had left him in constant discomfort. He wrote to Lords Speaker Baroness D’Souza to appeal for a change in legislation so he could ‘slip away peacefully’.
Lord Rix made his first West End appearance in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in 1943.
He saw service in the RAF and was a Bevin Boy during the Second World War, working in the mines to help keep Britain supplied with coal.
He later formed his own repertory company and took a production to London’s Whitehall Theatre in 1950, starting an association which would last nearly three decades.
Lord Rix was made a CBE in 1977, knighted in 1986 and made a life peer in 1992, sitting in the Lords as a cross-bencher. His daughter Shelley died in 2005 and his wife Elspet in 2013. He is survived by three other children.
Mencap chairman Derek Lewis said: ‘Brian brought about vastly improved life opportunities for those with learning disabilities. He will be greatly missed.’