Appetite for ‘Wine’ . . . and cheese
PETER SALLIS, the voice of irrepressible, cheeseloving inventor Wallace in the Wallace and Gromit cartoons, has died in London. He was 96.
Sallis caught the acting bug as a Royal Air Force serviceman during World War 2 and later attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
He became famous in Britain as a star of longrunning sitcom Last of the Summer Wine, in which he played the part of Norman Clegg from 1973 to 2010.
The only cast member to appear in every episode, he later .appeared as Clegg’s father in the prequelFirst of the Summer Wine (1988), set in 1939.
Millions around the world know Sallis’ voice from animator Nick Park’s Wallace and Gromit ‘‘claymation’’ series of shorts and features, which charted the adventures of a tealoving
Yorkshireman inventor and his levelheaded dog Gromit, recognising Wallace’s downtoearth Yorkshire accent and frequent exclamation ‘‘cheese, Gromit!’’
Two of the films, The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave, won Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film in 1993 and 1995 respectively.
‘‘Peter was always my first and only choice for Wallace,’’ Park said.
‘‘I knew him, of course, from the very popular, longrunning BBC series Last Of The Summer Wine.
‘‘He brought his unique gift and humour to all that he did, and encapsulated the very British art of the droll and understated.
‘‘Working with Peter was always a delight and I will miss his wry, unpredictable humour and silliness — that started the moment he greeted you at the door, and didn’t stop when the mic was switched off.
‘‘He had naturally funny bones and was a great storyteller and raconteur off stage, too, and would keep us amused for hours. He could make the simplest incident sound hilarious — just by the way he said it.
‘‘When I look back I’m so blessed and fortunate that he had the generosity of spirit to help out a poor film school student back in the early 1980s, when we first recorded together, when neither of us had any idea what Wallace and Gromit might become.’’
Although Sallis was born and brought up in London, his two best remembered roles required him to adopt the accent and mannerisms of a Northerner. He also voiced Rat in The Wind in the Willows, appeared in Danger Man in 1961 , and in Doctor Who in 1967.
He retired from acting in 2010, having earlier been awarded an OBE in 2007 for services to drama.
British actor