Disability campaigner and former actor Lord Brian Rix

Actor and disability campaigner Lord Rix has died aged 92, his family said.

He had given up a long stage career to champion those with learning disabilities.

As Brian Rix, the crossbench peer was one of Britain’s most popular TV and stage actors.

He brought laughter to millions of people and his name was almost permanently in lights in London’s West End, where he had a long association with the Whitehall Theatre.

After the birth of his daughter, Shelley, who was born with Down’s syndrome, he gave up the stage to became one of the country’s foremost campaigners for people with learning disabilities, which led him to become chairman and later secretary-general of Mencap.

He used his fame to draw attention to the financial and social needs of people like his daughter.

Lord Rix regularly spoke in the House of Lords, where he expressed his frustration and anger that he was not able to do more than he did for his daughter, who died in July 2005.

He was born into a wealthy Yorkshire family in 1924. His father was a successful ship owner and his mother a producer of amateur dramatics.

He joined a touring company as a trainee actor at 18 and made his first West End appearance in Twelfth Night in 1943, but had to serve in the RAF and as a Bevin boy during the Second World War.

He later formed his own repertory company and became an actor-manager across Yorkshire before taking one of his early productions, Reluctant Heroes, to the Whitehall in 1950.

It was the start of a brilliant association with the theatre that lasted for nearly three decades.

He became a CBE in 1977, a knight in 1986 and a life peer in 1992.

His wife Elspet Gray died in hospital aged 83 in February 2013.

Lord Rix is survived by his two sons Jamie and Jonathan, daughter Louisa and grandchildren.

Lord Rix.

Lou Pearlman.