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Vivian MacKerrell

Vivian Alan James MacKerrell (23 May 1944 – 2 March 1995) was a British actor of the 1960s and 1970s. As a student at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, he shared a house in Albert Street, Camden, London with the musician David Dundas and film director Bruce Robinson, writer and director of Withnail & I (1987). He was the basis for Withnail, a memorable character in British cinema. MacKerrell had only a handful of television and film credits, which included the Play for Today Edna, the Inebriate Woman (1971) and Ghost Story (1974), a horror film which also starred Marianne Faithfull. His career was curtailed by heavy drinking and he suffered a premature death from throat cancer, which Robinson once attributed to MacKerrell drinking lighter fluid [1]. This is portrayed in a notorious scene from Withnail & I; MacKerrell was reputedly unable to see for days after the incident.Fellow house mate and actor Michael Feast, described MacKerrell as a "Splenetic wastrel of a fop", whilst Robinson has said he was a "Jack of all but a master of none", declaring himself a great actor but doing nothing to prove this. The Withnail creator has also claimed that MacKerrell was the funniest person he has ever met.A biography of Mackerrell, Vivian and I, by Penzance-based author Colin Bacon was published in 2010.