Other livesTelevisionObituaryAndrew MacLachlan obituary
My father, Andrew MacLachlan, who has died aged 77, was an actor who worked for more than 30 years in television drama, film and theatre; he also did many voiceovers. Perhaps his most famous screen moment was as the giggling guard in the Biggus Dickus scene in the 1979 Monty Python film Life of Brian.
Born in Anglesey, north Wales, during the second world war, Andrew was the younger son of Violet (nee Hicks) and Geoffrey MacLachlan. His father was a captain in the Irish Guards and allegedly an MI6 agent. After the war, his parents divorced, and Andrew lived with his mother, brother Simon and grandfather, the architect Fred Hicks, in a converted Martello tower in Malahide, north of Dublin.
At St Edward’s school, Oxford, Andrew formed a skiffle band, the Sidney Street Ramblers. He went on to study philosophy, politics and economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, University.
He admitted that he did not do much work there and spent time playing the guitar and a lot of cricket. He later played cricket for the St Edward’s old boys’ team as an outstanding all-rounder who was said to have once bowled Colin Cowdrey out.
In London in the 1960s, Andrew taught English in a prep school and performed in folk and cabaret clubs as a singer and guitarist. He met Georgina Morton while they were both working as temporary staff at Harrods at Christmas, and they married in 1966. They settled in Putney in 1968 and had three daughters – Natasha, Vashti and me.
Andrew got an office job with the Heating and Ventilation Contractors Association to support his family, but at the age of 38 he decided to hang up his suit and try his luck as a professional actor. He rang an Oxford friend, the Monty Python actor Terry Jones, to ask him for a job. Terry responded: “We are making a little comedy film about the birth of Christ … fancy coming to Tunisia to play some parts?”
So Andrew’s first job was in Life of Brian, in which he played a Roman centurion. After a raid on the house of the People’s Front of Judea, he “found this spoon, sir”. He came up with the line himself and it is often quoted by fans. He went on to appear in many Python-related films, including Time Bandits (1981) and A Fish Called Wanda (1988), and such TV classics as The Professionals, Tales of the Unexpected and Foyle’s War.
Andrew was a cryptic crossword fanatic, completing the Guardian and the Times puzzles every day. As an occasionally out of work actor, he would be found propping up the bar with his friends in the pubs of Putney, finishing the crossword. His family and friends will remember him for his wit, love of the English language and his ability to win the argument.
He is survived by Georgina and their daughters, four grandchildren, Gabriella, Theo, Romy and Camille, and his brother.
This article was amended on 4 March 2019. Malahide is to the north rather than the south of Dublin.
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