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|---|---|---|---|---|
 Richard O'Sullivan played the role of Robin Tripp on the British TV series Man About the House which was the inspiration for the Three's Company series on ABC-TV. | ||||
| Personal Information | ||||
| Gender: | Male | |||
| Born: | 7 May 1944 | |||
| Birthplace: | Chiswick, Middlesex, England | |||
| Career/Family Information | ||||
| Occupation/ Career: |
Actor | |||
| Years active: | 1953–1996 1999, 2006-present | |||
| Character information | ||||
| Appeared on: | Man About the House Robin's Nest | |||
| Character played: | Robin Tripp | |||
Richard O'Sullivan (born 7 May 1944) is a veteran British actor and former child star who is probably best known for his role as Robin Tripp in the 1970s sitcoms Man About the House (1973–1976) and Robin's Nest, the series which inspired the American sitcoms Three's Company and Three's a Crowd, and as the title character in the period family adventure series Dick Turpin. Richard also starred in the UK TV series Doctor at Large, Doctor in Charge, Trouble in Mind, Alcock and Gandet and Me and My Girl.
Early Life[]
Richard O'Sullivan's early education was at St. John the Evangelist's RC Primary School in Brentford, Middlesex. After a family holiday in Ireland as a boy, O'Sullivan returned with a strong Irish accent and was sent to the famous Corona Theatre School to try to get rid of it, thus starting a distinguished acting career. He appeared in his first film at the age of eight.
Career[]
His earliest recognised work was the film It's Great to Be Young (1956) where he appeared alongside John Mills. He appeared alongside Keith Michell and Belinda Lee in the opulent swashbuckler, Dangerous Exile (1957) as Louis XVII, the ten-year-old son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Also during this period he featured in two episodes of the television series The Adventures of Robin Hood (1957) alongside Richard Greene, including as Will Dale in the episode "The Challenge of the Black Knight". He also acted in one Carry On film, Carry On Teacher (1959) in the small role of student Robin Stevens. Around the same time, he was cast in the role of Pierre van der Mal who appears in an an early scene of The Nun's Story (1959), in which he bids farewell to his sister Gabrielle (Audrey Hepburn) as she leaves home to enter the convent.
In the early 1960s as a teen, he appeared in two Cliff Richard directed films: The Young Ones (1961), and Wonderful Life (1964). O'Sullivan also featured alongside Elizabeth Taylor in the film Cleopatra as Cleopatra's young brother, Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII.
For the remainder of the 1960s he was a jobbing actor appearing in such TV series as Dr. Syn:the Scarecrow, Emergency Ward 10, Redcap, Danger Man, No Hiding Place, Dixon of Dock Green, Strange Report and many more, until in 1971 he was offered the role of Dr. Lawrence Bingham in the LWT sitcoms Doctor at Large and later Doctor in Charge. In 1972 he also had a main role in the ITV/Thames Television comedy Alcock and Gander. In 1973 he starred as Robin Tripp, a trainee chef, in the flatshare sitcom Man About the House written by Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke. When the series ended in 1976, he continued playing Robin Tripp in the spin-off sitcom Robin's Nest, in which Robin sets up a bistro with funding from his girlfriend Vicky's (Tessa Wyatt) father James Nicholls (Tony Britton).
Robin's Nest was a big success and the first UK sitcom to feature an unmarried couple cohabiting. To tie-in with the series, he wrote a recipe book called Man About The Kitchen, which was published in 1980. He also wrote the Robin's Nest theme tune, which was arranged by Brian Bennett. During this period, O'Sullivan also appeared in adverts for British Gas plc.
In 1979 he starred in the LWT children's drama series Dick Turpin, in the title role, which ran until 1982, then he played the widowed Simon Harrup in sitcom Me And My Girl broadcast from 1984 to 1988, co-starring Tim Brooke-Taylor and Joan Sanderson and also produced by LWT. In the 1990s, his profile decreased although he was never short of work. His final acting role was in a 1996 one-off satire entitled Holed with Tony Robinson about a suburban golf club.
Recent Years[]
O'Sullivan largely retired from public life in 1996. His last appearance on television was as a guest on a 1999 edition of This Is Your Life held in honor of his Doctor... co-star George Layton. O' Sullivan had himself been the subject of the show in 1974.
O'Sullivan suffered a stroke late in 2003. He is now living in Brinsworth House, a retirement home for actors and performers in England, run by the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund.[1] In 2006, O'Sullivan recorded commentary for the DVD release of Carry On Teacher.
Television Roles[]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1971 1972-1973 |
Doctor at Large Doctor in Charge |
Lawrence Bingham |
| 1971-1973 | Now Look Here | Keith |
| 1972 | Alcock and Gander | Richard Gander |
| 1973 to 1976 1977-1981 |
Man About the House Robin's Nest |
Robin Tripp |
| 1979-1982 | Dick Turpin | Dick Turpin |
| 1984 to 1988 | Me and My Girl | Simon Harrap |
| 1991 | Trouble in Mind | Adam Charlesworth |
Filmography[]
- Dance, Little Lady (1954)
- The Green Scarf (1954)
- Make Me an Offer (1954)
- The Dark Avenger (1955)
- Jacqueline (1956)
- It's Great to Be Young (1956)
- No Time for Tears (1957)
- Carry On Teacher (1959)
- The Nun's Story (1959)
- The Young Ones (1960)
- Spare the Rod (1961)
- Cleopatra (1963)
- wonderful Life (US title: Swingers' Paradise[2] 1964)
- Every Day's a Holiday (1965)
- A Dandy in Aspic (1968)
- The Haunted House of Horror (1969)
- Futtock's End (1970)
- Au Pair Girls (1972)
- Father, Dear Father (1973)
- Man About the House (1974)
- Can You Keep It Up for a Week? (1975) cameo as Mr Rose
