John Louis Mansi obituary

Slight of build, with bushy dark hair, large eyes and a heavy jowl, the character actor John Louis Mansi, who has died aged 83, had an apprehensive facial expression that could be transformed by an eager grin. Following years of peripheral roles – typically as waiters and gangsters – he reached a wide audience as an eccentric Gestapo agent in the BBC's second world war sitcom 'Allo 'Allo, which ran from 1982 to 1992.

Mansi made his 'Allo 'Allo debut in 1985. One of the show's creators, David Croft, cast him in the series after recalling Mansi's performance as a Peruvian "native" in an episode of Ripping Yarns (1977), written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones. Initially billed in 'Allo 'Allo as "Gestapo man", he was eventually given the name Von Smallhausen. His character's keenness was rivalled by his incompetence. In one scene, he and his superior, Herr Flick, carry out radio surveillance, but Von Smallhausen tunes into the BBC programme ITMA (It's That Man Again) and starts laughing along with Tommy Handley's catchphrases. Mansi continued with the series until its end. Croft's co-writer, Jeremy Lloyd, had worked on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, and Arte Johnson's German character in that sketch show may have influenced Mansi's role.

Mansi was born John Patrick Adams in London to an Irish mother, Catherine, and an Italian restaurateur father, Rudolfo. (He would later play a harassed chef in an Italian restaurant in the 1977 TV drama Spaghetti Two-Step, written by Jack Rosenthal.) He had a distant relationship with his father and was placed in a succession of orphanages until the age of 16. In 1943 he joined the merchant navy and was posted to west Africa. After a spell in the RAF at Uxbridge, north-west London, he trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, on a merchant navy grant.

Credited as John Mansi – using his father's surname – he made his film debut in The Secret People (1952) for Ealing Studios, with Audrey Hepburn in the lead role. He then had several roles in Dr John Bull, Leigh Henry's play about the composer, at Bolton's theatre club in London in 1953. Once he had begun to pick up regular acting work, he established a permanent home for his mother, who had been living in Salvation Army hostels.

After acquiring the nickname Louie – due to his perceived resemblance to the owner of a sweetshop in a series of B-movies starring the Bowery Boys – he changed his professional name to Louis Mansi. As such, he appeared in a Spike Milligan special in 1961 and regularly supported Michael Bentine in the BBC comedy show It's a Square World (1963). He then appeared in the Beatles' Help! (1965), playing one of the minions, led by Leo McKern, attempting to retrieve a ring from Ringo's finger.

He appeared on stage in the farces Flat Spin (1966) and Uproar in the House (1967). His character in the latter, which starred Nicholas Parsons and Joan Sims, appeared in only the first 10 minutes of the play, so, after making his exit, Mansi left the Whitehall theatre in order to take up his other job, cleaning offices in the West End. He then returned for his curtain call.

He enjoyed speaking Italian in his scene in The Italian Job (1969), as a functionary bewildered by the traffic jams staged to cover up the gold heist. At the Cambridge theatre in London, in February 1971, he played an Italian servant, supporting Ingrid Bergman and Kenneth Williams, in Captain Brassbound's Conversion by George Bernard Shaw. One of his favourite roles, outside his usual field, was in Revolution: Fidel Castro (1970), broadcast for BBC2's Thirty Minute Theatre, as a peasant turned informer.

Mansi's later credits included Hard Road (1988) and Play Me Something (1989). He retired in 1998.

John Louis Mansi (John Patrick Adams), actor, born 8 November 1926; died 6 August 2010

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