Richard O'Sullivan, Man About the House star, dies at 82 — SkimNews
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- Richard O'Sullivan has died aged 82, having begun as a child actor with his first screen appearance at age seven
- Between 1972 and 1981 he appeared in more than 100 episodes of peak-time ITV comedies, including Doctor in Charge, the career-defining Man About the House (mid-1970s), its spin-off Robin's Nest, and the highwayman drama Dick Turpin (1979–82)
- The premise of 'Man About the House' — Robin sharing a platonic flat with two single women played by Paula Wilcox and Sally Thomsett — required formal approval from the TV regulator to depict a 'mixed' house, a cultural marker for the era
- A running gag in the show had Robin feigning homosexuality to placate landlords George and Mildred, played by Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce; their spin-off 'George and Mildred' ran alongside 'Robin's Nest,' giving ITV a franchise with core audiences of tens of millions
- His off-screen relationship with 'Robin's Nest' co-star Tessa Wyatt became tabloid front-page news when she left DJ Tony Blackburn to be with him
- After five successive hit series, his career wound down due to declining health; his final screen credit was 1996 and, following a 2002 stroke, he was cared for at Brinsworth House, the entertainers' retirement home in London
Why it matters: O'Sullivan's peak-time ITV comedies — watched by tens of millions — used the regulator-approved 'mixed' flat of 'Man About the House' to smuggle 1970s sexual liberation into British family viewing, spawning one of the era's biggest sitcom franchises and a tabloid-courting personal life that blurred on- and off-screen personas.
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