Richard O'Sullivan

Early life

O'Sullivan was born to John and Ellen O'Sullivan (née Fleming) on 7 May 1944, in Chiswick, England, where he grew up with his younger brother. His early education was at St John the Evangelist's RC Primary School in Brentford, Middlesex. After a family holiday in Ireland as a boy, he returned with a strong Irish accent and was sent to the Corona Theatre School to soften it.

Career as child actor

O'Sullivan appeared in his first film at the age of eight as an extra as one of the children singing in the Sunday school sequence of The Yellow Balloon, filmed in 1952 and released in 1953. He then played the main character in The Stranger's Hand, starring Alida Valli and Trevor Howard, in 1953.

Possibly his earliest television work was his part in a Sherlock Holmes episode, "The Case of the Unlucky Gambler", broadcast on 18 July 1955. He appeared in the Children's Film Foundation's first serial, Raiders of the River, also produced in 1955. He also acted the part of Don Armado's pageboy Moth in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost directed by Peter Hall at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford, in 1956. In the film It's Great to Be Young (1956), he appeared alongside John Mills.

In 1957, he played the title character in the BBC Television five part Sunday serial Little Lord Fauntleroy, and then with Keith Michell and Belinda Lee in the opulent and swashbuckling Dangerous Exile playing Louis XVII, the ten-year-old son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. During this period he also featured in two episodes of Sapphire Films' The Adventures of Robin Hood (1957) alongside Richard Greene, one role being that of Will Dale in the episode "The Challenge of the Black Knight". In the Sword of Freedom series (1957), also made by Sapphire, he played Alberto in the episode "Chart of Gold". In an early Carry On film, Carry On Teacher (1959), he had the small role of pupil Robin Stevens. Around the same time, he was cast in the role of Pierre van der Mal in an early scene of The Nun's Story (also 1959), playing the younger brother of Gabrielle (Audrey Hepburn). He had a leading role in an episode of the Sapphire/ITC series The Four Just Men ("The Man with the Golden Touch") (1959) as the Neapolitan street urchin Pietro who foils a robbery.

In the 1960s, O'Sullivan appeared in two Cliff Richard films: The Young Ones (1961) and Wonderful Life (1964).

Adult acting career

O'Sullivan featured in the 1963 blockbuster film Cleopatra as Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII, the younger brother of the title character played by Elizabeth Taylor.

For the remainder of the 1960s, O'Sullivan was a jobbing actor appearing in such TV series as Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow, Emergency Ward 10, Redcap, Danger Man, No Hiding Place, Dixon of Dock Green, and Strange Report among others, until he was offered the role of Lawrence Bingham in the LWT sitcom Doctor at Large (1971), a role which continued in the later Doctor in Charge (1972–73). Meanwhile, he also had a main role in the Thames Television comedy Alcock and Gander (1972) with Beryl Reid.

By then a regular in TV sitcoms, he starred as Robin Tripp, a trainee chef, in the flatshare sitcom Man About the House written by Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke, launched in 1973. The series was a huge success and was considered risqué due to Tripp sharing a flat with two young women, played by Paula Wilcox and Sally Thomsett, whilst under the watchful eye of their landlords, played by Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy. A feature film version of the series was released in 1974. In 1975, O'Sullivan starred in the stage comedy Boeing Boeing, undertaking two record-breaking national tours, alongside three of his Man About the House co-stars, Joyce, Thomsett and Doug Fisher.

When Man About the House ended in 1976, O'Sullivan 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 father, James Nicholls (Tony Britton).

Robin's Nest was a ratings success, and was the first UK sitcom to feature an unmarried couple cohabiting. To tie in with the series, O'Sullivan wrote a recipe book called Man About the Kitchen, and a sequel Roastin' with Richard, which were published in 1980. He also wrote the Robin's Nest theme tune, which was arranged by Brian Bennett. During that period, O'Sullivan also appeared in adverts for British Gas.

In 1979, O'Sullivan starred in the title role of LWT's drama series Dick Turpin, which ran until 1982. He then played the widower Simon Harrup in the sitcom Me and My Girl, broadcast from 1984 to 1988, co-starring Tim Brooke-Taylor and Joan Sanderson, also produced by LWT. He also appeared in a one-off comedy-drama The Giftie, shown on Channel Four in 1988, in which he and a friend (John Wells) discovered a photocopier at work that could duplicate living copies of themselves, unwisely doing so, and predictably leading to mistaken identities and chaos. In the 1990s, his profile diminished, although he was never short of work. His final acting role was in a 1996 one-off satire titled Holed, with Tony Robinson, about a suburban golf club.

Personal life and death

O'Sullivan married the model Diana Terry in 1971; they divorced later that year. During his run as Robin, O'Sullivan had relationships with two of his co-stars, Sally Thomsett from Man About the House, and Tessa Wyatt who played Vicky in Robin's Nest. She divorced Tony Blackburn during their seven-year relationship. They had one son together. O'Sullivan was married to Christine Smart from 1988 until their divorce in 1994.

A fan of Chelsea F.C., O'Sullivan also played for a number of charity football teams until a broken leg forced retirement.

During the 1990s, O'Sullivan suffered from a period of ill health. Following a stroke in 2003, O'Sullivan lived in Brinsworth House, a Royal Variety Charity retirement home for entertainers in Twickenham.

O'Sullivan died at Brinsworth House on 4 September 2026, aged 82.

Filmography