Louis Mahoney facts for kids

Louis Felix Danner Mahoney (/ˈluːiːməˈhoʊni/; 8 September 1938 – 28 June 2020) was a Gambian-born British actor, based in Hampstead in London. He was an anti-racist activist and long-time campaigner for racial equality within the acting profession. He represented African-Asian members on the council of the actors' union, Equity, becoming joint Vice-President between 1994 and 1996.

Career

Mahoney was born in The Gambia in 1938. In the late 1950s he went to England originally to study to be a doctor but abandoned his ambitions for a medical career to become a drama school student at the (now Royal) Central School of Speech and Drama in the 1960s.

After graduating, Mahoney worked with Colchester Rep and the Mercury Theatre before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967 – he was one of the first black actors in the Company. He worked regularly on the stage throughout his career including shows at the National Theatre, Young Vic, Royal Court, Almeida and his final stage performances were in Alan Bennett's Allelujah! at the Bridge Theatre in 2018.

He helped found Performers Against Racism in the 1980s to campaign against apartheid in South Africa and was Joint Vice President of Equity between 1994 and 1996.

He had been seen most frequently on television in series such as: Danger Man, Dixon of Dock Green, Z-Cars, Special Branch, The Troubleshooters, Menace, Special Branch, Doctor Who (in the stories Frontier in Space, Planet of Evil and Blink), Quiller, Fawlty Towers (as Dr Finn in The Germans, 1975), The Professionals (as Dr Henry in the episode "Klansmen", never transmitted on terrestrial TV in the UK, and in "Black Out", again as a doctor), Miss Marple, Yes, Prime Minister, Bergerac, The Bill, Casualty, Holby City and Sea of Souls.

His films included The Plague of the Zombies (1966), Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981), Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1981), White Mischief (1987), Cry Freedom (1987), Shooting Fish (1997), Wondrous Oblivion (2003) and Shooting Dogs (2005).

He featured in the Channel 4 documentary Random (2011), and in the BBC Three drama Being Human (2012) as Leo, an aged and dying werewolf.

Mahoney's last TV appearance was in the Tracy Beaker CBBC spin-off, The Dumping Ground, as Henry Lawrence, the grandfather of Charlie Morris (Emily Burnett).

For decades a resident in Hampstead, Mahoney died on 28 June 2020, aged 81.

Campaign work

Mahoney was a long-standing campaigner for racial equality within the acting profession, as a member of the Equity Afro-Asian Committee (previously called the Coloured Actors Committee until he renamed it), founding Performers Against Racism to defend Equity policy on South Africa, and as co-creator, with Mike Phillips and Taiwo Ajai, of the UK's Black Theatre Workshop in 1976.

Legacy

The Louis Mahoney Scholarships at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama were initiated in his memory to encourage applications from Black and global majority students, beginning from the academic year 2021/22, supporting one undergraduate and one postgraduate candidate in each of the following three years.

Filmography

Theatre

Year/Show/Role/Theatre : Talking To You / Various / Duke of York’s Theatre ; Cato Street / Conspirator / Young Vic ; Jesus Christ Superstar / Caiaphas / Gaiety Theatre, Dublin ; Murderous Angels/ Diallo Diop / Gaiety Theatre, Dublin ; 1967 / Coriolanus / Lieutenant to Aufidius / Royal Shakespeare Company ; 1967 / Romeo and Juliet / Musician 1 / Royal Shakespeare Company ; 1970 / Robinson Crusoe/Friday / Mercury Theatre; Night And Day / President Mageeba /Watford Palace Theatre ; Hutch Builder to Her Majesty / Various / Theatre Royal, Drury Lane ; White Devil / Antonelli / Oxford Playhouse ; I am Tomarienka / Various / Watermill Theatre ; 1990 / Desire / Kindo / Almeida ; 1997 / Romeo & Juliet / Friar John and Monatague / Royal Shakespeare Company ; 2007 / Generations /Grandfather / Young Vic ; 2009 / As You Like It / Adam and Sir Oliver Martext / Leicester Curve ; 2009 / The Observer / Muturi and Dr Durami/ Royal National Theatre ; 2010 / Love The Sinner / Paul / Royal National Theatre ; 2011 / Truth & Reconciliation / Rwandan Grandfather / Royal Court ; 2013 / Feast / Papa Legba / Young Vic and Royal Court ; 2018 / Allelujah! / Neville / Bridge Theatre