Bryan Mosley

Bryan Mosley (25 August 1931 – 9 February 1999) was a British actor, known best as grocer Alf Roberts in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street.

Early life[]

Mosley was born in Leeds to Agnes, a print worker, and Jimmy Mosley, a labourer at a dye factory. He attended Leeds Central High School and held a childhood ambition to become a missionary. Instead, aged 13, he won a scholarship to Leeds College of Art (1944–46) and afterwards worked as a commercial artist. He also worked in a bookshop and sold books door-to-door.^[2]

After national service in the RAF, working in air traffic control just outside Newcastle and in Scotland, he trained as an actor at the Bradford Civic Theatre and Esme Church's Northern Theatre School.^[3]

Coronation Street[]

Mosley joined the cast of Coronation Street in 1961 and made recurrent appearances until 1963. He returned to the series briefly in 1967 before rejoining as a regular cast member in 1971. Mosley's appearances in the soap opera became less frequent following a serious heart attack in 1991. Alf Roberts made his last appearance on New Year's Day 1999, dying peacefully on screen in his sleep. Mosley died six weeks later of a heart attack in Shipley, West Yorkshire. He was 67.^[4]

As part of the show's 40th anniversary celebrations, heritage plaques were unveiled outside the Granada Studios in 2000 to four of the soap opera's stars, including Mosley. The other plaques commemorated the lives of Doris Speed, Pat Phoenix and Violet Carson.^[5]

Other notable roles[]

Mosley made his screen debut in A Kind of Loving (1962). He also appeared in Get Carter (1971) playing local gangster Cliff Brumby. He is famously killed by Jack Carter (Michael Caine) who beats him up and throws him from the roof of the Trinity Square multi-storey car park in Gateshead, after discovering Brumby's involvement in his brother's death. He played alien dignitary Malpha and a Prop Man on a film set in the Doctor Who serial The Daleks' Master Plan in 1965 and made two appearances in The Avengers. Mosley also had a small role as the pub landlord in Queenie's Castle.^[4]

Fight arranger[]

He was also a fencer and a stage and film fight arranger. He fenced with Terence Stamp in the film Far from the Madding Crowd. He was a founder member of the Society of British Fight Directors and he arranged the Get Carter fight with Caine. He also endowed a fencing award at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.^[3] Mosley was sometimes credited as Buddy Windrush.^[4]

Personal life[]

Bryan Mosley wed Norma Bowes in 1956; the couple had six children.^[4] Mosley was a practising Roman Catholic who had made at least one pilgrimage to Lourdes.^[6] He was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Bradford.

Mosley collapsed in the street near his home in Shipley, West Yorkshire, and died from a heart attack on 9 February 1999 aged 67. His widow died on 16 October 2011, aged 79.^[7]

Filmography[]

References[]