Arthur Lowe, a renowned comedy character actor, is fondly remembered for his iconic roles as "Captain Mainwaring" in the Home Guard comedy series Dad's Army (1968-1977) and "Leonard Swindley" in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street (1960). Born as the only child of a Derbyshire railworker, Lowe's early life was marked by his experience organizing shows for a British army field entertainment unit in the Middle East during World War Two.
Lowe began his professional acting career at the age of 30 in 1945, joining the Manchester Repertory Theatre Company. He went on to utilize his character actor status in bit-parts for films, including the acclaimed Ealing black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and The Green Man (1956). Later, while gaining fame with Coronation Street, he formed a professional relationship with maverick film director Lindsay Anderson, collaborating on films such as If.... (1968) and O Lucky Man! (1973),for which he won an SFTA Award for best supporting performance.
As his son and biographer Stephen Lowe noted, finances played a significant role in governing and perpetuating his career in the final stages of his life in the 1970s. Lowe appeared in over 100 television advertisements and numerous comedies, including the sit-com Potter (1979-1983),the ribald film No Sex Please - We're British (1973),and the stage play The Tempest (1974) at the National Theatre.
