In 1973, the idea of a young man sharing a flat with two young women he was not married to was enough to build a whole sitcom around. Man About the House ran for six series on ITV, and its star, Richard O’Sullivan, became one of the most familiar faces on British television. He died on Friday, September 4, 2026, at Brinsworth House, the Royal Variety Charity’s care home in Twickenham, where he had lived since a stroke in 2003. He was 82.
A child actor
O’Sullivan was born in 1944 and started acting as a child. As a teenager he appeared alongside Cliff Richard in the musical films The Young Ones and Wonderful Life, and he worked steadily in film and television through the 1960s, including as the young Ptolemy in the 1963 epic Cleopatra, opposite Elizabeth Taylor. In the early 1970s he starred as Dr Lawrence Bingham in ITV’s Doctor at Large and Doctor in Charge, the television series that followed the Doctor in the House films, and it was that work that led to his casting in Man About the House.
Robin Tripp
In Man About the House, which ran from 1973 to 1976, he played Robin Tripp, a cookery student who moves in with two women, played by Paula Wilcox and Sally Thomsett, after waking up in their bath following a party. The show was so popular that it spawned two spin-offs. George and Mildred followed the landlords, and Robin’s Nest, which ran from 1977 to 1981, followed Robin as he opened his own bistro. The format was sold to American television, where it became Three’s Company.
Dick Turpin and later life
O’Sullivan also starred as the highwayman in ITV’s Dick Turpin, appearing in more than thirty episodes between 1979 and 1982. He kept working in television through the 1980s and 1990s. The stroke he suffered in 2003 left him unable to perform, and he spent his last 23 years at Brinsworth House. His son James described him as kind-spirited, good-humoured, a doting grandfather and a wonderful dad. Giles Cooper, life president of the Royal Variety Charity, called him a true giant of British television.
He is survived by his son James, his daughter-in-law Kate, his grandchildren Nancy and Freddie, and his brother John. Repeats of his sitcoms still run on British television.