Emmerdale star d.i.e.d penniless in council flat despite incredible TV career
An English actor and comedian who narrowly escaped d.e.a.t.h during WW1 sadly d.i.e.d penniless decades later
An Emmerdale and Corrie star sadly d.i.e.d penniless (Image: ITV)
An Emmerdale actor and comedian sadly d.i.e.d almost penniless living in a council flat despite an incredible on-screen career. Max Wall was best known for his work across comedy, TV and film, starring in everything from Waiting for Godot to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang over the years. He also appeared in both Emmerdale – as Arthur Braithwaite back in 1978 – and Coronation Street, as Harry Payne the same year.
But life wasn’t always easy for the actor. Born in 1908, he narrowly escaped d.e.a.t.h during a WW1 air raid in 1916, when he and his older brother Alex were saved from an explosion by hiding underneath a cast iron bed frame. Sadly his younger brother and aunt were both k.i.l.l.e.d in a blast dropped from a German Zeppelin, which destroyed the family home.
He served in the Royal Air Force for three years in WW2, and married dancer Marion Pola, welcoming five children together. But an affair ended their marriage, and though Wall went on to marry Miss Great Britain Jennifer Chimes, they too divorced after he began suffering from mental health issues.
Though he continued to act well into the 1980s, appearing in BBC historical miniseries Little Dorrit, by 1990 things weren’t going as well. In the last years of his life, Max lived in a rented room in south east London.
He d.i.e.d in May 1990 after falling and fracturing his skull. Though he was rushed to Westminster Hospital, he d.i.e.d early the next morning aged 82.
Max Wall d.i.e.d “almost a recluse” (Image: Getty)
At the time of his d.e.a.t.h, The Herald reported Wall went from being “married three times, [owning] two mansions and [having] played golf with King Edward VIII” to dying “almost a recluse, living in a modest one-bedroom council flat in South London.”
His agent, Joan Pritchard, said at the time: “His eyesight was rather poor lately. No-one actually saw what occurred but apparently he took a very unfortunate tumble down the stairs. His son Meredith was with him when he d.i.e.d.”
