[4] In September 1939, when the Second World War began, Rossiter was an evacuee, along with his schoolmates, and went to Bangor in north Wales, where he stayed for 18 months.
[5] While at school, his ambition was to go to university to read modern languages and become a teacher; however, his father, who served as a voluntary ambulanceman during the war, was killed in the May Blitz air raid in 1941.
[10] He joined the Wavertree Community Centre Drama Group and made his first appearance with the Adastra Players in Terence Rattigan's Flare Path.
He joined the Bristol Old Vic and was there for two years, from 1959 to 1961, a time he described as "the bedrock of his career", followed by other stage work, in, among other plays, The Strange Case of Martin Richter, Disabled, The Heretic, The Caretaker and Semi-Detached (in New York).
His performance in the premiere of Michael Blakemore's stage production of Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui in 1969 met with critical acclaim.
He stated: "I think I sensed fairly early on that I was not physically or facially built in the way that would ever fit even remotely into heroic or what used to be called juvenile parts.
[16] He also had guest roles in series as diverse as The Avengers ("Dressed to Kill", 1963) and Steptoe and Son ("The Lead Man Cometh", 1964; "The Desperate Hours", 1972).
In Rising Damp, on ITV, Rossiter played Rupert Rigsby, the lecherous landlord of a house converted into shabby bedsits, reprising the role from the successful stage version, The Banana Box.
The series of adverts was created by film director Alan Parker and, at Rossiter's suggestion, used an old music hall joke where he spills a drink over his wife, played by Joan Collins.
In the Channel 4 programme The 100 Greatest TV Ads (2000) Terry Lovelock, the director of two of the commercials, said that Rossiter used to refer jokingly to Collins as "The Prop".
[25] In 1981, he hosted an episode of the BBC Radio 4 show With Great Pleasure in which he recited some of his favorite poetry and prose alongside his wife, Gillian Raine, and his friend, the actor James Grout.
He voiced the King of Hearts in two episodes of Anglia Television's version of Alice In Wonderland, which was broadcast in April 1985, six months after Rossiter's death.
Rossiter displayed his acid wit in two books: The Devil's Bedside Book (1980),[28] a collection of cynical dictionary definitions in the style of Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary, and The Lowest Form of Wit, (1981),[29] a collection of biting bons mots, stinging retorts, insults and sarcasm illustrated with cartoons by Martin Honeysett.
[3] On 5 October 1984, Rossiter died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy while waiting to go onstage at the Lyric Theatre, London, where he was performing in Joe Orton's play Loot.
[38] Loot director, Jonathan Lynn, gave a eulogy in which he said of Rossiter: "Now that Leonard is up there, things had better be properly managed: I hope that the Heavenly Gates opened on cue and that the Choir of Angels is singing in tune.
"[39] Rossiter was posthumously nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for "Comedy Performance of the Year", for his role as Inspector Truscott in Loot.
[43][3] 1972 Johnny Spooner "The Desperate Hours" Fred Midway Ugo Priest Voltaire Semi-Detached The Year of the Sex Olympics The Fanatics, 1981, 1984 Harry Meadows, Arthur The Factory, Dog Ends