Howard Lew Lewis

Acting

Howard Lew Lewis

Born 1941-08-21 · London, England

Howard Lew Lewis was an English comedian and actor best known for his roles in the 1980s sitcom Brush Strokes and Tony Robinson's children's comedy series Maid Marian and Her Merry Men. His first job was with the RAF as a a computer operator and he worked for several years in computing and telecommunications at managerial level before undertaking acting as his chosen career. He often appeared in vehicles for Ronnie Barker, including The Magnificent Evans and Open All Hour, and appeared in the first series of Blackadder. His film roles included Hal in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, a guard in Terry Gilliam's Brazil, Richard Attenborough's Chaplin, and the voice of Obelix in the 1994 animated film Asterix in America. Diabetes and dementia plagued him in later years and he was admitted into a community hospital in Edinburgh in 2017. He passed away there on 20th January 2018. Police Scotland confirmed later that month that they were investigating a complaint brought by Lewis's daughter Debora Milazzo against the hospital. She claimed that her father was given an unnecessary cocktail of high-dose sedatives and maximum-strength opiate painkillers that subsequently brought about his death. The police ultimately found no case to answer.

Acting credits

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves poster
6.9

Nobleman crusader Robin of Locksley breaks out of a Jerusalem prison with the help of Moorish fellow prisoner Azeem and travels back home to England. But upon arrival he discovers his dead father in the ruins of his family estate, killed by the vicious sheriff of Nottingham, Robin and Azeem join forces with outlaws Little John and Will Scarlett to save the kingdom from the sheriff's villainy.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

1991

Brazil poster
7.7

Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.

Brazil

1985

Chaplin poster
7.4

An aged Charlie Chaplin narrates his life to his autobiography's editor, including his rise to wealth and comedic fame from poverty, his turbulent personal life and his run-ins with the FBI.

Chaplin

1992

Quills poster
7.2

In early 19th-century France, the Marquis de Sade is confined to an asylum where his forbidden writings continue to circulate beyond its walls. As the authorities tighten control, a clash unfolds between the Marquis’ unyielding imagination, the reformist ideals of the Abbé in charge, and the repressive measures of a doctor sent to silence him. Desire, power, and censorship collide in a battle over freedom of expression.

Quills

2000

No artwork available
NR

At the Trenartha Tin Plate Works a bitter industrial dispute has lasted five months. The founder of the company, the staunch conservative John Anthony, refuses to accede to the demands of the workforce, despite the cessation of output and the resultant decline in share value and despite the human suffering the strike is causing, especially to the families of the workers. Equally uncompromising is the strike leader David Roberts, who even opposes his own union by holding out for the workers' demands.

Strife

1988

Shadowlands poster
6.9

C.S. Lewis, a world-renowned writer and professor, leads a passionless life until he meets spirited poet Joy Gresham.

Shadowlands

1993

Rachel and the Roarettes poster
NR

A musical about female rebels in the 18th and 20th centuries.

Rachel and the Roarettes

1985

The Tichborne Claimant poster
8.7

In the late 19th century, Lord Tichborne, the ninth richest nobleman in England, disappears after a South American shipwreck. Some years later his erudite Afro-English valet, Bogle, is sent to investigate rumors that Tichborne survived and settled in Australia. An alcoholic ruffian answer's Bogle's inquiries claiming to be the lost heir. Bogle suspects fraud, but conspires with the claimant to split the inheritance should the latter succesfully pass himself off to friends, family and the courts. As the claimant returns to England to continue his charade, enough people confirm his identity to make both the claimant and Bogle believe that he just might be the rightful heir after all.

The Tichborne Claimant

1999

No artwork available
NR

Mr. Pye is a missionary whose mission to spread God's love on the tiny English Channel island of Sark faces supernatural setbacks in this comic fantasy from the author of Gormenghast.

Mr. Pye

1986

Fords on Water poster
9.0

Influential, cult classic, UK buddy road movie about two friends, one white and one black, who bond over their desire to escape from boredom and unemployment in Thatcher's Britain.

Fords on Water

1983

The Baby Juice Express poster
8.0

A middle class London lad’s gangster fantasies go awry when his dodgy uncle puts them into debt to a real life crime boss. Still pulling strings from behind bars, the kingpin’s only desire is to conceive an heir by smuggling his sperm to his wife on the outside. There’s only one way the boys know how to raise the money fast … hijack the ‘baby juice express’. But kidnapping ‘baby juice’ turns out to be fraught with even more peril than the bumbling wannabes could possibly have imagined in this cheeky spin on the gangster genre. Starring Nick Moran (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), with Julian Clary (one of Britain’s funniest) and Joe Bugner (former boxing champion and one of Australia’s toughest!).

The Baby Juice Express

2004

Small Town Folk poster
3.5

High above the tiny hamlet of Grockleton stands Beesley Manor, home to the ominous Landlord and his...shall we say, genetically ambiguent...minions, including Pooch, a cross-eyed marksman, and Dobbin, who likes to drink gasoline. The Landlord keeps a watchful eye over his domain, brutally dispatching any strangers who enter - except for females he needs to (involuntarily) sire a Beesley heir...When three unsuspecting travelers arrive, the Landlord plans to make two of them his trophies and the other his bride...unless they can beat him at his own game.

Small Town Folk

2007

Chaos and Cadavers poster
6.8

Two young newlyweds, geeky Edward and innocent but alluring Samantha, turn up at a majestic and remote country house hotel for their honeymoon, which has been taken over by the high-spirited members of an Undertakers' Annual Convention. Their attempts at romance are quickly dampened as they become helplessly embroiled in an intriguing whodunit when the Head of the Funeral Directors' Association dies under bizarre circumstances.

Chaos and Cadavers

2003

Gobble poster
8.0

As Christmas celebrations get under way, Britain is rocked by a deadly new food scare - "mad turkey disease".

Gobble

1997

Knockback: 1 poster
7.5

In 1965, at the age of 25, Alan Ackland is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a business associate. In 1971, Sylvia Barker, lonely and depressed after a failed marriage and with two young children to bring up alone, seeks a new direction in her life and applies to become a voluntary prison visitor. Several years later their paths cross.

Knockback: 1

1985

Brewers Droop poster
NR

The boss makes a surprise visit with some new business proposals. Made for 'Beer and Skittles', a series of short animated films centred around pubs.

Brewers Droop

1986