David Kosoff is a famous actor, radio host and comedian. For a long time he worked as a draftsman and furniture designer, completely unaware that incredible fame and fame awaits him. And only after a grandiose performance on the stage of the British Theater of Unity, the name of the new hero was revealed to the world.
Childhood and study
David was born on December 24, 1919 in a small suburb of London into a poor Russian-Jewish family. He was the youngest of three children. The father of the future actor, Louis Cosoff, worked as a tailor. A man of deep conviction, this man has always prided himself on his Jewish heritage. There is practically no mention of David's mother in the media. It is only known that the woman devoted a lot of time to housework and took care of the children.
After graduating from educational school, David Kosoff went to study at the Northern Polytechnic Institute. Then in 1937 he got a job as a draftsman, and a little later became a furniture designer. In his youth, the guy did not even think about becoming an actor. Nevertheless, friends constantly hinted to David about his natural inclination to public speaking. And it was this that subsequently influenced the fact that Kosoff decided to try his hand at cinema and theater.
Despite the fact that David's parents hindered his progress in acting, he did not give up and went forward, realizing that only theatrical and screen performances bring him true pleasure.
Career growth
After the end of World War II, the young man began working in the field of light entertainment on British television. However, David's first professional performance took place at the Unity Theater in 1942, when he was 23 years old. Since then, he has started participating in numerous plays and films.
For a long time, Kosoff was a member of the Society of Artists and Designers. He was repeatedly invited to the jury of international competitions, symposia and forums. He has also been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has acted as an expert at various cultural festivals around the world.
David's best-known television role is Alf Larkin in the British sitcom Larkins, which first hit mainstream screens in 1958. In addition, he gained great popularity and love from fans around the world after the release of "Little Big Business", where he played the role of a Jewish furniture manufacturer. Earlier, in 1954, Kosoff received his first acting award, Most Promising Newcomer to Cinema, from the British Film Academy.
At the same time, David's most devoted fans associate his beloved actor with Colonel Alexander Ikonenko, whom he played in Peter Ustinov's film "The Love of Four Fans" on the West End stage. As Kosoff himself admitted during his lifetime, this screen performance was incredibly difficult for him. He had to work out the dialogues and movements of his character day and night. Nevertheless, the performance of the actor turned out to be great.
People who knew David personally say that he was a consummate storyteller and comedian. In addition, the actor interpreted each life situation in his own way and often presented it in a special way. For example, Kosoff repeatedly rewrote the Bible in his own way. In 1971, he even published a work called The Book of Witnesses, in which he turned the Gospel into a series of unusual monologues. In his other works, Kosoff, seeking to bring modern man closer to divine laws, translated Old Testament and apocryphal stories into the language of his peers.
At the same time, David often performed on the radio. He is especially famous for his performances in the science fiction series "Space Travel".
Personal life
David Kosoff was married to the English writer Margaret Jenkins. The couple had two children - Paul and Simon. Being a monogamous person, the famous actor loved to spend almost all his free time with his wife. They traveled together on several occasions, composed short miniatures for the theater, and paid a lot of attention to the education of their children.
Relatives of David have repeatedly admitted to journalists that in difficult moments of his life he loved to laugh at himself. This helped him pull himself together and continue his work. Despite the fact that he was known as a real joker, the actor's colleagues note that at the same time he was an incredibly deep person who strove for constant self-improvement. In his house there were quite a few books on various fields of knowledge, and in his free moments he always paid attention to personal enrichment.
However, it is known that his son Paul, who became the famous guitarist of the band Free, used drugs for a long time. Subsequently, this led to a terrible illness and sudden death at a fairly young age. After that, Kosoff founded his own fund to fight drug addiction in the modern world, which is still working. His organization specialists travel to schools, colleges and universities and deliver educational lectures on the dangers of drugs.
We add that one of David's brothers also achieved great popularity during his lifetime. Alan Keith became a BBC radio host. He worked in the journalistic field until the age of 94. No wonder he was called the "oldest voice" of the radio station.
In 2005, at the age of 85, David died of liver cancer. Kosoff was cremated and buried in the Golders Green crematorium.
