Vivian MacKerrell

Vivian Alan James MacKerrell (23 May 1944 – 2 March 1995) was a British actor of the 1960s and 1970s. He was the basis for the character of Withnail in the film Withnail and I.

Early life Vivian MacKerrell was the son of Scottish accountant John Alexander McKerrell [sic - spelling] (1906-1994) and Janetta Mary (née Boyns, 1910-1987). The family were well-off. MacKerrell attended the private Trent College near Nottingham.

Career In the early 1960s, MacKerrell worked at Nottingham Playhouse, both as assistant stage manager and performing with Ian McKellen in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and with John Neville in Coriolanus. In the 1970s, he was the junior lead in Hadrian VII at the Mermaid Theatre.

MacKerrell had only a handful of television and film credits, which included a BBC adaptation of Les Misérables where he played the role of Marius (1967), a Play for Today titled "Edna, the Inebriate Woman" (1971), and Ghost Story (1974), a horror film that also starred Marianne Faithfull. He also appeared in the 1967 BBC television version of Pride and Prejudice as Mr Hurst, for which he was credited as Vivian James, an earlier stage name.

Illness and death MacKerrell's career was curtailed by heavy drinking. He died from throat cancer, which he contracted in his 40s. After a short remission in the mid-1980s, the illness returned and MacKerrell underwent a laryngectomy. Unable to eat or drink, he resorted to injecting alcohol directly into his stomach. This is depicted in a scene from Withnail & I. MacKerrell's diaries record the event, as well as others that appear in the film, such as visiting the wolves in Regent's Park Zoo.

Screen roles