Cherie Blair’s actor father Tony Booth has died aged 85. Pictured, the pair celebrating after she was sworn in as a QC
Cherie Blair’s actor father Tony Booth has died aged 85 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
He was was best known for his role as ‘randy Scouse git’ Mike Rawlins in the BBC series Till Death Us Do Part, during the 1960s.
But later achieved fame starring in the raunchy comedy film series, Confessions Of… in the 1970s.
While he had a number of roles on the small screen, Booth was catapulted back into the public eye as the father-in-law of Prime Minister Tony Blair.
However, the actor and life-long Labour party member often lambasted his son-in-law’s administration – even swearing at him in public.
Mr Booth was a father-of-nine and was married four times.
He had a long-term public feud with daughter Lauren, 50, whose mother was Sixties model Pamela ‘Susie’ Smith, and once told the Daily Mail he did not love her.
During an interview with the Mail in 2010, the actor said: ‘I don’t know if we’ll ever speak again. I suspect not.’
Lauren converted to Islam in 2011, after a visit to the Iranian holy city of Qom, a decision that was met with disapproval and mockery by her father.
He said: ‘Whatever next?’ I mean, come on, the girl doesn’t have a spiritual bone in her body.’
Left, Mr Booth attending his grandson Euan Blair’s wedding with his wife Steph in 2013. Right, the actor with his daughter Cherie at the Labour conference in 2006
Mr Booth achieved fame playing ‘randy Scouse git’ Mike Rawlins in the BBC series Till Death Us Do Part, during the 1960s. Pictured, on set opposite Warren Mitchell, who played Alf Garnett
In the years prior to his death, the TV star had suffered heart problems as well as enduring a battle with dementia that lasted more than a decade.
He was diagnosed with the degenerative illness in 2004 and it forced him to retire as memory loss made it hard to learn scripts.
During his career, Booth was also known for featuring in the L-Shaped Room in 1962 and more recently for his role in The Contender in 2000.
He played Malcolm Wilkinson in Coronation Street from 1960-1961 and had a host of other film and TV roles during the decade.
In the 1990s he enjoyed a revival in his television career, with roles in the likes of Holby City, The Bill and Mersey Beat.
After his first two marriages ending in divorce, his third was to actress Pat Phoenix, who played Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street.
She sadly died from cancer a week after their wedding in 1986.
Ms Phoenix was said to have become the love of his life after he met her as a young man.
Mr Booth with his former wife Pat Phoenix and a young Tony and Cherie Blair in Middlesbrough, in 1994
Left, Mr Booth wife Pat Phoenix in 1983 and right, with fourth wife Stephanie Buckley in 2010
He married his fourth wife Stephanie Buckley in 1998.
Cherie Booth was born in Bury, Lancashire, in 1954, during his marriage to first wife Gale Smith. But by the time she was five he had left his young family.
She went on to become a highly successful lawyer, taking silk and later becoming a judge.
But it was her marriage to fellow lawyer Tony Blair – and his rise up the political ladder – which brought her father back into the spotlight.
Mr Booth, who joined the Labour party at the age of 15, did not hold back from criticising the Government after Mr Blair entered Downing Street in 1997.
In 1999 he railed against ‘androids’ at Labour’s Millbank HQ and a year later said his daughter’s husband had stuffed the House of Lords with ‘Tony’s Cronies’.
He also risked the wrath of the Blairs in 2002 when he lifted the lid on life in Downing Street in his autobiography, What’s Left?
Scottish politician George Galloway and Lauren Booth attend the premiere of The Killing$ Of Tony Blair in 2016
At the same time he criticised them for choosing to send their eldest son to the selective and grant-maintained London Oratory School.
The gripes did not stop there, with Mr Booth accusing the Government of ‘ruthlessly’ squashing the pay demands of striking firefighters and being ‘prepared to throw away billions’ on the Iraq war rather than spending the money on pensioners.
Chancellor Gordon Brown, meanwhile, was ‘the scrooge of Downing Street’.
If the Prime Minister bristled at the outbursts, he tried not to show it.
On one occasion, when facing calls by Mr Booth to raise the state pension, his son-in-law said: ‘I don’t think it would be the very first time I had a little bit of grief from Tony along the way.’
He gave a glimpse into their relationship at the Labour Party conference in 2002, when he told how he was once given a V-sign by an elderly man with grey hair who was ‘respectable enough’ to have been his father-in-law.
Tony Booth enjoyed a successful career on the small screen and in films starring in Coronation Street for one series in the 1960 and the raunchy Confessions series during the 1970s. Left, the actor during the height of his fame in the late 1960s and right, in 2006
Mr Booth on set with actor Robin Askwith on the set of Confessions of a Pop Performer in 1975
Turning to his wife Cherie, the PM added: ‘I should have given him one in return shouldn’t I?’
His deputy, John Prescott, said he would like to flick a V-sign at Booth too, adding: ‘Tony Booth gives two fingers to everybody, doesn’t he? As long as he gets the publicity for it.’
Despite the political differences, Mr Booth remained close to his daughter, and was with her and her husband at his constituency election count in the 2005 General Election.
Anthony Booth was born in Liverpool on October 9 1931.
During his National Service he discovered a talent for acting, entertaining his fellow conscripts in amateur productions.
He married Royal Academy of Dramatic Art graduate Gale Smith in 1952 and had daughters Lynsey and Cherie with her, before leaving her to move in with producer Julie Allen, who bore him two more girls.
He had two more daughters during his second marriage to model Pamela Smith.
In 1979, Mr Booth almost burned himself to death in a fire at his flat, remaining hospitalised for months.
‘I don’t love her’: Tony Booth’s feud with his Islam convert daughter
Lauren Booth addresses an anti-war demonstration in London, in 2011
Tony Booth endured a public and bitter feud with his daughter, Lauren.
The pair fell out after he berated her for ‘unforgivable’ comments about older sister Cherie and her former Prime Minister husband Tony.
Lauren, who converted to Islam in 2011, hit back with lurid accusations of what a dreadful father he had been — a hideous tale of abandonment, neglect and violence.
Speaking during an interview with the Daily Mail in 2010, he said: ‘Am I ashamed of her? Yes, I am.
‘I used to just feel sorry for her and guilty for what part I might have played in making her the way she is.
‘But in my opinion she crossed a line quite a while ago and there’s no going back. It is time for her to grow up and stop playing the victim.’
When asked if he loved his daughter, he said: ‘No, I don’t think I do.
‘Well, that’s the way I feel. It’s sad, but what can you do? The line was crossed a long time ago and once you cross it, there’s no going back.’
‘She is entitled to her opinions — but she’s not entitled to exploit her family position and contacts. I’m afraid she has been doing that for years.’
Lauren was outspoken of her brother-in-law’s politics and his administration, after converting to Islam.
When asked why he thought his daughter had decided to change her faith, Mr Booth said: ‘I honestly don’t know what her motivation is. Maybe it’s mischief-making.
‘Maybe a career move. Is she after a job with Al Jazeera, the Arabic news network? I don’t know, but it’s madness.’