Actor Tony Booth’s daughter has revealed the heartbreaking moment her father failed to recognise her as he fought a long battle with Alzheimer’s.
Mr Booth who achieved fame in the 1960s sitcom Till Death Us Do Part, passed away on Monday night, aged 85.
He had suffered heart problems as well as suffering from dementia after being diagnosed in 2004.
Mr Booth later became known for being father-in-law to former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The father-of-eight was married four times and his daughter Jenia Booth, has paid tribute to him in a touching post on Facebook.
Jenia Booth as revealed the heartbreaking moment her actor father Tony failed to recognise her as he fought a long battle with Alzheimer’s
Jenia posted this newspaper clipping from 1967, of her, her sister and father spending a day together in London
In a moving part of the passage, Jenia, who along with sister Bronwen came from Mr Booth’s relationship to US comedy sketch writer Julie Allan in the mid-sixties, discussed her father’s fight with dementia.
She recalled: ‘Last year at one of our nephew’s wedding, we got some time with him; but the Alzheimer’s was pretty severe at that point.
‘He used to recognize me more when I was younger, because I looked so much like my mother when he knew her; but at dinner I had said it was so nice to see my father and he asked who he was?
‘I said “oh you would have loved him! he was a gorgeous young actor, an alcoholic and womanizer, but utterly charming.
‘He was on this show that was popular back in the 60’s called ‘Til Death Do Us Part”.
‘Tony looked at me odd and I whispered, “don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone its you”.
Mr Booth was a famous womaniser and did not enjoy good relationships with all of his eight daughters.
Jenia and Bronwen (pictured, as young girls) were Mr Booth’s daughters from his relationship with US comedy sketch writer Julie Allan in the mid-sixties
Sick of his heavy drinking, Julie Allan took her children back to the US while they were still young girls, were they were later adopted by their step-father.
But despite their strained relations, Jenia posted a touching black and white photo from a newspaper clipping of the two sisters and their father, together in 1967.
She wrote: ‘In honor of my natural father during his last days.
‘Bronwen and I were already living in the States, but were back visiting our maternal grandmother in Camden Town when Tony asked if he could have us for the day for this photo shoot. I’m so glad he did, I’m so glad to have this.
‘The photographer gave the original and some others to Cherie a few years back and she passed them on to us. Utterly love.
Tony Booth found fame playing the character Mike Rawlins on the 1960s sitcom Till death us do part. Pictured, on set with co-star Una Stubbs
‘Bronwen and I didn’t get a lot of time with him as a father, and we were adopted by our American stepfather soon after this, but we did have some lovely moments and got some amazing sisters.
‘Our sisters and step brothers have gone to see him in these last days and have been sending lovely updates. Still a charmer to this day.
‘Sorry I won’t be seeing him before he goes, but so grateful to his wife Stephanie for taking such good care of him and to all our sisters and stepbrothers.’
While relations between Jenia, Bronwen and their father were distant – feelings between Mr Booth and another of his daughters were even more tense.
Lauren Booth, 50, had suffered a bitter feud with her father, prior to his death, with the pair refusing to talk to each other for years.
The discontent was said to have stemmed from comments that Ms Booth made about her half sister, Cherie and her former Prime Minister husband, Tony Blair.
Lauren Booth posted this picture of her, her father Tony and sister Cherie together
But despite their long-term dispute, during which Mr Booth claimed he did not love his daughter, Ms Booth celebrated her father’s life with a touching post on Twitter.
Sharing a family photo of her, sister Cherie and their father, she wrote: ‘The man who taught me to read and above all: to fight for what I believe in. God give you peace, Dad. ‘
Ms Booth also spoke of her father love of Shakespeare and performance on the stage.
She wrote: ‘My Dad passed last night. His love for Shakespeare and equal rights his inspiration to us all.
In another tweet, she said: ‘I remember seeing Dad play the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. He spoke the songs really well!’
It is not clear whether the pair had patched up their differences prior to his death.
But during an interview with the Daily 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.
Cherie Blair’s actor father Tony Booth has died aged 85. Pictured, the pair celebrating after she was sworn in as a QC
He said: ‘Whatever next?’ I mean, come on, the girl doesn’t have a spiritual bone in her body.’
Tony Booth 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.
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.
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
The actor often campaigned for the rights of people effected by dementia and the Alzheimer’s Society said the charity was ‘deeply saddened’ by news of his death.
Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the society, said: ‘Our thoughts are with Tony’s wife, Steph, all his children and family during this sad time.
‘Tony, always staunchly supported by Steph, was a charming and charismatic man, who since his diagnosis was determined to continue to live life to the full.’
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.
Mr Booth with his former wife Pat Phoenix and a young Tony and Cherie Blair in Middlesbrough, in 1984
Left, Mr Booth former wife Pat Phoenix in 1983 and right, with fourth wife Stephanie Buckley in 2010
Ms Phoenix was said to have become the love of his life after he met her as a young man.
He married third wife Nancy Jaeger in 1988, before settling down with his final his 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’.
Scottish politician George Galloway and Lauren Booth attend the premiere of The Killing$ Of Tony Blair in 2016
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?
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. Left, the actor during the height of his fame in the late 1960s and right, in 2006
Mr Booth 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.
Confessions of a ‘Crumpeteer’: Tony Booth’s bed-hopping and booze-fuelled antics that saw him married four times with eight daughters he could barely recognise
Tony Booth had four wives, two long-term partners, scores of other brief liaisons and was proud of his ‘crumpeteering’
Tony Booth was famous for playing the character Sidney Nogget in the red-blooded Confessions film series.
But while audiences were entertained by his erotic adventures on-screen, his personal life was just tempestuous.
The Liverpudlian actor had four wives, two long-term partners, scores of other brief liaisons and was proud of his ‘crumpeteering’.
His first wife was Gale Howard in the 1950s and the couple had two daughters, Lyndsey and Cherie.
However, Mr Booth walked out on his family when Cherie was just eight and Lyndsey, six.
The actor’s bed-hopping saw him start up a relationship with American comedy sketch-writer Julie Allan, fathering two daughters, Jenia and Bronwen.
Miss Allan, who was unaware her boyfriend was married with children when the pair met in mid-Sixties, later walked out on the heavy-drinking actor and fled back to the States with her daughters.
Shortly after, Mr Booth began a volatile relationship with model Susie Smith, and had two daughters with her, Emma and Lauren.
The relationship ended dramatically in 1979 when he was badly burned after a drunken night out.
The couple rowed and Miss Smith locked him out of their flat in Hampstead, North London.
Tony Booth alongside Robin Askwith in Confessions of a Pop Performer in 1975
Later, he set fire to some oily rags and accidentally ignited a vat of paraffin, leaving himself with burns that required 26 operations and six months in hospital.
It was during his time with Miss Smith that Booth secretly fathered another daughter called Lucy. Her mother, Ann Gannon, worked at pirate radio station, Radio London.
But the relationship quickly fizzled out before Lucy, who is just three months older than her half-sister Lauren, was born in April 1967. Although she never met her father, she knew his identity.
Mr Booth did not tell Cherie and her other siblings that they had another half-sister.
But in 2001, Lucy, now a mother-of-one, got in touch with Cherie and flew from her home in Australia to meet her at Downing Street.
In 2010, Mr Booth confessed the last time there was more than two daughters in the same room he didn’t recognise them
Two further marriages followed Mr Booth’s relationship with Miss Smith.
He tied the not to long-term love Pat Phoenix, an actress who starred in Coronation Street, in 1986, but she tragically died from cancer just eight days after the ceremony.
Mr Booth then married Nancy Jaeger in 1988 and had his youngest daughter, Joanna.
His final wife was Steph Buckley, a former teacher and Labour Party activist, who he met in 1998 and lived with up until his passing.
While Mr Booth fathered nine children, his family admitted he was a ‘terrible’ parent to them.
During an interview with the Daily Mail 2010, he confessed the last time there were more than two of his daughters in the same room — ‘which I try to avoid because they tend to rip me to pieces’ — he didn’t recognise one of them.
‘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.’