Actor Richard O'Sullivan, star of 1970s British sitcoms, dies aged 82

British actor Richard O'Sullivan has died at the age of 82. He began his career as a child actor, first appearing on screen at seven, before rising to fame in a string of hit television comedies during the 1970s.

Between 1972 and 1981, O'Sullivan appeared in more than 100 episodes of prime-time ITV sitcoms, playing charming, lively men in their 20s and 30s. He first found success as Dr Lawrence Bingham in the hospital comedy Doctor in Charge, before landing his career-defining role as Robin Tripp in Man About the House, later reprising the character in the spin-off Robin's Nest.

In Man About the House, Robin shared a flat with two young single women. Their living arrangement was portrayed as platonic, partly to satisfy television regulators, though the show still carried a degree of sexual tension unusual for early-evening programming at the time. In the sequel, Robin had trained as a chef and lived with a woman he was not married to, another daring choice for the era.

O'Sullivan's on-screen appeal made him something of a sex symbol, a reputation reinforced by media coverage of his relationships with co-stars, including the case of his on-screen girlfriend Tessa Wyatt leaving her husband, DJ Tony Blackburn, to be with him in real life.

Man About the House became the foundation of one of British television's most successful franchises, alongside the spin-off George and Mildred. Its huge viewership led ITV to cast O'Sullivan in another leading role, playing the legendary highwayman in Dick Turpin, which ran from 1979 to 1982.

O'Sullivan later starred in Me and My Girl, this time playing a grey-haired widower. However, his health began to decline through the 1990s, and his final screen appearance came in 1996. Following a stroke in 2002, he was cared for at Brinsworth House, a retirement home for entertainers in London.