The Man From Del Monte Has Died Aged 91
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Featured Image Credit: Del Monte Foods
Brian Jackson, known for playing the iconic ‘Man From Del Monte’ in TV adverts, has passed away at the age of 91.
His youngest daughter, Jo Jackson, said her father was a ‘thespian until the end’, paying tribute to the role that made him a household name.
She said: “The commercials paid for where we lived and my education, which I'm very grateful for.
“He also bought a yellow Jaguar with the money from one of the adverts because it reminded him of the bananas. He was very funny, had the most amazing anecdotes, and was a thespian until the end.”
Born in Bolton, Lancashire, Jackson first worked as a Royal Naval press photographer before becoming an actor, director and producer.
During the 1980s, Jackson played the suave fruit buyer in more than 25 adverts, which always bore the slogan: “The Man from Del Monte, he says yes.”
He was also a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and produced theatre shows in London, while other TV and film credits included the likes of The Avengers, The Persuaders, Carry On Sergeant, Return of the Pink Panther and Some Like it Cool.
In a 2013 interview with RetroMash, Jackson was asked how he became the Man From Del Monte, to which he admitted: “It’s a bit of a mystery actually. I’ll never know the real answer.”
Jackson went on to explain that his agent Marjorie phoned him up and told him there were some ‘awful advertising people wanting to see you’, and that it was ‘something to do with a drink’.
His agent told them he ‘might not be interested’, but Jackson knew that ‘commercial people pay a lot of money for appearing to do nothing’ and decided to go to the meeting.
“I thought it was a bit strange because usually there was a group of about three or four other actors waiting to go in because there’s a slowness in the audition pace and you have to wait and then you’re shown in, you do your bit, you’re asked the questions, you do another, whatever,” he recalled.
“But there was no-one there. It was just me.”
Jackson later found out that the casting team had been ‘at their wit’s end’ because they had been unable to find what they wanted, only for a casting director who he’d previously worked with to tell them: “Well it sounds as though you’d need someone like Brian Jackson.”
He continued: “One of the curious questions was, ‘Would you mind being made famous?’. I made a joke of it and said, ‘Well how much are you paying?’. So that was the end of it.
“So it wasn’t an ordeal, it wasn’t something competitive. It was just something that fell into my lap, which nearly didn’t get there because of dear Marjorie saying originally, ‘I told them you may not be interested.’ And that was really it.”
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