Peter Sallis: Biography, Illness, and Last of the Summer Wine

Anyone who hears the name Peter Sallis usually smiles — he was the gentle heart of Last of the Summer Wine and the original voice of Wallace. But behind those roles was a man who registered as a conscientious objector in WWII, married twice, and kept acting even as macular degeneration took his sight.

Born: 1 February 1921 ·
Died: 2 June 2017 ·
Age at death: 96 ·
Years in Last of the Summer Wine: 1973–2010 ·
Episodes: 295 ·
Net worth at death: £1–2 million (estimated)

Taken together, the four cards draw the line this article follows: the core of Sallis’s life — the role, the voice, the dates — is confirmed. The edges — money, a disputed line, a retirement year — are where the record loosens.

Nine facts, one pattern: a career of unusual stability — one sitcom for 37 years, one animated franchise for a generation, and the same gentle presence throughout.

Did Bill Owen and Peter Sallis get on?

Short answer: yes. The two men spent decades playing the oddest of television double acts — Compo, the scruffy schemer in a flat cap, and Clegg, his cautious, henpecked friend — and the affection viewers sensed between them was real.

What was the on-screen relationship between Compo and Clegg?

• Clegg and Compo were written as lifelong friends with nothing in common except habit — Compo chased schemes and widows while Clegg got dragged along.
• The pair carried the series from its first episode in 1973 to its last in 2010 (British Film Institute — only occurrence kept here, removed from later list)
• Sallis said in interviews that Owen was “a lovely man.”

The warmth mattered because the characters were built on contrast. Compo was messy, impulsive and socially fearless; Clegg was tidy, anxious and mortified by almost everything. The comedy never wore thin because the affection underneath it felt genuine — and Sallis’s own comments suggest it was.

Is Peter Sallis buried next to Bill Owen?

• No — Sallis and Owen are not buried together.
• The assumption grows out of the show’s mythology: Compo and Clegg were rarely apart on screen.
• Sallis died at Denville Hall, the actors’ care home in London, in 2017, long after Owen’s own death.

The idea of a shared grave is one of those fan expectations that never quite matched reality. Owen died years before Sallis, and the two men were laid to rest separately. It doesn’t diminish what they shared on screen — it just keeps that bond on screen, where it belonged.

What illness did Peter Sallis have?

The name of the illness is simple: macular degeneration. The timeline is not, because different sources give different dates — and the discrepancy itself says something about how quietly Sallis handled his decline.

What were the symptoms of Peter Sallis’s condition?

• Sallis suffered from macular degeneration, a progressive eye condition that left him effectively blind in his final years (Daily Mirror).
• The diagnosis year is recorded as 1994 by IMDb and as 1996 by HELLO! (the celebrity magazine).
• The disease destroys central vision, which is why reading scripts and recognising faces on a set become impossible.

The diagnosis year matters less than the outcome. Whatever the exact date, the disease took his sight progressively — and eventually it took his career.

How did his illness affect his career?

• The Daily Mirror (the British tabloid) reported he retired from voicing Wallace in 2015 after the disease affected his eyesight.
• Durham University’s student paper Palatinate placed his exit from Wallace in 2012.
• Either way, the stop came from eyesight, not from choice — and Last of the Summer Wine had already wrapped in 2010.

The pattern is clear: Sallis worked until the illness physically stopped him. He left Clegg when the series ended in 2010, and the Wallace voice work continued for a few more years, the cutoff shifting from 2012 to 2015 depending on who you read. For a man who had spent four decades in front of cameras and microphones, losing the ability to read a script was the only exit he never chose.

Was Peter Sallis a ladies man?

The question gets asked because the voice sounds softly romantic, and because Norman Clegg spent decades being chased by the town’s strong-willed women. The biographical record tells a different, quieter story.

Was Peter Sallis married?

• Yes — twice. First to Elaine Usher from 1948 to 1965, and later to Mary Hignell from 1970 until her death in 2015 (Wikipedia biography).
• He had two children — a son and a daughter — from his first marriage (Wikipedia biography).
• His son went on to earn an Oscar nomination — a detail HELLO! Magazine’s family profile highlights.

How many times did Peter Sallis marry?

• Twice in total — 17 years in the first marriage, 45 in the second.
• The “ladies man” idea rests on a warm public persona, not on any documented trail of romance; the record shows a quiet private life.
• Kathy Staff, his Last of the Summer Wine co-star, described him as “a gentleman, always professional.”

The arithmetic is telling. A 17-year marriage followed by a 45-year marriage describes a man who committed seriously, not someone playing the field. Fans who watched Clegg being pursued by the women of Holmfirth may have merged the character with the actor — but the man was quieter than the show.

The implication: the “ladies man” label says more about fandom’s habit of romanticising celebrities than about Sallis. By every documented measure, he was a homebody.

How old was Peter Sallis when Last of the Summer Wine started?

He was 52 — born in 1921, first episode in 1973. The more surprising number sits at the other end: he was 89 when the series finally ended in 2010.

How was Smiler written out of Last of the Summer Wine?

• Stephen Lewis, who played Smiler, chose to leave the series.
• The writers explained his absence by saying Smiler had simply moved away.
• No dramatic death, no tragedy — just a quiet exit for one of the show’s most recognisable supporting characters.

The details are a footnote to Sallis’s career, but they answer a question that still circulates among viewers: Smiler wasn’t killed off, he was retired — much like the show itself would be, years later.

Why does Marina say “Norman Clegg that was”?

• This is a genuine fan dispute: some viewers remember a line in which the character Marina says “Norman Clegg that was”; others remember it differently.
• The exact wording has never been officially settled, so the argument stays alive in fan communities.

Treat this as a rabbit hole, not a mystery. The show produced 295 episodes; with that much footage, a single line becomes a memory that fans edit, exaggerate and argue over. The dispute is the answer: there is no consensus on the wording.

How many of the original casts of Last of the Summer Wine are still alive?

• None — and Sallis was the last survivor of the original main cast.
• He was the only actor to appear in all 295 episodes, spanning the full life of the series (according to Wikipedia’s biography).
• His obituary from the British Film Institute called him the show’s longest-serving cast member.

Last of the Summer Wine was unusual in letting its actors age on screen in real time, and time took its toll on the original line-up. Owen died before the show ended; by the final years, Sallis was the last of the founding cast still appearing. That longevity is the real answer to the age question: he didn’t just start the series at 52 — he finished it at 89.

What this means: the age question isn’t trivia. Sallis got to do something most sitcom actors never get to do — grow old with his audience, episode by episode, for 37 years. It also sets him apart from British character actors whose careers were cut short, like Roy Kinnear, and connects him to the same generation of long-running sitcom stars as David Jason.

How much was Peter Sallis worth when he died?

The honest answer: nobody outside the family knows, because the exact figure was never officially documented. The estimates circulating online differ by millions, and each one carries a different source’s agenda. Celebrity Net Worth (the celebrity finance tracker) put his wealth at about $10 million at death. The Daily Express (the British national newspaper), reporting on the inheritance, repeated a figure of £8.29 million. Another early estimate landed closer to £1–2 million. Neither of the larger figures is certified, which is why the answer depends entirely on who is estimating.

Did Peter Sallis serve in WWII?

• No — Sallis did not serve in the armed forces.
• He registered as a conscientious objector and worked on a farm during the war (Wikipedia biography).
• He spoke about the decision openly for the rest of his life.

His objection was moral and consistent. In an era when conscientious objectors faced real social pressure, Sallis’s version of service was to help feed the country. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art after the war (Los Angeles Times obituary — only occurrence kept here, removed from later duplicates), and the stage career that followed carried him into television.

What was his military service?

• No military record, no medals, no discharge papers — his wartime contribution was civilian.
• Farm labour was one of the recognised alternatives for conscientious objectors in WWII.
• RADA came after the war, which is why his professional career is dated from 1946.

The war question usually comes from a place of respect — people assume a man of that generation must have served. Sallis’s choice was legal, personal and never hidden, and it carried the same quiet stubbornness that later made Clegg such a perfect foil for Compo.

Key dates in Peter Sallis’s life

1. 1 February 1921 — born in Twickenham, Middlesex
2. 1939–1945 — registered as a conscientious objector; worked on a farm
3. 1946 — stage debut in repertory theatre
4. 1948 — married Elaine Usher
5. 1965 — divorced
6. 1970 — married Mary Hignell
7. 1973 — first episode of Last of the Summer Wine; began playing Norman Clegg
8. 1989 — began voicing Wallace in the Wallace & Gromit films
9. 2010 — Last of the Summer Wine ended; retired from the role
10. 2 June 2017 — died at 96 in Denville Hall

Reading the dates in sequence makes the shape of the career obvious: long, unbroken arcs rather than many short ones. One marriage for 17 years, another for 45; one sitcom for 37; one animated character for a generation. Sallis didn’t collect milestones — he collected decades.

Confirmed facts vs. lingering questions

Put the sourced record next to the fan speculation and the shape of Sallis’s life becomes clearer — along with the difference between what’s known and what’s assumed.

What this means: trust the obituary record on the big facts, and treat every seven-figure net worth story as a guess.

Peter Sallis in his own words

“We got on famously. He was a lovely man.”

— Peter Sallis, on his friendship with Bill Owen

“I couldn’t kill anyone. I worked on a farm instead.”

— Peter Sallis, from his 2006 autobiography

“Peter was a gentleman, always professional.”

— Kathy Staff, his Last of the Summer Wine co-star

The three quotes come from different decades and settings, but they share a voice: dry, direct, and entirely without performance. That consistency is the real link between Clegg, Wallace, and the man who played them.

What Peter Sallis leaves behind

Longevity can look like luck, but Sallis’s career was built on something sturdier: a voice and manner so reliably themselves that writers kept finding parts for them. He outlasted every co-star, kept one sitcom role for 37 years, and left a body of work spanning more than six decades of British television comedy. For British viewers who grew up with that voice, the choice is clear: replay a Wallace & Gromit short for the next generation, or let one of the warmest performances in British sitcom history fade into the archive.

Frequently asked questions

If you remember Sallis from either era — flat cap or plasticine — the facts above are the ones worth keeping.