Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland, CBE (born 29 February 1928), known as Joss Ackland, is an English actor who has appeared in more than 130 film and television roles.

Biography

Ackland and his wife were married for 51 years. They had seven children and, as of May 2006, 32 grandchildren. Despite his filming taking him to far-flung locations, Ackland said they never spent a night apart. In 1963, their house in Barnes caught fire. Rosemary Ackland managed to save their five children but broke her back when jumping from the bedroom window to safety. She was told she would lose the baby she was carrying and would never walk again, but later gave birth and, after two years in Stoke Mandeville Hospital, walked again.

Their eldest son, Paul, died of a heroin overdose in 1982, aged 29. In 2000, Rosemary Ackland was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, and died 25 July 2002.

In the years since his wife's death, Ackland has read and edited her diaries and published them in 2009 under the title My Better Half and Me: A love affair that lasted fifty years.

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