Michael Anthony Robbins (14 November 1930 – 11 December 1992) was an English actor best known for his role as Arthur Rudge in the television sitcom On the Buses (1969–1973) and its film spinoffs.
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Early life
Michael Robbins was born in Croydon, Surrey, to Percival W. Robbins (1899–1956) and Bertha May née Sindall (1900–1997), who outlived him. From 1939 to 1944 Robbins was a pupil at St Michael's College, a Catholic school for boys, in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. He then went on to work as a bank clerk and later became an actor after appearing in amateur dramatic performances also in Hitchin, where he and his family lived at the time.
Career
Robbins made his television debut as the cockney soldier in Roll-on Bloomin' Death. Primarily a comedy actor, he is best remembered for the role of Arthur Rudge, the persistently sarcastic husband of Olive (Anna Karen), in the popular sitcom On the Buses (1969–73). Robbins and Karen provided the secondary comic storyline to Reg Varney's comedy capers at the bus depot. Robbins appeared in the first six series but left before what would become the final season because he wanted to return to theatre work. He appeared in the series film spin-offs, On the Buses, Mutiny on the Buses, and Holiday on the Buses (which came out after he had left the series in 1973).
