Possibly the most famous grumpy old man in Britain, Warren Mitchell was a latecomer to fame.

It wasn't until he hit 40 that he landed the part of everybody's favourite ranting bigot, Alf Garnett in Til Death Do Us Part - but apparently lack of hair had more to do with this late success than lack of talent.

"I suppose I would have liked to have played Hamlet and maybe Romeo," he says. "But I was bald from an early age. I don't think they could afford the wigs in those days."

Whatever the reason, it was a struggle for Mitchell in the early days. It also left an unusual legacy in his tastebuds.

"I starved for the requisite number of years," he says.

"I did an awful job in the Walls ice-cream company on the night shift - there were so many actors in there, you could have cast 14 theatre companies from them.

"I couldn't eat ice-cream for 20 years after that because I could remember the awful smell and taste of it."

Thankfully, Mitchell is now back on the ice-cream and, at 78, he is in the prime of his acting career.

It's through portraying the wisdom and occasional inflexibility of old age that he has really made his mark.

Baldness is less of an inhibiting factor when it comes to playing patriarchs and despots and Mitchell can bring humanity to even the most unappealing and cantankerous of characters - such as Alf Garnett.

Despite his differences from the character of the anti-semitic, right-wing West Ham fan Garnett (Mitchell is actually a Tottenham supporting socialist with a Jewish background).

He says: "Unfortunately my family would say I resemble him in many ways. They used to call me Bully Bottom at home.

"When I played King Lear, people asked how I could play that awful tyrant of a man who banishes his daughters.

"I would say, 'Well, I've banished my own daughters from my house many many times - but they keep coming back!'"

Mitchell's Lear was highly praised and his portrayal of Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman won him a Society Of West End Theatre Award. It was also described by Miller himself as the best performance of the role he had ever seen.

Now, as furniture dealer Solomon in Miller's The Price, he has won himself another award for his mantlepiece - an Olivier.

Solomon, a Russian Jewish emigre, is a character with whom Mitchell has a little more in common.

"My grandparents were Russian Jews, and they fled to Britain in 1910 after being chased by the Cossacks," he says. "I learned a lot from my grandmother about the old days in Russia."

In The Price, the 90-year-old Solomon has seen all and suffered all but provides the lightness and comedy in a play that tackles trademark Miller themes of family, responsibility and the mirage of the American Dream.

Two brothers, Victor, a middle-aged cop and his brother Walter, a surgeon, meet for the first time in 16 years at their dead father's apartment.

Victor (played by Larry Lamb) is a weary, decent man who sacrificed his education and career to support his father when he lost his fortune in the 1929 Wall Street Crash and is now arranging the sale of his father's possesions.

His brother Walter (Des McAleer) has escaped his filial responsibilites to become a successful doctor, and has returned seeking forgiveness from Victor.

Mitchell's character, Solomon, is the dealer asked by Victor to assess the price of his father's furniture. He also ends up intervening in the rows that blow up between the two brothers; tragic hero Victor, whose father wasn't worthy of the sacrifices his son made for him, and suave Walter, who thinks material wealth can protect him from unhappiness.

"The Price is not well-known and it ought to be," says Mitchell.

"It's one of Miller's greatest plays, I think."

It has certainly provided Mitchell with one of his greatest roles, and is providing Brighton with a chance to see one of Britain's best actors in a work by one of the 20th-Century's most-revered playwrights.

Curtain 7.45pm, Tickets £15-£24, Tel: 01273 328488.