Celebrity restaurant owner who helped inspire Fawlty Towers

Andrew Leeman, who was 61 when he died on 12 August , 2007, was a vibrant restaurateur who captivated his celebrity clientele with his infamous charm.

His infectious personality attracted many high-profile friends, such as John Cleese, who used Mr Leeman as the inspiration for an episode of his hugely popular television series Fawlty Towers.

After earning his reputation at places such as Morton's in Berkley Square and Langan's Brasserie, he went on to open his own chain of Texas Lone Star restaurants and became the first to introduce tacos, nachos and margaritas to London.

Famed for turning away Mick Jagger from Langan's for being improperly dressed, Mr Leeman also once invited a tramp into the restaurant for a meal, then sent him on his way in a chauffered Rolls-Royce.

Andrew Richard Alexander Leeman was born on 27 July, 1946 and was schooled in Hampshire. However, the country life was not for him and he turned down a role in his family's horticultural business to study catering at Westminster College.

He went to London after graduating from the Lausanne Hotel School and was given a trainee post by Sir Hugh Wontner, chairman of the Savoy group. It was his days at the Savoy that gave John Cleese the inspiration for the 1979 the Kipper and the Corpse episode of Fawlty Towers.

Mr Leeman told Cleese the story of how he once had to discreetly remove a dead body he found in a hotel room, and it was promptly made into one of the greatest gags of the series. The dead body that Cleese's Basil Fawlty had to remove was named Mr. Leeman, in a nod to the storyline's originator.

Graduating from the Savoy, he went on to become hotelier in the latter years of his career, buying the Feathers in Woodstock with two partners. However, it is his days as a restuarant manager that made him a figure of recognition on the London scene.

His first managerial job was at Daisy in King's Road and he later opened his first restaurtant, the Sussex in Pimlico, which was visited by Princess Margaret. He then had his stint at Morton's, followed by his heyday at Langan's which was opened in 1976 by Michael Caine.

When he worked at Langan's Brasserie in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he would juggle entertaining regular famous faces such as Joan Collins and Jack Nicholas, with glossing over the outrageous antics of his boss Peter Langan.

Celebrity photographer Richard Young said of those days: "They had people like Sinatra, Brando, Robert De Niro. I even photographed Princess Grace coming out of there once. Andrew had this amazing rapport with all them. He was a nice man, and very accommodating towards me."

Mr Young also said he often caught Mr Langan's misbehaviour on camera and was impressed with how Mr Leeman handled him. When Mr Leeman left the restaurant, he was given the choice of taking any painting from its walls, or one thousand pounds in cash. He chose the cash, which unfortuantely turned out to be far less than what the paintings were worth.

It was his love of the US that inspired him to open his first Texas Lone Star Saloon in London in 1980. He often went to Texas to indulge in his hobby of shooting and decided that Britain should be introduced to the food he so enjoyed there.

He opened two more of the restaurants in Chiswick and Queensway and in 1984 opened the first Palms restaurant with Simon Lowe and Howard Malin in Kensington. Other restaurants included Tall Orders with starter-style English food presented in oriental steamer baskets; Steamboat Charlie’s and Casper’s Bar Grill and Telephone Exchange in Hanover Square where every table had its own telephone.

He died from cancer leaving behind his wife, Florida socialite and heiress Shannon Porter, and a son and daughter.

Restaurant critic Fay Maschler paid tribute to him and said: "Andrew was the first of his kind in that he wasn't like all these very stiff maître d's operating around London at the timee. He was very charming and incredibly laid back."