Harry 'Buster' Merryfield was a British actor best known for his role as Uncle Albert in the long running hit BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses; a role he played from 1985 to 1996. Merryfield took up acting professionally late in life, following his retirement as a bank manager in 1978. His stage name of Buster stemmed from childhood; given to him by his grandfather, as he weighed nine pounds at birth, and it stuck throughout his entire life, not least because he refused to divulge his real name to anyone during his lifetime and it only became open knowledge after his death of a brain tumour in 1999.