BRITIAN’S most infamous bully Gripper Stebson in Grange Hill looks unrecognisable now.
Actor Mark Savage, 56, played the villain in the children’s BBC TV show between 1980 and 1985.
Mark joined the cast at 17 as the scariest student to ever be part of Grange Hill.
Gripper – real name Norman Stebson – did a number of REALLY bad things during his time in education.
Those include shop lifting, picking on fellow student Roland Browning and gathering white students at the school to go against a Sikh student.
The nasty bully was expelled from Grange Hill for his vile behaviour, but things started to look up for him when he worked in a butchers.
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However his good behaviour didn’t last long because he later got his sister Emma to help him steal bikes from the school – which led to her getting expelled as well.
His alter-ego lasted a total of four series (series four to eight) until Mark left the show in 1985.
Despite his character’s awful ways, he was still one of the most popular from the show.
37 years on since his stint on the programme and he’s still doing what he loves the most – acting.
In 19867 he played Kenneth Campbell in TV series Dramarama.
Mark also starred in others such as Happy Rabbit (2009), Total Reaction (2009), Milk Man (2009), Alone with Me (2013), Time Traders (2013) and The Wandering (2016).
He also starred in Morrissey’s music video of Dagenham Dave in 1995.
Back in 2019 he performed at the Clapham Fringe to highlight the issue of suicide.
Mark was also nearly left homeless in 1999 after spending his wages to look after his ill mum.
He told NOW magazine at the time: “I got into this mess after spending my life savings looking after my mother, who died of cancer last summer.
“I took a year out to move close to her on the south coast.
“I must have spent pounds 12,000 just renting my own place and travelling back and forth to be by her side.
“She was only 58 and her death really devastated me. To add to that, I’ve got no work and no money.”
Mark loves to keep his fans up to date with what he gets up to on his Twitter account.
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The star boasts 1,403 followers on his account.
He recently pinned his latest show reel to the top of his page, but also shares his opinions on what is going on in the world at the moment.
