Michael Bentine
CBE |
 |
| Born |
Michael James Bentin
(1922-01-26)26 January 1922
Watford, Hertfordshire, England, UK
|
| Died |
26 November 1996(1996-11-26) (aged 74)
Palm Springs, California, USA
|
| Cause of death |
Prostate cancer |
| Nationality |
English |
| Education |
Eton College |
| Occupation |
Comedian, actor |
| Years active |
1940, 1946–1996 |
| Spouse(s) |
Clementina Stuart (m. 1946; his death 1996) |
| Parent(s) |
Adam Bentin
Florence Dawkins |
Michael Bentine, CBE (born Michael James Bentin; 26 January 1922 – 26 November 1996) was an English comedian, comic actor and founding member of the Goons. He was a Peruvian Briton. In 1971, Bentine received the Order of Merit of Peru following his fund-raising work for the 1970 Great Peruvian earthquake.
Bentine was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, to a Peruvian father, Adam Bentin, and a British mother, Florence Dawkins, and grew up in Folkestone, Kent. He was educated at Eton College. With the help of speech trainer, Harry Burgess, he overcame a stammer and subsequently developed an interest in amateur theatricals, along with the Tomlinson family, including the young David Tomlinson. He spoke fluent Spanish and French. His father was an early aeronautical engineer for the Sopwith Aviation Company during and after World War I and invented a tensometer for setting the tension on aircraft rigging wires.
In World War II, he volunteered for all services when the war broke out (the RAF was his first choice owing to the influence of his father's experience), but was initially rejected because of his father's nationality.
He started his acting career in 1940, in a touring company in Cardiff playing a juvenile lead in Sweet Lavender. He went on to join Robert Atkin's Shakespearean company in Regent's Park, London, until he was called up for service in the RAF. He was appearing in a Shakespearean play in doublet and hose in the open-air theatre in London's Hyde Park when two RAF MPs marched on stage and arrested him for desertion. Unknown to him, an RAF conscription notice had been following him for a month as his company toured.
- Millions of words have been written about these horror camps, many of them by inmates of those unbelievable places. I’ve tried, without success, to describe it from my own point of view, but the words won’t come. To me Belsen was the ultimate blasphemy. (The Reluctant Jester, Chapter 17.)
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The Reluctant Jester sub-title My Head-on Collision with the 20th Century - Bantam Press - 1992 -
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Open Your Mind sub-title The quest for creative thinking - Bantam Press - 1990 -
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Templar - Bantam Press - 1988 -
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The Condor and The Cross sub-title An Adventure Novel of the Conquistadors - Bantam Press - 1987 -
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Lords of The Levels - Grafton - 1986 -
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The Shy Person's Guide To Life - Grafton - 1984 -
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Doors of The Mind - Granada - 1984 -
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The Door Marked Summer - Granada - 1981 -
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Smith & Son Removers - Corgi - 1981 -
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The Long Banana Skin - New English Library - 1976 -
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Madame's Girls and other stories (1980)
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The Best of Bentine (1984) Panther
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The Potty Encyclopedia (1985)
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The Potty Khyber Pass (1974)
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The Potty Treasure Island (1973)
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Square Games (1966) Wolfe SBN 072340080-6
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Michael Bentine's Book of Square Holidays M. Bentine & J. Ennis (1968) Wolfe SBN 72340019-9
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Fifty Years on the Streets Michael Bentine & John Ennis (1964) New English Library, A Four Square Book
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Wikipedia
