Charles Hawtrey (actor born 1914)

Charles Hawtrey
Publicity photo of Hawtrey in the 1960s
Born	George Frederick Joffre Hartree (1914-11-30)30 November 1914 Hounslow, Middlesex, England
Died	27 October 1988(1988-10-27) (aged 73) Deal, Kent, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1922–1987

George Frederick Joffre Hartree (30 November 1914 – 27 October 1988), known as Charles Hawtrey, was an English comedy actor and musician.

Beginning at an early age as a boy soprano, he made several records before moving on to the radio. His later career encompassed the theatre (as both actor and director), the cinema (where he regularly appeared supporting Will Hay in the 1930s and 1940s in films such as The Ghost of St. Michael's), through the Carry On films, and television.

Born in Hounslow, Middlesex, England in 1914, to William John Hartree (1885-1952) and his wife Alice Hartree (née Crow) (1880-1965) as George Frederick Joffre Hartree, he took his stage name from the theatrical knight, Sir Charles Hawtrey, and encouraged the suggestion that he was his son. However, his father was actually a London car mechanic.

Following study at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London, he embarked on a career in the theatre as both actor and director.

Hawtrey made his first appearance on the stage in Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, as early as 1925. At the age of 11 he played a "street Arab" in Frederick Bowyer's fairy play The Windmill Man.

His London stage debut followed a few years later when, at the age of 18, he appeared in another "fairy extravaganza", this time at the Scala Theatre singing the role of the White Cat and Bootblack in the juvenile opera Bluebell in Fairyland. The music for this popular show had been written by Walter Slaughter in 1901, with a book by Seymour Hicks (providing part of the inspiration for J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan).