Arthur English
| Arthur English | |
|---|---|
as Mr Harman in
Are You Being Served? |
|
| Born |
Arthur Leslie Norman English 9 May 1919 Aldershot, Hampshire, England |
| Died | 16 April 1995 (aged 75) Frimley Park Hospital, Surrey, England |
| Occupation | Actor and comedian |
| Years active | 1949-1990 |
Arthur Leslie Norman English (9 May 1919 – 16 April 1995) was an English television, film and stage actor and comedian from the music hall tradition.
English was born at 22 Lysons Road in Aldershot,Hampshire, the son of Walter Frederick English (1856–1948) and Ethel English (née Parsons) (1886–1975). He attended West End Boys School in Aldershot (now the West End Centre) from the age of 5 to 14. His first stage appearance was aged 10 when he joined a group from Gale & Poldens called the 'Five O'clock Follies' as an acrobat. On leaving school in 1933 he briefly worked at Fisher's Hotel in nearby Farnham before becoming an errand boy in a local grocery store.
After serving in the army in World War II with the Hampshire Regiment and the Royal Armoured Corps reaching the rank of sergeant, English worked as a painter and decorator in his native town and in the evenings worked as a semi-professional entertainer in various local venues polishing up his comedy routines. He married Ivy Ruth Martin in 1941; it was she who made his enormous kipper ties out of brightly coloured curtain material at the beginning of his stage career. They had two children, Ann Faith (1942-1999) and Anthony (born 1947).
In 1949, while still employed in Aldershot as a painter and decorator. English and his then stage partner Jonny Carrol unsuccessfully auditioned at the Windmill Theatre in London. On a second and this time solo audition with Vivian Van Damm English became resident comedian at the Windmill Theatre at the same time compering a show for Bob Potter. English stayed at the Windmill as the principal comic until August 1950.
His early professional career was as a stand-up comic in the persona of a stereotypical wartime "spiv", and he became known as "The Prince of the Wide Boys" dressed in a trilby hat, a white jacket and padded shoulders with a pencil-thin moustache set off with a flamboyant kipper tie four feet wide.
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