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Clive Dunn

Clive Dunn OBE
Clive Dunn-1973.png
Born Clive Robert Benjamin Dunn
(1920-01-09)9 January 1920
Brixton,London, England
Died 6 November 2012(2012-11-06) (aged 92)
Faro, Algarve, Portugal
Cause of death Surgical complications
Nationality British
Education Sevenoaks School
Alma mater Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts
Occupation
  • Actor
  • comedian
  • author
  • singer
Years active 1935–84
Known for Lance Corporal Jones
Notable work See below
Television Dad's Army
Spouse(s) Patricia Kenyon
(m. 1951–1958, divorced)
Priscilla Morgan
(m. 1959–2012, his death)
Children Polly Dunn
Jessica Dunn
Relatives Gretchen Franklin
(cousin)
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Unit 4th Queen's Own Hussars
Battles/wars World War II

Clive Robert Benjamin Dunn OBE (9 January 1920 – 6 November 2012) was an English actor, comedian, artist, author, and singer. He was best known for playing the elderly Lance Corporal Jones in the BBC sitcom Dad's Army.

Born in Brixton, London, Dunn was the son of actors, and the cousin of actress Gretchen Franklin. Dunn was educated at Sevenoaks School, an independent school for boys (now coeducational). After leaving school, Dunn studied at the independent Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, in London.

Dunn played small film roles from the 1930s onwards, appearing alongside Will Hay in the films Boys Will Be Boys (1935) while still a schoolboy, and Good Morning, Boys (1937). In 1939, he was stage manager for a touring production of The Unseen Menace, a detective story. This was not a success as the billed star of the show, Terence De Marney, did not appear on stage and his dialogue was supplied by a gramophone recording.

In 1940, after the start of the Second World War, Dunn joined the army and served with the 4th Queen's Own Hussars. The unit fought during the German invasion of Greece but surrendered after fighting a rearguard action near the Corinth canal; Dunn was among the four hundred men taken prisoner and was to be a prisoner of war in Austria for four years. He remained in the army after the war ended and was finally demobilized in 1947.

Dunn resumed his acting career after the army, mainly in Repertory theatre, and soon made his first television appearance. In 1956 and 1957, Dunn appeared in both series of The Tony Hancock Show and the army reunion party episode of Hancock's Half Hour in 1960. In the 1960s he made many appearances with Tony Hancock, Michael Bentine, Dora Bryan and Dick Emery, among others, before winning the role of Jones in Dad's Army in 1968.


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