Felix Bowness
| Felix Bowness | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Felix Hervè Talbot Bowness 30 March 1922 Harwell, Berkshire, England |
| Died | 13 September 2009 (aged 87) Woodley, Reading, Berkshire, England |
| Occupation | Boxer, soldier, comedian, actor |
| Spouse(s) | Mavis (m. 1950–2009, his death, 1 son) |
| Relatives | 3 grandchildren and 1 great-granddaughter |
Felix Bowness (30 March 1922 – 13 September 2009) was an English comedy actor best remembered for his portrayal of the jockey Fred Quilley in the BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi!.
Born in the village of Harwell, Berkshire, to French Canadian parents, he became a bantamweight boxing champion.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the Royal Berkshire Regiment as a signalman. At the D-Day landings in Normandy, after his landing craft was hit and sunk, he only remembered waking in a French convent. During recovery he attended a Vera Lynn concert, after which she gave him a singing lesson.
Bowness returned to Britain, and started performing on the touring comedy circuit, undertaking two summer seasons at Clacton-on-Sea Pier in 1948/49, being replaced in 1950 by Tony Hancock.
He eventually broke into films and television in the early 1960s, and supplemented his income by becoming a well utilised warm-up act for television shows including Morecambe and Wise, the Two Ronnies, and later Sir Terry Wogan's chat show Wogan. The warm-up act for This Is Your Life, Bowness himself was the subject of an edition of This Is Your Life in 1985.
...
Wikipedia