Lance Percival
| Lance Percival | |
|---|---|
| Born |
John Lancelot Blades Percival 26 July 1933 Sevenoaks, Kent, England |
| Died | 6 January 2015 (aged 81) London, England |
| Years active | 1961–2015 |
John Lancelot Blades Percival, known as Lance Percival (26 July 1933 – 6 January 2015), was an English actor, comedian and singer, best known for his appearances in satirical comedy shows of the early 1960s and his ability to improvise comic calypsos about current news stories. He later became successful as an after-dinner speaker.
He was born in Sevenoaks, Kent, and was educated at Sherborne School in Sherborne, Dorset, where he learnt to play the guitar. He then did national service with the Seaforth Highlanders as a lieutenant and was posted to Egypt. In 1955 he emigrated to Canada where he worked as an advertising copywriter, writing jingles for radio. He also formed a calypso group as "Lord Lance" which toured the US and Canada.
Percival first became well known in the early 1960s for performing topical calypsos on television shows such as That Was The Week That Was, after having been discovered by Ned Sherrin, performing at the Blue Angel Club in Mayfair. A tall thin man with a distinctive crooked nose and prominent ears, he also appeared in several British comedy films including the Carry On film Carry On Cruising (1962). Percival had a cameo role in The V.I.P.s (1963) and another in The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964). He also appeared in his own BBC TV comedy series Lance at Large (also 1964), with writers Peter Tinniswood and David Nobbs.
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