Tony Hancock
| Tony Hancock | |
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Tony Hancock in about 1963
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| Born |
Anthony John Hancock 12 May 1924 Hall Green, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England |
| Died | 25 June 1968 (aged 44) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Cause of death | Suicide |
| Occupation | Actor, comedian |
| Years active | 1942–1968 |
| Spouse(s) |
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Anthony John "Tony" Hancock (12 May 1924 – 25 June 1968) was an English comedian and actor.
High-profile during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series Hancock's Half Hour, first on radio from 1954, then on television from 1956, in which he soon formed a strong professional and personal bond with comic actor Sid James. Although Hancock's decision to cease working with James when it became known in early 1960 disappointed many at the time, his last BBC series in 1961 contains some of his best remembered work ("The Blood Donor"). After breaking with his scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson later that year, his career took a downward course.
Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, Warwickshire, but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, Hampshire, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in Holdenhurst Road, worked as a comedian and entertainer.
After his father's death in 1934, Hancock and his brothers lived with their mother and stepfather Robert Gordon Walker at a small hotel called Durlston Court, in Gervis Road, Bournemouth. He attended Durlston Court Preparatory School, a boarding school at Durlston in Swanage (which name his parents adopted for their hotel) and Bradfield College in Reading, Berkshire, but left school at the age of fifteen.
In 1942, during the Second World War, Hancock joined the RAF Regiment. Following a failed audition for the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), he ended up on the Ralph Reader Gang Show. After the war, he returned to the stage and eventually worked as resident comedian at the Windmill Theatre, a venue which helped to launch the careers of many comedians at the time, and took part in radio shows such as Workers' Playtime and Variety Bandbox.
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