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Francis Alick Howard (6 March 1917 – 19 April 1992),
[ ] better known by his stage-name Frankie Howerd, was an English actor and comedian.
Early life
Howerd was born the son of soldier Francis Alfred William
[ (1887–1934)][England & Wales, Death Index: 1916–2005] and Edith Florence Howard[ (née Morrison, 1888–1962),] at the City Hospital in York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
, England, in 1917 (not 1922 as he later claimed). His mother worked at the Rowntree's
Rowntree's is a British confectionery brand and former business based in York, England. Rowntree developed the Kit Kat (introduced in 1935), Aero (introduced in 1935), Fruit Pastilles (introduced in 1881), Smarties (introduced in 1937) brands ...
chocolate factory. For his first two and a half years, Howerd lived in a terraced house at 53, Hartoft Street. He described it as "a poorish area of the city near the River Ouse". He later said he had only one memory of living in York and that was of falling down the stairs, an experience which left him with a life-long dread of heights. He returned to York on many occasions for family holidays, however, and later in life spoke of his fondness for the city.
His family moved to Eltham
Eltham ( ) is a district of southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three wards of Elt ...
, London when he was a young child, and he was educated at Shooter's Hill Grammar School in Shooter's Hill
Shooter's Hill (or Shooters Hill) is a district in South East London within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It borders the London Borough of Bexley. It lies north of Eltham and south of Woolwich. With a height of , it is the highest point in t ...
.[Howerd, Frankie (1976) ''On the Way I Lost It'', W.H. Allen, ]
Career
His first stage appearance was at age 13 but his early hopes of becoming a serious actor were dashed when he failed an audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Sen ...
. He began to entertain during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
service in the British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
. It was at this time that he adapted his surname to Howerd "to be different". In 1944 he became a bombardier in Plymouth, was promoted to sergeant, and on 6 June 1944 was part of the D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...
effort but was stuck on a boat off Normandy.[ Despite suffering from ]stage fright
Stage fright or performance anxiety is the anxiety, fear, or persistent phobia which may be aroused in an individual by the requirement to perform in front of an audience, real or imagined, whether actually or potentially (for example, when perf ...
, he continued to work after the war, beginning his professional career in the summer of 1946 in a touring show called ''For the Fun of It''.
His act was soon heard on radio, when he made his debut, in early December 1946, on the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's ''
Variety Bandbox
''Variety Bandbox'' is a BBC Radio variety show transmitted initially in the BBC General Forces Programme, General Forces Programme and then the BBC Light Programme, Light Programme. Featuring a mixture of comic performances and music, the show h ...
'' programme with a number of other ex-servicemen. His profile rose in the immediate postwar period (aided with material written by
Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes (4 May 1923 – 4 July 2012) was an English radio, stage, television and film writer, comedian, actor, and director whose performing career spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and performed with many other leading com ...
,
Galton and Simpson
Ray Galton OBE (17 July 1930 – 5 October 2018) and Alan Simpson OBE (27 November 1929 – 8 February 2017) were English comedy scriptwriters whose partnership lasted over 50 years. They met in 1948 whilst recuperating from tuberculosis ...
and
Johnny Speight
Johnny Speight (2 June 1920 – 5 July 1998) was an English television scriptwriter of many classic British sitcoms.
He emerged in the mid-1950s. He wrote for radio comics Frankie Howerd, Vic Oliver, Arthur Askey, and Cyril Fletcher. For tele ...
). He then toured the Music Hall circuit with an act including what became his standard catch-phrases such as "titter ye not". He also became a regular in the 1950s editions of the weekly hard-copy comic ''
Film Fun
''Film Fun'' was a British celebrity comics comic book that ran from (issues dates) 17 January 1920 to 15 September 1962, when it merged with ''Buster (comic), Buster'', a total of 2,225 issues. There were also annuals in the forties and fiftie ...
''.
In 1954 he made his screen debut opposite
Petula Clark
Petula Sally Olwen Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer. She has one of the longest serving careers of a British singer, spanning more than seven decades.
Clark's professional career began during the ...
in ''
The Runaway Bus
''The Runaway Bus'' is a 1954 British comedy film produced, written, and directed by Val Guest. It stars Frankie Howerd, Margaret Rutherford and Petula Clark and an ensemble cast of character actors in a story about a bus caught in fog while ...
'', which had been written for his specific comic talent. Filming took five weeks, with a budget of £45,000.
He then experimented with different formats and contexts, including
stage farces,
Shakespearean comedy
In the First Folio, the plays of William Shakespeare were grouped into three categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies; and modern scholars recognize a fourth category, ''romance'', to describe the specific types of comedy that appear in Shak ...
roles, and
television sitcoms. At the start of the 1960s, he began to recover his old popularity, initially with a season at
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995) was an English actor, comedian, satirist, playwright and screenwriter. He was the leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s, and he was associated with the anti-establishme ...
's satirical
Establishment Club
The Establishment was a London nightclub that opened in October 1961, at 18 Greek Street, Soho, and which became known in retrospect for satire although at the time was a venue more commonly booking jazz acts and used for other events. It was fo ...
in
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develop ...
in London. He was boosted further by success on ''
That Was the Week That Was
''That Was the Week That Was'', informally ''TWTWTW'' or ''TW3'', is a satirical television comedy programme that aired on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced, and directed by Ned Sherrin and Jack (aka John) Duncan, and pre ...
'' (TW3) in 1963 and on stage with ''
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' (1963–1965), which led into regular television work. In 1966 and 1967, he co-hosted a 90-minute Christmas show called ''The Frankie and Bruce Christmas Show'' with
Bruce Forsyth
Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson (22 February 1928 – 18 August 2017) was a British entertainer and presenter whose career spanned more than 70 years. Forsyth came to national attention from the late 1950s through the ITV series '' Sunday Nig ...
, featuring many top acts of the day.
During the 1960s and 1970s, he was involved in shows for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and