| Benny
Hill |
| Born |
21 January 1924(1924-01-21)
 Southampton,
England |
| Died |
19
April 1992
(aged 68)
Teddington,
England
|
| Occupation |
Comedian
Actor
Singer |
| Parents |
Alfred Hawthorn Hill
Helen Florence Hill |
Alfred Hawthorn Hill (21 January
1924 – 19 April 1992), better known as
Benny Hill, was a prolific English comic, actor and singer, best known
for his television
programme, The Benny Hill Show.
|
Contents
- 1 Beginnings
- 2 Private
life
- 3 Early
career
- 4 Films
and recordings
- 5 The
Benny Hill Show
- 6 Celebrity
fans
- 7 Death
- 8 Last
will
- 9 Is
Benny Hill Still Funny?
- 10 Running
Gags
- 11 See
also
- 12 References
- 13 External
links
|
Beginnings
Alfred "Alfie" Hill was born in Southampton,
where he and his brother attended Tauntons School. During the Second
World War Hill was one of the scholars evacuated with the school to Bournemouth
School, East Way, Bournemouth. After leaving Tauntons
School, Hill worked variously as a milkman in Eastleigh, bridge operator, driver and
drummer, before he finally got a foot in the door of the entertainment
industry by becoming an assistant stage manager. Inspired by the 'star
comedians' of British music hall shows, Hill set out to make
his mark in show business. For the stage, he changed his first name to
'Benny', in homage to his favourite comedian, Jack
Benny. Hill began appearing at working
men's clubs and Masonic
dinners before graduating to nightclub and theatre jobs. Hill
auditioned for Soho's famed Windmill Theatre (home of Revudeville, a
popular show of singers, comedians and nude girls), but he was not
hired. Benny's first job in professional theatre as a performer was as Reg
Varney's straight man, beating a then-unknown Peter
Sellers for the role.
Private life
Hill worked compulsively and had only a few friends, although
colleagues who knew him closely insist that he was never lonely, but
content with his own company. He never married, although he did propose
to two women — one the daughter of a British writer — and was rejected
by both. He never owned his own home, nor even a car, instead
preferring to rent a small flat in Teddington, a convenient walking distance
to the studios of Thames Television,
where he taped his shows. His mother lived with him until her death
shortly before his. Before his move to Teddington, he lived at 22
Westrow Gardens in Southampton. [citations
needed]
Travelling was the one luxury he consistently permitted
himself. Hill became a first-degree Francophile, enjoying frequent visits to
Marseille.
Until the 1980s, he could enjoy the anonymity of France's outdoor
cafes, public transport, and socialising with local women. Besides
mastering French, Benny also could 'get by' speaking German, Dutch and
Italian in his travels. Hill's overseas holidays were often gathering
missions for comedic material, some newly inspired by foreign
surroundings, or borrowed from regional acts.
Hill was a distant relative of the Australian actress and
singer Holly Valance (Hill's cousin being
Valance's grandfather).
Early career
Between the end of the war and the dawn of television, he
worked as a radio performer. His first appearance on television was in
1949 in the television programme Hi There. He
continued to work intermittently until his career took off with The
Benny Hill Show in 1955 on BBC
Television. Recurring players on his show during the BBC years included
Patricia
Hayes, Jeremy Hawk, Peter Vernon, Ronnie Brody, and his co-writer from
the mid-1950s to early 1960s, Dave
Freeman. He remained mostly with the BBC through 1968, except for a few
isolated sojourns with ITV
station ATV in 1957–1960 and again in
1967. He also had a short-lived radio programme, Benny Hill
Time, which ran on BBC Radio's Light
Programme service from 1964 to 1966. In addition, he attempted a sitcom
anthology,
Benny Hill, which ran for three series from 1962 to
1963, in which he played a different character in each episode. In
1964, he played Nick Bottom in an all-star TV film
production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Films and recordings
Benny Hill's film credits include parts in nine films
including Those
Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
(1965); Chitty Chitty Bang
Bang (1968), in which he played the relatively
straight role of the Toymaker; The
Italian Job (1969); and, finally, a clip-show
film spin-off of his early Thames shows (1969–73), called The Best of Benny Hill
(1974).
Hill's audio recordings include "Gather in the Mushrooms"
(1961), "Transistor Radio" (1961), "Harvest
of Love" (1963), "Ernie (The
Fastest Milkman In The West)" (1971), among many others. He also
appeared in the video of the song "Anything She Does" by the band Genesis.
Hill's song, "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)," on the
Best of Benny Hill album made the UK Chart as
Christmas Number One Single in 1971. A link to the lyrics is provided
in the External Links section of this article.
The Benny Hill Show
A scene from The Benny Hill Show
In 1969, his show moved from the BBC to Thames
Television, where The Benny Hill Show
remained until its cancellation in 1989, with an erratic schedule of
one-hour specials.
Ben
Elton criticised him for sexism, as did other comedy performers who
came to fame in the 1980s.
Curiously, a common criticism was that Hill played a "dirty old man"
who chased women in public places, when in point of fact it was an
established part of the comedic style of The Benny Hill Show
that the women always chased Hill. Hill and his producer Dennis
Kirkland believed that this misrepresentation of his show demonstrated
that Hill's critics could not have actually watched his programmes.
Similar charges were also aimed at the Carry
On films which became unfashionable amongst the media elite
at the time. To quote his biographer Mark
Lewisohn, "In Britain, Benny Hill is taboo . . . I have seen people
recoil at the mention of his name." His show is rarely repeated on
terrestrial, satellite or cable TV, although it has recently been aired
on the BBC America cable channel. An Australian TV channel, Seven
Network has shown some episodes lately called "Great Comedy Classics".
Celebrity fans
Charlie Chaplin, who died in 1977,
was an avid fan of Hill's work: Hill had earlier discovered that his
childhood idol Chaplin was a fan when he was invited to Chaplin's home
in Switzerland by Chaplin's family and discovered that Chaplin had a
vast collection of Benny's work on video. Apparently, Hill and Dennis
Kirkland were the first people outside of family to be invited into
Chaplin's private study.
Radio and TV show host Adam Carolla has also claimed that he
was an avid fan of Benny Hill and that he considered Hill "as American
as the Beatles." Indeed, during an episode of The
Man Show, Carolla performed (in what was billed
as a tribute to "our favourite Englishman, Sir Benny Hill") in a
slightly more risqué takeoff of the "undercranked" sketches that Hill
popularised. Carolla played a rude and lecherous waiter—a role Hill
essayed numerous times in his shows — and the sketch featured many of
the staples of Hill's shows (including a Jackie
Wright-esque bald man, as well as the usual scantily clad ladies).
Comedian Carlos Mencia is also known to give
tributes to Hill at the end of his popular show, Mind
of Mencia, saying that he was an inspiration to him.
Parramatta Eels legends Peter Sterling and Brett
Kenny were ardent fans of Benny Hill, and it has been suggested some of
their backline movements were inspired by Hill skits.
In a documentary (Benny
Hill: The World's Favorite Clown) filmed before
Hill's death, a variety of celebrities (Burt
Reynolds, Michael Caine, John
Mortimer, Mickey Rooney, and Walter
Cronkite, among others) expressed their appreciation of and admiration
for Hill and his humour (and in Reynolds' case, the appreciation
extended to the Hill's Angels as well).
In 2006, the broadcaster and critic Garry Bushell launched a
campaign to erect a statue of Benny in Southampton, with the support of
Barbara Windsor, Brian Conley and many other British comedy favourites.
Those taking part in the first fund-raising concert included Neville
Staple, Right Said Fred and Rick Wakeman.
Death
Hill's health began to decline in the early 1990s. He suffered
heart problems, and on 11 February 1992, doctors told him that he needed to lose
weight, and recommended a heart bypass. He declined, and was
diagnosed a week later with renal failure.
Benny Hill died on or about 19 April 1992 (Easter weekend), alone in his flat at 7
Fairwater House, Twickenham Road, Teddington, at the age of 68. On 21 April,
concerned neighbours had called the police, who then found the deceased
Hill sitting in his armchair in front of the television. On the day
that Benny Hill died, a new contract arrived in the post to him from Central Independent
Television.
The cause of death was listed as coronary
thrombosis. (His death closely coincided with that of another British
comedy icon, Frankie Howerd, who died on 19 April aged
75.)
He was buried at Hollybrook Cemetery near his
birthplace in Southampton. In October 1992, following
rumours that he was buried with large amounts of gold jewellery, an
attempt was made by thieves to exhume his body. However, when
authorities looked into his open coffin the following morning, there
was no treasure within it, and consequently, only the culprits know for
sure whether anything valuable was inside. Hill was re-buried with a
new coffin lid and a solid slab placed across the top of the grave.
These circumstances were similar to that of Romy
Schneider after her burial.
Last will
In Hill's will, he had left his estimated £10
million (GBP) estate to his late parents. Next
in line were his brother Leonard and sister Diana, neither of whom he
had enjoyed the closest of relationships with, and both of whom were
also deceased. This left his seven nieces and nephews, amongst whom the
money — approximately £7.5 million — was divided. A note was found
among his belongings assigning huge sums of money to his close friends Sue Upton, Louise English, Henry
McGee, Bob
Todd and Dennis Kirkland, but because it was
neither signed nor witnessed, the note had no legal standing.
Is Benny Hill Still
Funny?
On 28 December 2006, Channel 4 broadcast the documentary Is
Benny Hill Still Funny?. The programme featured an audience
that comprised a cross-section of young adults who had little or no
knowledge of Hill's comedy style. The aim was to discover whether or
not the "politically incorrect" criticism of Hill was valid to a
generation that enjoyed the likes of Little
Britain, The Catherine Tate Show
and Borat.
The participants were asked to watch a 30-minute compilation that
included examples of Hill's humour from both his early BBC and later
Thames shows. The responses were continuously measured and the results
demonstrated that nobody took offence at any of the sketches shown. In
addition, the "appreciation" figure was revealed to be very
respectable, which would have guaranteed a series commission had it
been a modern television pilot programme. Hill's silent
"Wishing Well" sketch was discovered to be the most popular.
Alternative comedian Ben Elton, a harsh critic of Hill in the
1980s, was interviewed in the programme. Although still having
reservations on certain aspects of Hill's sketches, Elton admitted he
was an admirer of Hill's talent and abilities as a comic performer.
Running Gags
Fans have described the usual chase scene included in the
Benny Hill Show as a 'running gag that is a running gag'. The tune used
in all the chases, "Yakety Sax", is commonly referred to as
'The Benny Hill Theme'. It has been used in form of parody in many ways
by television shows, a small number of films and, mostly, videogame
parodies.
See also
- UK
topics
- Yakety
Sax, usually referred as the Benny Hill theme song
References
-
The Independent- Why did the British disown
Benny Hill?, published 27 May 2006
-
Benny - The True Story by Dennis Kirkland (with Hilary Bonner), publ.
1993
- Benny Hill page at the Museum of
Broadcast Communications
- Benny
Hill at the Internet Movie Database
- Biography at BBC
America
- Funny, Peculiar - The True Story of Benny Hill
by Mark Lewisohn
- The Benny Hill Show
page at the Museum of
Broadcast Communications
- GRO - Alfred H. Hill born MAR qtr 1924 2c 52 SOUTHHAMPTON,
mmn = Cave
- GRO - Alfred Hawthorne Hill died: APR 1992 14 1352
Richmond-upon-Thames, aged 68, Date of Birth = 21 Jan 1924
External links
