Kenneth Connor
Kenneth Connor | |
|---|---|
 Publicity photo of Connor from 1959 | |
| Born | 6 June 1918 Highbury, London, England |
| Died | 28 November 1993 (aged 75) South Harrow, London, England |
| Resting place | Breakspear Crematorium, Ruislip, London, England |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1920–1993 |
| Known for | Carry On films 'Allo 'Allo! |
| Spouse |
Margaret Knox
(m. 1942) |
| Children | 1 |
Kenneth Connor, MBE (6 June 1918 – 28 November 1993)[1] was a British stage, film and broadcasting actor, who rose to national prominence with his appearances in the Carry On films.
Early life
Connor was born in Highbury, Islington, London, the son of a naval petty officer who organised concert parties.[1] He first appeared on the stage at the age of two as an organ-grinder's monkey in one of his father's shows, in Portsmouth. By the age of 11 he had his own act. He attended the Central School of Speech and Drama, where he was a Gold Medal winner. Connor made his professional debut in J. M. Barrie's The Boy David, at His Majesty's Theatre, London, in December 1936.
During the Second World War he served as an infantry gunner with the Middlesex Regiment, but continued acting by touring Italy and the Middle East with the Stars in Battledress concert party and ENSA. Earlier in the war, in 1941, he was apparently performing as a comedic entertainer in a concert party named the "Tam o Shanter's", as evidenced by a programme from the concert at the Summer Theatre at Felixstowe, dated Saturday 5 July 1941. The full cast autographed the programme, suggesting a final performance for the concert party, with Kenneth signing it "All the best Ken Connor". While waiting to be demobbed in Cairo, Connor received a telegram from William Devlin asking him to join the newly formed Bristol Old Vic, where he gained a solid grounding in the classics.
Career
He moved on to the London Old Vic Company for a 1947–48 season at the New Theatre. His most notable performances there were as Chaplain de Stogumber in Saint Joan and Dobchinsky in The Government Inspector, which starred Alec Guinness. Realising he was not a "tall, impressive juvenile lead or a young lover type", he decided to specialise in comedy. He appeared in Talbot Rothwell's farce Queen Elizabeth Slept Here in the West End in 1949.
He took over from Peter Sellers in Ted Ray's radio show Ray's a Laugh – launched by the BBC in 1949 as a successor to Tommy Handley's ITMA. He played the brother-in-law and other oddball characters such as Sidney Mincing. Ray took Connor with him to his TV shows, and the pair would star together in the third Carry On film, Carry On Teacher.
On occasion, he appeared in The Goon Show, standing in for regular cast members struck down by illness. He also appeared in the anarchic, Goon-style TV series The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d (1956) and A Show Called Fred (1956).
Connor gained a small role in the film The Ladykillers (1955) as a taxi driver. In 1958, he was cast in the first Carry On film, Carry On Sergeant, and became one of the regular cast in the series, appearing in seventeen of the original thirty films and many of the associated television productions. Alongside Kenneth Williams and Eric Barker, Connor was one of only three actors to appear in both the first and last of the original sequence of Carry On films (Carry On Sergeant and Carry On Emmannuelle).
In his earlier Carry On appearances, Connor frequently played the romantic lead or other sympathetic roles (typically with an element of comically neurotic anxiety), while later appearances saw him play less sympathetic characters such as married men with wandering eyes who made lascivious remarks. In Carry On Nurse (1959), his real-life son Jeremy appeared as his character Bernie Bishop's son. In 1961, he starred with fellow Carry On stars Sid James and Esma Cannon in the comedy film What a Carve Up! In fact, in the 1959–61 period, he was one of the most prominent leading men in British comedy films. As well as What a Carve Up! and the Carry On films, other films he starred in during this period included Watch Your Stern (1960), Nearly a Nasty Accident (1961) and the Dentist films. In 1960, he did the voices of the horse and dog in the Four Feather Falls puppet series.
Connor had a good tenor voice, which he occasionally used to good effect, such as in the 1962 movie Carry On Cruising.
In contrast with some of his Carry On co-stars, Connor found further success on the London stage. He starred in the revue One Over The Eight (1962), at the Duke of York's Theatre, the original London West End production with Frankie Howerd of the Stephen Sondheim musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1963), as Hysterium – and directed the show when it went on tour – The Four Musketeers (1967), with Harry Secombe at the Theatre Royal, playing King Louis XIII, and the revue Carry On London (1973) at the Victoria Palace.
Between 1971 and 1973, Connor joined Dad's Army stars Arthur Lowe and Ian Lavender in the BBC radio comedy Parsley Sidings. On television, he appeared in The Black and White Minstrel Show, as Whatsisname Smith in the children's show Rentaghost (1983–84), and as Monsieur Alfonse in 'Allo 'Allo! (1984–1992) and Uncle Sammy Morris in Hi-de-Hi! (1986–88). He also made guest appearances in sitcoms including That's My Boy and You Rang, M'Lord? and he also appeared in the episode "Sense and Senility" of Blackadder the Third in 1987, alongside fellow veteran comic star Hugh Paddick.
In 1991, he was honoured by the Queen with appointment as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
He was still working just two days before his death, with an appearance on Noel Edmonds' Telly Addicts. His final TV appearance, as Mr Warren in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes episode The Adventure of the Red Circle, was broadcast posthumously in 1994.
Death
Connor died at the age of 75 from the effects of cancer at his home in Harrow in Middlesex on 28 November 1993.[1][2] His body was cremated at Breakspear Crematorium in Ruislip, Middlesex.
Personal life
He married Margaret Knox ("Miki") during the war in 1942; his son, Jeremy,[3] and three grandchildren, Thomas, Hayley and Rose, were all child actors.
Television roles
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Room at the Bottom | Gus Fogg |
| 1970 to 1971 | On the House | Gussie Sissons |
| 1975 | Carry On Laughing | Various |
| 1983 to 1984 | Rentaghost | Whatsisname Smith |
| 1984 to 1992 | 'Allo 'Allo! | Monsieur Alfonse |
| 1986 to 1988 | Hi-de-Hi! | Uncle Sammy Morris |
| 1986 | That's My Boy | Robert Taylor |
| 1987 | Blackadder the Third | Enoch Mossop |
| 1990 | You Rang, M'Lord? | Professor Heinrich Van Manheim |
| 1994 | Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes | Mr. Warren |
Selected filmography
| Title | Year | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poison Pen | 1939 | Telephonist | |
| The Passionate Pilgrim | 1949 | Murphy | |
| Over The Odds | 1950 | Sydney | |
| Don't Say Die | 1950 | Pat O'Neill | |
| Rush Job | 1951 | Percy Prangle | |
| Miss Robin Hood | 1952 | Board Member | Uncredited |
| There Was a Young Lady | 1953 | Tom Bass | |
| Marilyn | 1953 | Customer | |
| The Black Rider | 1954 | George Amble | |
| The Ladykillers | 1955 | Taxi Driver | Uncredited |
| Davy | 1957 | Herbie | |
| Carry On Sergeant | 1958 | Horace Strong | |
| Make Mine a Million | 1959 | Anxious Husband | |
| Carry On Nurse | 1959 | Bernie Bishop | |
| Carry On Teacher | 1959 | Gregory Adams | |
| Carry On Constable | 1960 | Constable Charlie Constable | |
| Dentist in the Chair | 1960 | Sam Field | |
| Watch Your Stern | 1960 | Ordinary Seaman Blissworth | |
| His and Hers | 1961 | Harold | |
| Carry On Regardless | 1961 | Sam Twist | |
| A Weekend with Lulu | 1961 | British Tourist | |
| Nearly a Nasty Accident | 1961 | AC 2 Alexander Wood | |
| Dentist on the Job | 1961 | Sam Field | |
| What a Carve Up! | 1961 | Ernest Broughton | |
| Carry On Cruising | 1962 | Dr. Arthur Binn | |
| Carry On Cabby | 1963 | Ted Watson | |
| Carry On Cleo | 1964 | Hengist Pod | |
| How to Undress in Public Without Undue Embarrassment | 1965 | ||
| Gonks Go Beat | 1965 | Wilco Roger | |
| Cuckoo Patrol | 1967 | Wick | |
| Danny the Dragon | 1967 | Danny the Dragon | Voice |
| Captain Nemo and the Underwater City | 1969 | Swallow Bath | |
| Rhubarb | 1969 | Mr Rhubarb | |
| Carry On Up the Jungle | 1970 | Claude Chumley | |
| Carry On Henry | 1971 | Lord Hampton Wick | |
| Carry On Matron | 1972 | Mr Tidy | |
| Carry On Abroad | 1972 | Stanley Blunt | |
| Carry On Girls | 1973 | Mayor Frederick Bumble | |
| Carry On Dick | 1974 | The Constable | |
| Carry On Behind | 1975 | Major Leep | |
| Carry On England | 1976 | Captain S. Melly | |
| Carry On Emmannuelle | 1978 | Leyland |
References
- ^ a b c "Connor, Kenneth". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/51616. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Kenneth Connor". The Herald (29 November 1993). Retrieved 28 September 2020.
- ^ Hayward, Anthony (30 November 1993). "Obituary: Kenneth Connor". The Independent. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
External links
- Pages with script errors
- GSD articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB
- Pages using cite ODNB with id parameter
- Articles with short description
- EngvarB from June 2014
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- Use dmy dates from June 2014
- 1918 births
- 1993 deaths
- 20th-century English male actors
- English male child actors
- English male film actors
- English male television actors
- Members of the Order of the British Empire
- Male actors from London
- People from Islington (district)
- Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
- British Army personnel of World War II
- Middlesex Regiment soldiers
- British male comedy actors
