Actors - Charles Hawtrey

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	Actors - Charles Hawtrey

George Frederick Joffre Hartree (30 November 1914 - 27 October 1988), better known as Charles Hawtrey, was a British comedy actor.

Life

Born at Hounslow in Middlesex, England, as George Frederick Joffre Hartree, he took his stage name from a celebrated theatrical knight of the previous century, Sir Charles Hawtrey. It has mistakenly been suggested, and encouraged by Hartree himself, that he was the son of Sir Charles Hawtrey but there is no foundation to this. His father was actually a London car mechanic.

Charles Hawtrey made an early start to a remarkable career that was to span a period of almost 60 years, and broke through in all the major entertainment media of the time. He began in the field of music as a renowned boy soprano, making several records before then moving onto the wireless where he performed in programmes for 'Children's Hour'. Following study at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London, he embarked on a career in the theatre as both actor and director. Finally he moved from the cinema (where he regularly appeared against Will Hay in the 1930s in films such as 'The Ghost of St Michaels') through the Carry On films, to the television screen.

Very little is publicly known about Charles Hawtrey's private life. He guarded his relationships very carefully, which is perhaps not a surprise in an age where homosexuality was illegal and punishable by a prison sentence, but during his life he never hid (to put it mildly) his homosexuality, and was one of the first actors in British cinema to be identifiably 'gay' in the characters that he played. His outrageous drunken promiscuity however, did not portray homosexuality in a positive light to an unsympathetic world, nor did his general demeanour with those around him earn him many (if any) close friends. Nevertheless a few anecdotes told by his Carry-On colleagues shed a little light on the character off the screen. Kenneth Williams records several encounters with Hawtrey in his 'Diaries' and 'Letters' (both published). He remembers a visit to Deal where Hawtrey's house was full of old brass bedsteads which the eccentric had kept, believing that one day he would make money from them. He would also wave with gusto at the sailors on the beach.

Barbara Windsor in her autobiography talks openly about Hawtrey's alcohol problem. In Carry On Spying
she thought he had fainted from fright at a dramatic scene on a conveyer belt. In fact he had passed out as he was drunk. When he came into filming with a crate of R. White's Lemonade, everyone knew that he had been on another heavy drinking binge.

Joan Sims could apparently communicate with him in a private language called 'Telegraphese'. He would smoke woodbines profusely and play cards during takes with Sid James and his gang. He was godfather to Richard O'Callaghan (son of Patricia Hayes) who played in Carry On Loving, and was also looked up to by Jim Dale as a type of mentor in comic timing. This was Hawtrey's absolute strength.

A lot of strain was put on him by his mother who suffered senile dementia in later years. One story has the old woman's handbag catching fire when her cigarette ash fell in. Hawtrey, without batting an eyelid, poured a glass of water to put out the flames, snapped the purse shut and continued with his story. His mother would also collect toilet rolls and on another visit to the studios blocked the women's toilets with paper.

Laurence Olivier, one of the greatest 20th century British actors, once drove past in his chauffered limousine as Hawtrey stood at the bus-stop after a day's filming. Olivier was aghast that a great comic was being treated in this way that everyday he offered to give the actor a lift in the car.

In the introduction to the Beatles song "Two Of Us" (from the Let It Be album), Phil Spector included a bit of chatter into the beginning, and John Lennon can clearly be heard saying, "I Dig A Pygmy by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf-Aids...Phase One, in which Doris gets her oats." The song was recorded in 1969 around the time of 'Carry on Camping' - 'the Deaf-Aids' is the name given to the amplifiers used by the Beatles. It is not clear whether or not Lennon was a fan of Charles Hawtrey.

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Actors - Charles Hawtrey

Life

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