Norman Wisdom

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Sir Norman Wisdom
Sir Norman, Peel, Isle of Man (2005)
Born	4 February 1915 (1915-02-04) (age 94) Marylebone, London, England
Occupation	Actor, singer, songwriter, musician and comedian
Years active	1948–2005, 2007–2008
Spouse(s)	Freda Simpson (1947–1968) (divorced)

Sir Norman Wisdom OBE^[1] (born 4 February 1915) is a retired English comedian, singer, songwriter, actor and musician.

Early years

Norman Wisdom was born in the Marylebone district of London. His parents were Frederick, a chauffeur and Maud Wisdom (née Targett), a dressmaker who often worked for West End theatres. The couple married in Marylebone in 1912.^[2] Norman Wisdom's elder brother, Fred, was born in 1913. The family resided at 91 Fernhead Road, London W9, where they slept in one room.^[3]

Armed Forces

After a period in a children's home in Deal, Kent, Wisdom ran away when he was 11 but returned to become an errand boy with a grocery store on leaving school at 13. After this he walked (by his own account) to Cardiff, where he became a cabinboy in the Merchant Navy. He also worked as a coal-miner, waiter and pageboy. He then enlisted as a drummer boy in the 10th Royal Hussars of the British Army and in 1930 was posted to Lucknow, India as a bandsman.

There he gained an education certificate, rode horses, was the flyweight boxing champion of the British Army in India and learned to play the trumpet and clarinet. ^[3] While performing a comedy boxing routine in an army gym, Wisdom discovered he had a talent for entertainment^[4] and began to develop his skills as a musician and stage entertainer.^[5] After leaving the army he learned to drive and worked as a private hire car driver and having improved his diction in the army he also took a job as a night telephone operator.^[3]

World War two

At the outbreak of World War II Wisdom was sent to work in a communications centre in a command bunker in London where he connected telephone calls from war leaders to the prime minister. He met Winston Churchill on several occasions when asked for updates on incoming calls.^[3] He then joined the Royal Corps of Signals and performed a similar function with a military unit based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. After a charity concert at the Cheltenham Town Hall, actor Rex Harrison came backstage and urged him to become a professional entertainer.^[6]

Theatre

Leaving the Army in 1946, Wisdom made his debut as a professional entertainer at the age of 31, and his rise to the top was phenomenally fast. Initially the straight man to the magician David Nixon,^[5] he had adopted the suit that would remain his trademark; tweed flat cap askew, with peak turned up; a suit at least two sizes too tight; a crumpled collar and a mangled tie. This character known as "the Gump" was to dominate Wisdom's film career.

A West End star within two years, he made his TV debut the same year and was soon commanding enormous audiences. Charlie Chaplin called Wisdom his "favourite clown". ^[5]

Film career

Wisdom made a series of low-budget star-vehicle comedies for the Rank Organisation, beginning with Trouble in Store in 1953. This film earned him a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Film in 1954.^[7]

Their cheerful, unpretentious appeal make them the direct descendants of the films made a generation earlier by George Formby. Never highly thought of by the critics, they were very popular with domestic audiences and Wisdom's films were among Britain's biggest box office successes of their day, and were successful in some unlikely overseas markets, helping Rank stay afloat financially when their more expensive film projects were unsuccessful.

The films usually involved the Gump character—Norman Pitkin—in some manual occupation, in which he is barely competent and in a junior position to a straight man, often played by Edward Chapman—Mr Grimsdale. They benefited from Wisdom's capacity for physical slapstick comedy and his skill at creating a sense of the character's helplessness. The series often contained a romantic subplot; the Gump's inevitable awkwardness with women is a characteristic shared with the earlier Formby vehicles.

Despite a move to filming in colour, by the mid-1960s Wisdom's commercial film appeal was in eclipse. The obvious incongruity of a fifty-year old man playing the Prime Minister's grandson in Press for Time (1966) counted against him; Wisdom's age was inaccurately reported for many years.

Later career

In 1966, Wisdom went to the United States to star in a Broadway production of the James Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn musical comedy Walking Happy. His performance was nominated for a Tony Award.

He also completed his first American film as a vaudeville comic in The Night They Raided Minsky's. After a typical performance on the Ed Sullivan Show^[5] the opportunities which might have been in the United States were cut short when he had to return to London when his second wife left him. His subsequent career was largely confined to television and he toured the world with his successful cabaret act. He won critical acclaim in 1981 for his dramatic role of a dying cancer patient in the television play, Going Gently.

On 11 February 1987 Norman Wisdom was the subject of Thames Television's This Is Your Life for the second time. He became prominent again in the 1990s, helped by the young comedian Lee Evans, whose act was often compared to Wisdom's work.^[8] His classic Rank films were playing to new audiences on television screens and DVD, with a growing number of new young fans in the UK and abroad. The highpoint of this new popularity was the knighthood he was awarded in 2000.

From 1995 until 2004 he appeared in the recurring role of Billy Ingleton in the long-running BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine. The role was originally a one-off appearance, but proved so popular that he returned as the character on a number of occasions. In 1996, he became recipient of a Special Achievement Award from the London Film Critics.

Norman Wisdom was a guest on a This Is Your Life special in the year 2000 for actor/director Todd Carty.^[9]

He appeared as a half-time guest at the England vs Albania 2002 world cup qualifier at St James' Park, Newcastle upon Tyne. He scored a penalty at the Leazes end.^[10]

In 2002 he filmed a small role as Winston the butler in the movie Alone in the Dark although this wasn't released until 2008 under the title Evil Calls: The Raven. In 2004, he made a cameo appearance in Coronation Street playing fitness fanatic pensioner Ernie Crabbe. In 2007 Norman Wisdom came out of retirement to take a major role in a short film called Expresso (see details below).

Popularity in Albania

Wisdom is a cult icon in Albania, where he was the only Western actor whose films were allowed in the country during the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha. He is known as "Mr Pitkin" after the Gump character from his films. In 1995, he visited the post-Stalinist country, where to his surprise he was greeted by many appreciative fans including the then president of Albania, Sali Berisha. On a visit in 2001, which coincided with the England football team playing Albania in the city of Tirana (of which Norman was granted the freedom in 1995),^[11][12] his presence at the training ground eclipsed even that of David Beckham.^[13]

In his book and TV series One Hit Wonderland, Tony Hawks united with Wisdom and, along with Sir Tim Rice, released a single "Big In Albania" in an attempt to enter the Albanian pop charts. It reached number 18 in the Top Albania Radio chart.^[14] Wisdom's fondness for Brighton & Hove Albion is renowned in Albania and consequently there are many "Seagulls" fans in Albania.

Retirement

Wisdom announced his retirement from the entertainment industry on his ninetieth birthday (4 February 2005). He announced that he intended to spend more time with his family, playing golf and driving around the Isle of Man, where he was living.

In 2007, he made a singular return to acting in a feature film directed by Kevin Powis, Expresso. The film, which Wisdom later announced (reported BBC/ITV News) was to be officially his last film role, is set during one day in a Coffee Shop and was funded by the UK Film Council and ScreenWM. Shot in January, it premièred at the Cannes Film Festival on 27 May 2007. It was later adopted by the UK charity Macmillan and released on DVD in aid of the charity. In the movie Wisdom plays a vicar plagued by a fly in a café. Producer Nigel Martin Davey gave him only a visual role so he would not have to remember any lines, but on the day Wisdom was alert and had his performance changed to add more laughs.^[15]

Personal life

Wisdom married his second wife Freda Isobel Simpson, a dancer in October 1947; they had two children: Nicholas (born 1953) and Jacqueline (born 1954). The couple divorced in 1968, and Wisdom was granted full custody of the children. Freda Wisdom died in Brighton in 1992.^[16]

Wisdom is a lifelong supporter and a former board member of football team Brighton and Hove Albion F.C.. He enjoys golf^[17] and is a member of the Grand Order of Water Rats. Popular in the Isle of Man, he lived for 27 years in a house in Andreas named Ballylough (Manx for "House of Laughs").

A lover of cars, he owned a 1987 Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit and a Jaguar S-Type, until his age and failing mental health meant he failed a Department of Transport fitness to drive test, and they were sold in September 2005. A supporter of various charities including Mencap, in 2005 Wisdom starred in a video for the Manx girl group Twisted Angels for their single LA, in support of local charity Project 21.^[18]

Health decline

In mid-2006, after he suffered an irregular heart rhythm, Wisdom was flown by helicopter to hospital in Liverpool and after a few days was fitted with a heart pacemaker.^[19]

In August 2007, newspapers of the Daily Mail group and the Isle of Man Newspapers reported that Sir Norman was in the Abbotswood nursing home in Ballasalla, where he had been resident from 12 July 2007.^[20]

On the release of Expresso to DVD in the same month, BBC News confirmed that Wisdom lived in a care home, due to his suffering from vascular dementia.^[15] It was also reported that he had granted his children power of attorney over his affairs and having sold off his flat in Epsom, Surrey, were now in the process of selling his Isle of Man home to raise money to fund his longer term care.^[21]

In an exclusive interview on 27 August 2007 with the News of the World, journalists were given access to Wisdom's room at the home. He claimed to be happy and content in a routine which his family and carers considered kept him safe in spite of the memory losses associated with his condition.^[22]

On 16 January 2008^[23], BBC2 aired Wonderland: The Secret Life Of Norman Wisdom Aged 92 and 3/4,^[24] a documentary highlighting the dilemma of coping with an ageing parent. In a spoken trailer on BBC Radio 5 Live for the programme and in later publicity interviews undertaken by his family, it was stated that Wisdom's memory loss is now so severe that he no longer recognises himself in his own films.^[25]

In 2008, Sir Norman appeared in the film Evil Calls: The Raven, apparently sharing a role with Rik Mayall.

Premature death rumours

On 28 December 2008, Sky News announced that Wisdom had died, running a pre-recorded obituary, both as part of its rolling broadcast coverage, and on its website. Shortly afterwards, when it became apparent that other news sites were not carrying the story, Sky dropped the story, stating that it had been published in error in response to e-mail queries.^[26]

Tributes

In 2007, a Norman Wisdom themed bar opened at the Sefton Hotel, Douglas, called Sir Norman's. It has stills from his many films on the walls, and TV screens playing some of his old films. The bronze statue of Wisdom, which used to be on a bench outside Douglas Town Hall, has been moved to the steps leading into the bar.

Filmography

• A Date with a Dream (1948)
• Wit and Wisdom (1948-1950, TV)
• Trouble in Store (1953)
• One Good Turn (1954)
• As Long as They're Happy (1955)
• Man of the Moment (1955)
• Up in the World (1956)
• Just My Luck (1957)
• The Square Peg (1958)
• Follow a Star (1959)
• There Was a Crooked Man (1960)
• The Bulldog Breed (1960)
• On the Beat (1962)
• The Girl on the Boat (1962)
• A Stitch in Time (1963)
• The Early Bird (1965)
• The Sandwich Man (1966)
• Press for Time (1966)
• Androcles and the Lion (1967, TV)
• The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968)
• What's Good for the Goose (1969)
• Norman (1970, TV)
• Music Hall (1970, TV)
• Nobody Is Norman Wisdom (1973, TV)
• A Little Bit of Wisdom (1974, TV)
• BBC Playhouse: "Going Gently" (1981, TV)
• BBC Bergerac: "Almost Like a Holiday" (1983, TV)
• The 1950s: Music, Memories & Milestones (1988, TV)
• Double X: The Name of the Game (Double X, Run Rabbit Run) (1992)
• Last of the Summer Wine episode "The Man Who Nearly Knew Pavarotti" (1995, TV)
• Last of the Summer Wine episode "Extra, Extra!" (1996, TV)
• Where on Earth Is ... Katy Manning (1998, TV)
• Casualty episode "She Loved the Rain" (1998, TV)
• Last of the Summer Wine episode "The Coming of the Beast" (2000, TV)
• Last of the Summer Wine episode "A Musical Passing for a Miserable Muscroft" (2002, TV)
• Dalziel and Pascoe episode "Mens Sana" (2002, TV)
• Coronation Street (2004, TV)
• Five Children and It (2004) Played Nesbitt.
• Last of the Summer Wine episode "Variations on a Theme of the Widow Winstanley" (2004, TV)
• Expresso (2007) [www.expressofilm.com]
• Evil Calls: The Raven (Filmed Pre-2007 Released(2008))
• Wonderland: The Secret Life Of Norman Wisdom Aged 92 and 3/4 (2008, TV)

CDs and vinyl

• I Would Like to Put on Record
• Jingle Jangle
• The Very Best of Norman Wisdom
• Androcles and the Lion
• Where's Charley?
• Wisdom of a Fool
• Nobody's Fool
• Follow a Star
• 1957 Original Chart Hits
• Follow a Star/Give Me a Night in June
• Happy Ending/The Wisdom Of A Fool
• Big in Albania - One Hit Wonderland

Books

• Lucky Little Devil:Norman Wisdom on the Island He's Made His Home (2004)
• Norman Wisdom, William Hall (2003). My Turn. Arrow Books. ISBN 978-0099446767. 
• Don't Laugh At Me / Cos I'm a Fool (1992) (two volumes of autobiography)
• Trouble in Store (1991)

References

External links

• Norman Wisdom at the Internet Movie Database
• Norman Wisdom at the Internet Broadway Database
• Official Website