Terry Scott

Terry Scott (4 May 1927 – 26 July 1994) was an English actor and comedian who appeared in seven Carry On films. He also appeared in BBC One's popular domestic sitcom Terry and June with June Whitfield. As a regular comedy performer, he went on to become one of Britain's top stars.

Scott was born Owen John Scott in Watford and educated at Watford Field Junior School then Watford Grammar School for Boys. He studied accounting and served in the Navy during World War II. With Bill Maynard he appeared at Butlins Holiday Camp in Skegness and partnered him in the TV series Great Scott, It's Maynard!. During the early 1960s, he became well known to television audiences for his role alongside Hugh Lloyd in Hugh and I. Scott later appeared with Lloyd as gnomes in the 1969 sitcom The Gnomes of Dulwich.

Scott is best remembered for starring in several series of the comedy Happy Ever After and its successor, Terry and June. Due to the popularity of these sitcoms, many people believed he was actually married to co-star Whitfield. The pair also starred together in the movie version of Bless This House.

Scott had played a small role in the very first of the Carry On series of movies, Carry On Sergeant in 1958. In 1968 he returned to the series with a role in Carry On Up the Khyber (1968), playing main roles in six of the films. He said he stopped because he was busy with other projects including a musical comedy version of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, a personal ambition which never came to fruition^{[citation needed]}.

In the 1970s, Terry had a memorable role in TV commercials for a chocolate coated caramel bar called Curly Wurly, in which he appeared dressed as a schoolboy, complete with short trousers and cap.

Scott's novelty record "My Brother" (written by Mitch Murray) was based on this schoolboy character (he dressed in the uniform to sing it on TV) and received regular airplay on BBC radio (in particular Ed 'Stewpot' Stewart's Saturday and Sunday morning programme Junior Choice which was simulcast on BBC Radio 1 & 2) for many years. Then in the 1980s, Scott was the voice of Penfold the hamster in the animated series Danger Mouse.

Scott suffered from ill-health for many years. In 1979, he had a life-saving operation after a haemorrhage. He also suffered from creeping paralysis and had to wear a neck brace, even on television. When Terry and June was axed in 1987, Scott suffered a nervous breakdown. The attack was in part brought on by his public confession that he had a series of affairs during his marriage to former dancer Maggie Pollen. Scott had married Pollen in 1957 and they had four daughters together.

Scott died of cancer on July 26 1994, aged 67.

Selected films

• Blue Murder at St Trinian's (1957)
• I'm All Right Jack (1959)
• Murder Most Foul (1964)
• Doctor in Clover (1966)
• The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966)
• Carry On up the Khyber (1968)
• Carry On Camping (1969)
• Carry On Loving (1970)
• Carry On Henry (1970)
• Carry On Matron (1971)
• Bless This House (1972)

External links

• Terry Scott at the Internet Movie Database