Merle Oberon
1943
Born	Estelle Merle Thompson (1911-02-19)19 February 1911 Bombay (now Mumbai), British India
Died	23 November 1979(1979-11-23) (aged 68) Malibu, California
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1928-1973
Spouse	Alexander Korda (m.1939-1945; divorced) Lucien Ballard (m.1945-1949; divorced) Bruno Pagliai (m.1957-1973; divorced) Robert Wolders (m.1975-1979; her death)

Merle Oberon (19 February 1911 - 23 November 1979) was an Indian-born British actress.^[1] She began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). After her success in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), she travelled to the United States to make films for Samuel Goldwyn. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Dark Angel (1935). A traffic collision in 1937 caused facial injuries that could have ended her career, but she soon followed this with her most renowned performance in Wuthering Heights (1939).

Early life[link]

Estelle Merle Thompson was born in Bombay, British India on 19 February 1911.^[1] According to some sources, her birth name was Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson.^[2] Merle was given "Queenie" as a nickname, in honour of Queen Mary, who visited India along with King George V in 1911.^[3]

Over the years, Oberon obscured her parentage. Some sources claim Merle's parents as Charlotte Selby, a Eurasian from Ceylon with partial Māori heritage,^[4] and Arthur Terrence O'Brien Thompson, a British mechanical engineer from Darlington, who worked in Indian Railways.^[5]

Aged 14, Charlotte had given birth to her first child Constance, in Ceylon, from a relationship with Henry Alfred Selby, an Irish foreman of a tea planter.^[4] Some sources claim that Constance was Merle's biological mother, although Charlotte raised Merle as her own child.^[6][7] Charlotte's partner, Arthur Thompson, was listed as her father in Merle's birth certificate, with the forename misspelled as "Arther".^[1] Merle reportedly knew Constance as her "sister".^[7] Constance had four other children, Edna, Douglas, Harry and Stanislaus (Stan) with her husband Alexander Soares. Edna and Douglas moved at an early age to the UK and Harry later in life moved to Toronto, Canada and retained Constance's maiden name, Selby. Stanislaus was the only child to keep his father's last name of Soares and he currently resides in Surrey, BC Canada. All the siblings reportedly believed that Merle was their Aunt (mum Constance's sister).

When Harry Selby tracked down his birth certificate in Indian government records in Bombay (Mumbai), he was surprised to discover he was in fact her brother. He attempted to visit her in Los Angeles, but she refused to see him. He withheld this information from Oberon's biographer Charles Higham, only revealing it to Maree Delofski, the maker of The Trouble with Merle, a 2002 documentary produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which investigated the conflicting versions of her origin.^[7]

In 1914, Arthur Thompson joined the British Army and later died of pneumonia on the Western Front during the Battle of the Somme.^[8] Merle, with her "mother" (really her grandmother), led an impoverished existence in shabby Bombay flats for a few years. Then, in 1917, they moved to better circumstances in Calcutta.^[9] Oberon received a foundation scholarship to attend La Martiniere Calcutta for Girls, a well-known Calcutta private school.^[9] There, she was constantly taunted for her unconventional parentage and eventually quit school and had her lessons at home.^[10]

Oberon first performed with the Calcutta Amateur Dramatic Society. She was also completely enamored of the films and enjoyed going out to nightclubs. Indian journalist Sunanda K. Datta-Ray claimed that Merle worked as a telephone operator in Calcutta under the name Queenie Thomson, and won a contest at Firpo's Restaurant there, before her film career started.^[11]

In 1929, she met a former actor named Colonel Ben Finney at Firpo's, and dated him.^[12] However, when he saw Oberon's dark-skinned mother one night at her flat and realised Oberon was mixed-race, he decided to end the relationship.^[12] But he promised to introduce her to Rex Ingram of Victorine Studios, if she could come to France.^[12] Oberon jumped at the offer and decided to follow the man to the studios in France.^[12] After packing all their belongings and moving to France, Oberon and her mother found that their supposed benefactor had dodged them.^[13] He had left a good word for Oberon with Ingram at the studios in Nice.^[13] Ingram liked Oberon's exotic appearance and quickly hired her to be an extra in a party scene in a film named The Three Passions.^[14]

Acting career[link]

in Affectionately Yours (1941)

Oberon arrived in England for the first time in 1928, aged 17. Initially she worked as a club hostess under the name Queenie O'Brien and played in minor and unbilled roles in various films. "I couldn't dance or sing or write or paint. The only possible opening seemed to be in some line in which I could use my face. This was, in fact, no better than a hundred other faces, but it did possess a fortunately photogenic quality", she modestly told a journalist at Film Weekly in 1939.^[15] In view of the information discovered since this 1939 article (see preceding section) this should be seen as part of a myth perpetrated by Miss Oberon, since apparently she did not reach Europe until 1929.

Her film career received a major boost when the director Alexander Korda took an interest and gave her a small but prominent role, under the name Merle Oberon, as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) opposite Charles Laughton. The film became a major success and she was then given leading roles, such as Lady Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) with Leslie Howard, who became her lover for a while.

Oberon's career went on to greater heights, partly as a result of her relationship with and later marriage to Alexander Korda, who had persuaded her to take the name under which she became famous. He sold "shares" of her contract to producer Samuel Goldwyn, who gave her good vehicles in Hollywood. Her "mother" stayed behind in England. Oberon earned her sole Academy Award for Best Actress nomination for The Dark Angel (1935) produced by Goldwyn. Around this time she had a serious romance with David Niven, and according to his authorized biography, even wanted to marry him, but he wasn't faithful to her.^{[citation needed]}

She was selected to star in Korda's film I, Claudius (1937) as Messalina, but a serious car accident resulted in filming being abandoned. Oberon was scarred for life, but skilled lighting technicians were able to hide her injuries from cinema audiences.^{[citation needed]} She went on to appear as Cathy in her most famous film, Wuthering Heights (opposite Laurence Olivier; 1939), as George Sand in A Song to Remember (1945) and as the Empress Josephine in Désirée (1954).

According to Princess Merle, the biography written by Charles Higham with Roy Moseley, Oberon suffered even further damage to her complexion in 1940 from a combination of cosmetic poisoning and an allergic reaction to sulfa drugs. Alexander Korda sent her to a skin specialist in New York City, where she underwent several dermabrasion procedures.^[16] The results, however, were only partially successful; without makeup, one could see noticeable pitting and indentation of her skin.^[16]

Charlotte died in 1937. In 1949 Oberon commissioned paintings of her mother from an old photograph.^[17] The paintings hung in all her homes until Oberon's own death in 1979.^[18]

Merle Oberon became Lady Korda upon her husband's knighthood in 1942, when the couple were based at Hills House in Denham, England. She divorced him in 1945, to marry cinematographer Lucien Ballard. Ballard devised a special camera light for her to eliminate her facial scars on film. The light became known as the "Obie".^[18]

She married twice more, to Italian-born industrialist, Bruno Pagliai (with whom she adopted two children; they lived in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico)^[19] and Dutch actor Robert Wolders – later companion to actresses Audrey Hepburn and Leslie Caron – before her retirement in Malibu, California, where she died, aged 68, after suffering a stroke. She was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Merle Oberon has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard) for her contributions to Motion Pictures.

Michael Korda, nephew of Alexander Korda, wrote a roman à clef about Oberon after her death entitled Queenie. This was also turned into a television miniseries starring Mia Sara.

Disputed birthplace[link]

Oberon claimed that she was born and raised in Tasmania, Australia. The fact that no birth or school records could be found to prove this was explained by another fabrication: all records had been destroyed in a fire. She maintained these fictions throughout her professional life. The story of her alleged Tasmanian connections was comprehensively debunked after her death. ^[20]

Oberon is known to have been to Australia only twice.^[21] Her first visit was in 1965, on a film promotion. Although a visit to Hobart was scheduled, she became ill after journalists in Sydney pressed her for details of her early life, and she left for Mexico shortly afterwards.^[21] In 1978, the year before her death, she agreed to visit Hobart for a Lord Mayoral reception. The Lord Mayor of Hobart became aware shortly before the reception that there was no proof she had been born in Tasmania, but went ahead with the reception to save face. However, shortly after arriving at the reception, Oberon denied she had been born in Tasmania, to the disappointment of many. She then excused herself, claiming illness; whether ill or not, this meant she was unavailable to answer any more questions about her background. On the way to the reception, she had told her driver that as a child she was on a ship with her father, who became ill when it was passing Hobart. They were taken ashore so he could be treated, and as a result she spent some of her early years on the island. This story, too, seems to have been a fabrication. During her Hobart stay, she remained in her hotel, gave no other interviews, and did not visit the theatre named in her honour.^[21]

Yet there are still many people in Tasmania who claim to have known Oberon as a child. They insist she was the illegitimate daughter of a woman named Lottie Chintock from St. Helens.

Other versions of Merle Oberon's story include:

• In Hobart in 1978, she pointed to a fine old building and told her husband Robert Wolders she had been born and raised there. The building was in fact Government House, the official residence of the Governors of Tasmania.^[22]
• She left Tasmania for India after her distinguished father died in a hunting accident, and was raised there by aristocratic godparents.^[22][23]
• Lottie Chintock had been seduced by the owner of the St Helens Hotel, John Wills Thompson.^[22]
• Lottie Chintock gave birth to her in Hobart but was forced to relinquish her.^[23]
• In Hobart, Lottie lived with an Indian silk merchant with the unlikely name of O'Brien. The O'Briens adopted the baby and took her to India, where she grew up.^[22]
• She was taken to India by a travelling troupe of actors called O'Brien.^[23]
• She was taken to India by the cousin of her mother's employer.^[23]
• It is claimed that she attended the Model School in Hobart, but that school has no record of her.^[22]

Filmography[link]

Features[link]

Short Subjects[link]

• Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 4 (1936)
• Hollywood Goes to Town (1938)
• Assignment: Foreign Legion (1956/7 TV episodes)

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• The Hindu
• "The Trouble With Merle" (Australian documentary) – investigation of her origins.
• Higham, Charles; Moseley, Roy (1983). Princess Merle: The Romantic Life of Merle Oberon. New York: Coward-McCann Inc. ISBN 0-698-11231-8. 
• Casey, Bob. "Merle Oberon: Face of Mystery." (2008)

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Merle Oberon

• Merle Oberon at the Internet Movie Database
• Merle Oberon at the TCM Movie Database
• Merle Oberon at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• "Hollywood's first Indian actress: Merle Oberon", SAPNA Magazine, Winter 2009
• "The Trouble With Merle" (Australian documentary) – investigation of Oberon's parentage
• Classic Movie Favorites website
• Photographs of Merle Oberon and bibliography
• Merle Oberon at Find a Grave – Note 1917 birthyear on headstone.
• Merle Oberon in pose for The Dark Angel in Vanity Fair portrait by Cecil Beaton

George Formby, OBE (26 May 1904 – 6 March 1961), born George Hoy Booth, was a British comedy actor, singer-songwriter, and comedian. He sang light, comical songs, accompanying himself on the banjo ukulele or banjolele. He was a major star of stage and screen in the 1930s and 1940s.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Formby was born at 3 Westminster Street, Wigan, Lancashire, as George Hoy Booth. The eldest of seven surviving children, Formby was born blind because of an obstructive caul. His sight was restored during a violent coughing fit or sneeze when he was a few months old.^[8][9] His father James Booth used the stage name George Formby, adopted from the town of Formby, Lancashire. He was one of the great music hall comedians of his day, fully the equal of his son's later success. His father, not wishing him to watch his performances, moved the family to Atherton Road in Hindley. It was from there that the younger Formby was apprenticed as a jockey when he was seven. He rode his first professional race at 10, when he weighed under 4 stone (56 lb; 25 kg).

The family next moved to Stockton Heath, Cheshire in a home on London Road. It was from there that the young George began his career as an entertainer.

Stage career[link]

In 1921, three months after the death of his father, Formby abandoned his career as a jockey and began appearing in music halls using his father's material. At first he called himself George Hoy, using the name of his maternal grandfather, who came from Newmarket, Suffolk, where the family was engaged in racehorse training. In 1924 he married dancer Beryl Ingham, who managed his career (and, it is said, his personal life) until her death in 1960. He allegedly took up the ukulele as a hobby and first played it on stage for a bet.

Formby endeared himself to his audiences with his cheeky Lancashire humour and folksy north of England persona. In film and on stage, he generally adopted the character of an honest, good-hearted but accident-prone innocent who used the phrases: "It's turned out nice again!" as an opening line; "Ooh, mother!" when escaping from trouble; and a timid "Never touched me!" after losing a fight of almost any description.

What made him stand out, however, was his unique and often mimicked musical style. He sang comic songs, full of double entendre, to his own accompaniment on the banjolele, for which he developed a catchy and complicated musical syncopated style that became his trademark. His best-known song, "Leaning on a Lamp Post" was written by Noel Gay. He recorded two more Noel Gay songs, "The Left-Hand Side of Egypt" and "Who Are You A-Shoving Of?" Over two hundred of the songs he performed, many of which were recorded, were written by Fred Cliff and Harry Gifford, either in collaboration or separately, and Formby was included in the credits of a number of them, including "When I'm Cleaning Windows". Some of his songs were considered too rude for broadcasting. His 1937 song, "With my little stick of Blackpool Rock" was banned by the BBC because of the suggestive lyrics.^[10] Formby's songs are rife with sly humour, as in "Mr Wu's a window cleaner now" where Formby is about to sing "ladies' knickers" and suddenly changes it to "ladies' garters"; and in 1940's "On the Wigan Boat Express," in which a lady passenger "was feeling shocks in her signal box." Formby's cheerful, innocent demeanour and nasal, high-pitched Lancashire accent neutralised the shock value of the lyrics; a more aggressive comedian like Max Miller would have delivered the same lyrics with a bawdy leer.

Film career[link]

Formby had been making gramophone records as early as 1926; his first successful records came in 1932 with the Jack Hylton Band, and his first sound film Boots! Boots! in 1934 (Formby had appeared in a sole silent film in 1915). The film was successful and he signed a contract to make a further 11 movies with Associated Talking Pictures, earning him a then-astronomical income of £100,000 (roughly USD 4 million in 2009 terms) per year, despite the fact that studio head Michael Balcon reportedly considered Formby "an odd and not particularly loveable character".^[11] Between 1934 and 1945 Formby was the top comedian in British cinema, and at the height of his movie popularity (1939, when he was Britain's number-one film star of all genres^[12]), his film Let George Do It was exported to America. Although his films always did well in Britain and Canada, they never caught on in the United States. Columbia Pictures hired him for a series, with a handsome contract worth £500,000, but decided not circulate his films in the US.

Formby appeared in the 1937 Royal Variety Performance,^[13] and entertained troops with Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) in Europe and North Africa during World War II. He received an OBE in 1946.^[14] His most popular film, still regarded as probably his best, is the espionage comedy Let George Do It, in which he is a member of a concert party, takes the wrong ship by mistake during a blackout, and finds himself in Norway (mistaking Bergen for Blackpool) as a secret agent. In one dream sequence he punches Hitler on the nose and addresses him as a "windbag".

For many years Fred Knight was Formby's chauffeur, driving him to the studios and music halls across the country. At that time Formby had a prestigious Lanchester car.

Formby suffered his first heart attack in 1952, during the run of his successful stage musical "Zip Goes a Million." He withdrew from the show, and confined his performances to occasional guest appearances on stage and TV. In July 1960, he scored a chart hit with "Happy Go Lucky Me" / "Banjo Boy", which peaked at number 40 in the UK Singles Chart.^[15] His final television appearance, broadcast in December 1960, was a 35-minute solo spot on BBC Television's The Friday Show.

Formby's wife Beryl died of leukaemia on 24 December 1960. In the spring of 1961 he planned to marry Pat Howson, a 36-year-old schoolteacher whom he had known since the 1930s, but he suffered a second heart attack and died in hospital on 6 March 1961. His funeral was held in St. Charles's Church in Aigburth, Liverpool. An estimated 100,000 mourners lined the route as his coffin was driven to Warrington Cemetery, where he was buried in the Booth family grave. Pat Howson was well provided for in Formby's will, but died in 1971 after a long legal battle with Formby's family, who contested the will.

Beryl Ingham: wife and manager[link]

Beryl Ingham was born in 1901 in Accrington,^[16] Lancashire. She was a champion clogdancer and actress, winning the All England Step Dancing Title at the age of 11. Later she formed a dancing act with her sister, May, called "The Two Violets".^[17] It was in 1923 while they were appearing in music hall in Castleford, Yorkshire that she met Formby. They married in Formby's birth town of Wigan, Lancashire the following year.^[18]

The couple worked together as a variety act until 1932, when she became his full-time manager and mentor, though she appeared in two of his films for which Formby was paid up to £35,000 per performance. It was Beryl's business skill that guided Formby to be the UK's highest-paid entertainer.

In 1946 Beryl and George toured South Africa shortly before formal racial apartheid was introduced, where they refused to play racially-segregated venues. According to Formby's biographer, when George was cheered by a black audience after embracing a small black girl who had presented his wife with a box of chocolates, National Party leader Daniel François Malan (who later introduced apartheid) phoned to complain; Beryl replied "Why don't you piss off you horrible little man?"^[19]

Beryl continued to manage Formby's career until she contracted leukaemia, and died on 24 December 1960 in Blackpool, Lancashire. After her death, Formby publicly confessed that "My life with Beryl was hell".^[20] Two months later he became engaged to schoolteacher Pat Howson, 20 years his junior, declaring that he had achieved a happiness which had never existed with Beryl.^[20]

Playing styles[link]

Formby's trademark was playing the ukulele-banjo in a highly syncopated style, referred to as the 'Formby style'.

Among the several syncopation techniques that he used, the most commonly emulated stroke of Formby's is a rhythmic technique called the "Split stroke", which produces a musical rhythm easily recognised as Formby's. He sang in his own Lancashire accent. Other strokes in Formby's repertoire include the triple, the circle, the fan, and the shake. In his act, Formby often had several ukuleles on stage tuned in different keys, as in some solos it required an open string to be sounded, not possible when using Barre chords.

On Formby's last television appearance, in The Friday Show, he modestly told the audience that he could play in only one key. Research has shown that this statement is false, as Formby played transposed solos on songs such as "On the HMS Cowheel", a melodic solo on "I Told my Baby with the Ukulele", and many more.

Catchphrases[link]

Formby's best-known catchphrase is 'Turned out nice again!', but he also had a few others such as 'Eeh, champion!' or 'Eeh, isn't it grand!' or, when managing to escape from anybody, 'Haha! Never touched me!' Formby often exclaimed, 'Eeh! Well, I'll go to our house!' or, 'Mother!'

Tributes[link]

There is a bronze statue of Formby leaning on a lamppost on Ridgeway Street, close to the intersection with Lord Street, in Douglas, Isle of Man. On 15 September 2007, another bronze statue was unveiled in Formby's birthtown of Wigan, Lancashire in the Grand Arcade shopping centre.

Motorcycle[link]

A Norton International motorcycle owned by Formby, registration HVU 111 (Formby was superstitious, and insisted that all his motorbikes had the same three numbers in their registration, although he was not bothered which number), sold for £30,582 at an auction on 3 December 2007. The 1947 Norton International was one of several motorcycles owned by Formby, who starred in the film No Limit, a spoof of the 1935 Isle of Man TT motorcycle race, and had been presented to him during a visit to Norton’s Bracebridge Street factory in Birmingham in July 1947.^[21]

In popular culture[link]

This "In popular culture" section may contain minor or trivial references. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture rather than simply listing appearances, and remove trivial references. (May 2012)

• In The Walt Disney 1949 animated feature, The Wind In The Willows, the character of "Cyril Proudbottom", Mr.Toad's horse friend, is based on Formby, both visually and as vocalised by J.Pat O'Malley.
• In an episode of the animated sitcom American Dad! entitled "Failure Is not a Factory-Installed Option", Avery Bullock, voiced by Patrick Stewart gets out a banjo and sings "The Window Cleaner" song in a Wigan accent.
• In the BBC comedy series The Day Today, a mock news story sees Formby playing Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" in a video which casts doubt on Dylan's legacy.^[22]
  • The Fast Show later referenced the scene, with Mark Williams playing a character called "Fred Halibut", who sang the song in a broad Wigan accent.
• Mark Williams had previously been seen doing his Formby impression in the 1980s BBC comedy show Alexei Sayle's Stuff, where he sang a song entitled "E=MC2" in grainy 'black and white'.
• In the ITV soap opera, Coronation Street one of the wards in the Weatherfield General Hospital is named after Formby.
• In a BBC TV series Goodnight Sweetheart, series 3 episode 6, Formby's achievements at entertaining the masses are recognised.
• In The History Boys by Alan Bennett when discussing the unconventional teaching methods employed by a teacher the headmaster remarks that the students "know all the words to 'When I'm Cleaning Windows'".
• Commercial radio adverts for a double-glazing company during the 1980s spoofed Formby's recording of "The Window Cleaner" using new lyrics, culminating in the firm's telephone number in place of the words "When I'm Cleaning Windows".
• The song "When I'm Cleaning Windows" was used in the mini game, Wishi Washi on the EyeToy for PlayStation2.
• The Thursday Next series of books by Jasper Fforde feature an octogenarian Formby as President of an alternative Britain; the character works to confront the traitorous politician Kaine.
• Formby is referred to in the Red Dwarf Series VIII episode "Krytie TV", in which Rimmer remarks that they are shown 'lousy B-movies' in prison in order to "sap our morale. Next week is the George Formby season!" He then does an impression of Formby, saying (in an accent similar to Formby's) "come and get your hanging rope while there's still some left." The novel Last Human also mentions him as the only thing potentially more ugly than the Snugiraffe GELF.
• In series 4, episode 6 of Skins, several of Formby's songs are included as background music. In the same episode, JJ Jones owns a ukulele and serenades his girlfriend Lara by performing "True" by Spandau Ballet, with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
• British comedian Eddie Izzard makes reference to George Formby (instead of George Foreman) in a fictional boxing match versus Muhammad Ali, in his live video Definite Article. Izzard pantomimes being punched while playing a ukulele.
• In the Distant War episode of the television documentary series The World at War, Formby is shown in a newsreel performing "Imagine Me on the Maginot Line"' for a small group of British soldiers. This newsreel can be seen on YouTube, along with other videos of Formby performances.
• In series 6, episode 1 of the British television show Dead Ringers, Formby was portrayed as the secret weapon of the popular British indie rock band Arctic Monkeys, with the final scene going into a mix between "Leaning on the Lamp Post" and Arctic Monkey's song, "Mardy Bum". Jon Culshaw played Formby in the scene.
• In the 2011 film, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the song "Mr Wu is a Window Cleaner Now" is heard on the radio when a call is placed to Peter Guillam.

Selected songs[link]

• "Chinese Laundry Blues" (1932)
• "The Isle of Man" (1932)
• "With My Little Ukulele in My Hand" (1933)
• "The Window Cleaner"/"When I'm Cleaning Windows" (1936)
• "Leaning on a Lamppost" (1937)
• "Hi Tiddly Hi Ti Island" (1937)
• "The Lancashire Toreador" (1937)
• "With My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock" (1937)
• "Tan Tan Tivvy Tally-Ho!" (1938, written by Arthur Le Clerq)
• "They Can't Fool Me" (1938)
• "Mother, What'll I do Now?" (1938)
• "Our Sergeant Major" (1938)
• "Imagine Me on the Maginot Line" (1939)
• "It's Turned Out Nice Again" (1939)
• "Mr Wu's a Window Cleaner Now" (1939)
• "My Grandad's Flannelette Nightshirt" (1939)
• "Count Your Blessings And Smile" (1940)
• "Auntie Maggie's Remedy" (1941)
• "Bless 'Em All" (1941)
• "Mr Wu's is Now an Air Raid Warden" (1942)
• "You Don't Need A Licence For That" (1946)
• "Happy Go Lucky Me" (1960)

Filmography[link]

• By the Shortest of Heads (1915)
• Boots! Boots! (1934)
• Off the Dole (1935)
• George Formby Cavalcade (1935, highlights from first two feature films of 1934-35)
• No Limit (1935)
• Keep Your Seats Please (1936)
• Feather Your Nest (1937)
• Keep Fit (1937)
• Christmas Greetings of 1937 (1937)
• I See Ice (1938)
• Christmas Greetings of 1938 (1938)
• It's in the Air (1938)
• Trouble Brewing (1939)
• Come On George! (1939)
• Let George Do It (1940)
• Spare a Copper (1940), also known as Call a Cop
• Turned Out Nice Again (1941)
• South American George (1941)
• Much Too Shy (1942)
• Get Cracking (1943)
• Bell Bottom George (1943/44)
• He Snoops To Conquer (1945)
• I Didn't Do It! (1945)
• George in Civvy Street (1946)
• The Friday Show (BBC Television, 1960; restored 1994)

See also[link]

• Regal Zonophone Records

Box office rating[link]

For a number of years, British film exhibitors voted him among the top ten British stars at the box office via an annual poll in the Motion Picture Herald.

• 1936 - 4th^[23]
• 1938 - 1st^[24]
• 1940 - 1st (5th most popular star over all)^[25]
• 1945 - 9th^[26]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Bret, David (1999). George Formby: A troubled genius. London: Robson. ISBN 978-1-86105-239-1. 

External links[link]

• George Formby at the Internet Movie Database
• George Formby biography and credits at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• The Guardian: Naughty but nice (George Formby by David Bret)
• 'Ukulele king' Formby dies (BBC News)
• The George Formby Society
• Profile of George Formby Snr and Jnr
• George Formby's Gravesite
• George Formby Forum "the Resonator"
• "Mr Wu is a Window Cleaner Now" on YouTube

Look up willpower in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Willpower may refer to:

• Self discipline, training and control of oneself and one's conduct, usually for personal improvement
• Self control, the ability of a person to exert his/her will over the inhibitions of their body or self
• Will (philosophy), a philosophical concept
• Will to power, a philosophical concept by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Will Power, an Australian racing driver
• #willpower, an album by will.i.am.
• Willpower: rediscovering the greatest human strength. A book by psychologist Roy F. Baumeister

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