In baseball, a double is the act of a batter striking the pitched ball and safely reaching second base without being called out by the umpire, without the benefit of a fielder's misplay (see error) or another runner being put out on a fielder's choice.

Description[link]

Typically, a double is a well-hit ball into the outfield that either finds the "gap" between the center fielder and one of the corner outfielders, bounces off the outfield wall and down into the field of play, or is hit up one of the two foul lines. To hit many doubles, one must have decent hitting skill and power; it also helps to run well enough to beat an outfield throw.

Doubles typically drive in runs from third base, second base, and even from first base at times. When total bases and slugging percentages are calculated, the number two is used for the calculation. The all-time leader in doubles is Tris Speaker, with 792.

A two-base hit awarded by an umpire when a batted ball is hit fairly and bounces out of play is referred to as a ground rule double. The batter is awarded second base and any runners advance two bases from the base they occupied at the time of the pitch. Prior to 1931, such hits were considered home runs. A two-base hit awarded because the batter hit into a special situation defined in the ground rules is also defined as a ground rule double. An example of this occurs where the rules of Chicago's Wrigley Field award a ground rule double if a batted ball hangs in the vines on the outfield bleacher wall. The rules of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis awarded a ground rule double if the ball became stuck in its Teflon ceiling. This happened only once in major league baseball — Dave Kingman hit a ball into the ceiling during a 1984 game.

Doubles leaders, Major League Baseball[link]

Career[link]

1. Tris Speaker - 792
2. Pete Rose - 746
3. Stan Musial - 725
4. Ty Cobb - 724
5. Craig Biggio - 668
6. George Brett - 665
7. Nap Lajoie - 657
8. Carl Yastrzemski - 646
9. Honus Wagner - 640
10. Hank Aaron - 624
11. Paul Waner - 605
12. Paul Molitor - 605
13. Cal Ripken - 603

Season[link]

Only four players in major league history have reached 50 or more doubles in a season at least three times: Tris Speaker (1912, 1920-21, 1923, 1926), Paul Waner (1928, 1932, 1936), Stan Musial (1944, 1946, 1953), and Brian Roberts (2004, 2008-09).

Individual season leaders:

Hank Greenberg, Hall of Famer and 2-time MVP

1. Earl Webb (1931) - 67
2. George Burns (1926) - 64
3. Joe Medwick (1936) - 64
4. Hank Greenberg (1934) - 63
5. Paul Waner (1932) - 62
6. Charles Gehringer (1936) - 60

See also[link]

• Single (baseball)
• Triple (baseball)
• Home run
• List of Major League Baseball players with 400 doubles
• List of career doubles leaders, Baseball-Reference.com
• List of single-season doubles leaders, Baseball-Reference.com
• Yearly League Leaders & Records for Doubles (Baseball-Reference.com)
• The Double (Seattle Mariners), one of the most famous doubles in baseball history

Look up double in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Double or The Double may refer to:

• Multiplication by 2
• Look-alike
• Body double, someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character
• Doppelgänger, ghostly double of a living person
• Polish Enigma doubles
• Kamen Rider W & Kamen Rider Double (character)
• Doppio, a double shot of espresso

Sports[link]

• Double (association football), the act of a wining a division and primary cup competition in the same season
• Double (baseball), a two-base hit in baseball
  • The Double (Seattle Mariners), a specific instance of the above that occurred during the 1995 Major League Baseball season
• Double, a snooker shot where the player tries to pot a ball via one cushion
• Double (cricket), the feat of scoring a thousand first-class runs and taking a hundred first-class wickets in a single season
• The Double (Gaelic games), the act of winning the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship in the same year
• The Double (auto racing), in auto racing, the act of a driver attempting to race in two races on the same day during the United States Memorial Day weekend.

Games[link]

• Double, action in games whereby a competitor raises the stakes. For use
  • in contract bridge, see: takeout double, negative double, support double
  • in backgammon, see doubling cube
• Double, villain in the video game Mega Man X4
• In dancing games like Dance Dance Revolution or In the Groove (game), a mode of play in which a single player uses twice as many pads as normal
• Mario Kart: Double Dash!! has a double-person mode in which one player drives the kart and the other throws items. Also in this game, there is a rocket start move that is worth twice the power called a Double Dash!!.

Music[link]

• Double (singer), a Japanese R&B singer.
• Double (band), Swiss pop duo that had their biggest hit in 1986 with "Captain of Her Heart"
• Double (Roch Voisine album), a 1990 album by Roch Voisine
• Double (Zhao Wei album), a 2005 album by Zhao Wei
• Double variation, a variation form in music
• The Double Violin Concerto (Bach) in D minor, BWV 1043, commonly referred to as "The Double" among violinists
• Doubling (music)

Literature[link]

• The Double: A Petersburg Poem, a novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• The Double (novel), a novel by José Saramago
• The Doubles, a novella by E.T.A. Hoffmann

Film[link]

• The Double (1963 film), a 1963 British thriller film
• The Double (film), a 2011 spy thriller film
• The Double (2012 film), a 2012 comedy film

Other[link]

• Double precision, in computing, a representation of numbers in floating-point format that is typically 64 bits in length.
• Split-complex number, or double number, a mathematical construct similar to a complex number
• Dubbel, a type of beer
• Double, a bet which combines two selections; see Glossary of bets offered by UK bookmakers#Double
• Double, a former fraction of the Guernsey pound

See also[link]

• Doubles (disambiguation)
• Doubling (disambiguation)
• Duplication (disambiguation)
• Single (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Skip Schumaker
St. Louis Cardinals – No. 55
Second baseman/outfielder
Born: (1980-02-03) February 3, 1980 (age 32)
Bats: Left	Throws: Right
MLB debut
June 8, 2005 for the St. Louis Cardinals
Career statistics (through 2011 Season)
Batting average	.290
Home runs	22
Runs batted in	183
Teams
St. Louis Cardinals (2005–present)
Career highlights and awards
World Series champion (2011)

Jared Michael "Skip" Schumaker (born February 3, 1980 in Torrance, California) is a Major League Baseball outfielder and second baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Biography[link]

Schumaker graduated from Aliso Niguel High School^[1] before a short, two-year career at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. In 2001, his only year with regular playing time, Schumaker had 100 total hits for a batting average of an even .400, while achieving 41 RBI. During this year, he was selected in the 5th round of the amateur draft by the Cardinals, and elected not to return to college for a final year.

Schumaker spent the remainder of 2001 with the short-season New Jersey Cardinals, and in 2002 he had 158 hits for the Potomac Cannons. His minor-league career advanced from Single-A in 2003, when he was promoted to the Tennessee Smokies, where he spent two full seasons. A .316 batting average in 2004 was enough to give him a shot with the Cardinals during spring training in 2005.

After spending the first two months of the season in Memphis, Schumaker made his major-league debut on June 8 against the Boston Red Sox at Busch Stadium. Schumaker entered the game as a pinch-hitter for the pitcher, Chris Carpenter, and was struck out by David Wells. Schumaker remained with the club until June 14, failing to pick up a hit in five at bats.

Schumaker was given a second spell in St. Louis on injury cover on August 10, and picked up his first major-league hit two days later in a pinch-hit appearance against the Chicago Cubs. He returned to Memphis following the August 14 game, with one hit in his eight games as a major-league hitter. On September 8, 2005, Schumaker went over into the stands and made a great catch.^[2] Schumaker hit his first Major League home run on April 5, 2006, in a game against the Philadelphia Phillies. He played in 28 regular-season games in 2006 for St. Louis, but did not appear in the postseason (the Cardinals went on to win the World Series that year).^[3]

Schumaker is a capable lead-off hitter and a very strong defensive outfielder with an above-average arm. However, he has difficulty against lefthanders; from 2007 to 2009, he had a .210 batting average, a .278 on-base percentage, and a .226 slugging percentage against them.^[4] He had six hits in seven at bats against the New York Mets on July 26, the first Cardinal to do so since Terry Moore against the Boston Braves on September 5, 1935. Combined, Schumaker and his teammate, Albert Pujols, were the first pair of Cardinals to hit five or more hits each since Charlie Gelbert and Taylor Douthit against the Chicago Cubs on May 16, 1930.^[5]

Skip during the 2011 World Series parade.

On February 9, 2009, Cardinal 2nd baseman Adam Kennedy was released by the club,^[6] which sparked discussion about placing Schumaker as the regular second baseman in 2009. Schumaker, who played shortstop in high school and college^[7] began working out with Cardinals third base coach Jose Oquendo in Spring Training to prepare.^[8] Mark McGwire has served as his hitting coach since the 2009 offseason.^[9] Schumaker would go on to become the Cardinals' starting second baseman during the 2009 season.

On February 8, 2010, Schumaker signed a two-year deal with the St. Louis Cardinals worth $4.7 million, buying out his final arbitration years.^[10]

On August 9, 2010, Schumaker hit his first major league grand slam against the Cincinnati Reds.

On August 24, 2011, Schumaker made his major league pitching debut when he came in as a reliever in the top of the 9th. He faced 5 batters, striking out 2, walking 1, and giving up a 2 run home run to Aaron Miles.

After a great performance in the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies in which he drove in Rafael Furcal for the only run in the Cardinals' 1-0 victory in Game 5, Schumaker was left off the National League Championship Series roster due to a oblique injury.

Schumaker signed a 2-year deal with the Cardinals on December 12, 2011, avoiding arbitration with the club.^[11]

Schumaker resides in Huntington Beach, California. He and his wife, Lindsey, have a son, Brody Hudson and a daughter Presley Rowan.^[12]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Skip Schumaker

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Minor League Splits and Situational Stats
• Schumaker player profile page at stlcardinals.scout.com

Joey Wong Cho-Yee (AKA Joey Wang, Wang Tsu Hsien, or Joey Ong Jyo Han/Hen) (Chinese: 王祖賢; pinyin: Wáng Zǔxián, born (1967-01-31)January 31, 1967) is a Hong Kong based Taiwanese-born actress.

Biography[link]

Wong was born on January 31, 1967 and raised in Taipei and also received a secondary school education there. She was enrolled in the drama program of Guoguang Arts School (now National Taiwan College of Performing Arts (Chinese article). She has an older brother, a younger brother and one sister.

Her father is a basketball player and he encouraged her to become a professional basketball player when she was fourteen. Shortly thereafter she shot a TV commercial for sport shoes which drew the attention of a film producer who made her the leading lady of film It'll Be Very Cold by the Lakeside This Year. This movie attracted the attention of producer Mona Fong of Shaw Brothers and she invited Wong come to Hong Kong to make her first Hong Kong movie Let's Make Laugh II, opposite Derek Yee Tung Sing.

In 1987, she portrayed a beautiful ghost in A Chinese Ghost Story and her beauty and grace made her a film idol in Japan and South Korea. She made a dozen movies in the following years playing similar characters, either ghost or vixen, gliding across the screen.

In 1989 she went to Japan to star in the TV series A Woman From Hong Kong. Later she also made commercials and published photo albums. In 1992 she made her singing debut with the Japanese and Mandarin CD single, "Hold You In My Arms Forever". In 1993, she appeared as the White Snake in Tsui Hark's Green Snake, a revision of the Madame White Snake legend told from the perspective of the younger Green Snake, though White Snake remains the romantic lead.

Wong expressed a desire to retire from film making in 1994 and stayed away from the limelight until 1997 when she returned to the silver screen in the Japanese movie Peking Genjin (Peking Man) and released the companion CD single "Who Are You?".

In 1998 she released the extended Japanese CD Angelus and her first and only full CD, in Mandarin, Isolation a.k.a. Isolated From The World.

She returned to semi-retirement after the release of Isolation, but returned once again to films in 2001 with Peony Pavilion, then once again announced her retirement.

In 2004 she appeared in Beautiful Shanghai a.k.a. Shanghai Story and reportedly appeared in a Taiwanese TV series with on again, off again beau Chyi Chin. It was reported that she enjoyed her return to films and reportedly signed a multi-film contract. However, the unexpected suicide of her friend and former movie co-star Leslie Cheung caused her to withdraw once again from the limelight.

In September 2005, coinciding with the worldwide release of Beautiful Shanghai (Shanghai Story), she once again announced her formal retirement. She currently resides in Vancouver, Canada and is studying English.

Joey Wong was also very well known for the relationship with Chyi Chin, who was a Taiwanese singer. Their relationship lasted about 16 years, from 1985 to 2002. Now they remain friends.

Selected filmography[link]

• Beautiful Shanghai Girl a.k.a. Shanghai Story (2004)
• Peony Pavilion (2001)
• Peking Man a.k.a. Peking Genjin (1997)
• The Wonderful Portrait (1997)
• The Beheaded 1000 (1994)
• Green Snake (1993)
• Chez N'Ham (1993)
• Painted Skin (1993)
• All Men Are Brothers - Blood of the Leopard (1993)
• Dong Cheng Xi Jiu a.k.a. Eagle Shooting Heroes a.k.a. 13 Eagle Shooting Heroes (1993)
• The East is Red (1993)
• City Hunter (1993)
• Butterfly and Sword a.k.a. Comet, Butterfly and Sword (1993)
• The Beheaded 1000 (1993)
• An Eye for an Eye (1993)
• The Prince of Temple Street (1992)
• Casino Tycoon II (1992)
• Casino Tycoon (1992)
• Ming Ghost - alternate Hong Kong Cat III version of Little Woman (1992)
• Little Woman a.k.a. Ah Ying (1992)
• The Banquet (1991)
• Fox Legend a.k.a. Foxy Lady (1991)
• Hong Kong Godfather (1991)
• A Chinese Ghost Story III (1991)
• A Chinese Legend (1991)
• Fantasy Romance (1991)
• Lake Sprite (1991)
• An Eternal Combat (1991)
• Red and Black (1991)
• The Cyprus Tigers (1991)
• The Big Score (1990)
• Demoness from Thousand Years (1990)
• Kung Fu Vs. Acrobatic (1990)
• A Chinese Ghost Story II (1990)
• Point of Return (1990)
• A Tale from the East (1990)
• Family Honor a.k.a. Nameless Family (1990)
• Killer's Romance (1990)
• Spy Games (1990)
• An Eye for an Eye (1990)
• God of Gamblers (1989)
• Gift from Heaven (1989)
• Web of Deception a.k.a. Deception (1989)
• The Reincarnation of Golden Lotus (1989)
• Missing Man (1989)
• Little Cop (1989)
• My Heart is that Eternal Rose (1989)
• Mr. Coconut (1989)
• The Dream is Yours (1988)
• Law or Justice (1988)
• The Big Heat (1988)
• The Diary of a Big Man (1988)
• Fractured Follies (1988)
• Carry on Hotel (1988)
• Picture of a Nymph (1988)
• To Err is Humane (1987)
• Private Life a.k.a. Miss Hong Kong a.k.a. (incorrectly) Private Lift (1987)
• A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)
• The Legend of Wisely a.k.a. Legend Of Wu, Legend of the Golden Pearl (1987)
• Walking Beside Me (1986)
• A Hearty Response (1986)
• The Ghost Snatchers (1986)
• 100 Ways to Murder Your Wife (1986)
• Last Song in Paris (1986)
• Where's Officer Tuba? (1986)
• Working Class (1985)
• Let's Make Laugh II (1985)
• I'll Be Very Cold at the Lakeside This Year a.k.a. It Will Be Cold By the Lakeside this Year (1984)

^{[1] [2]}

References[link]

External links[link]

• Joey Wang fan site
• Joey Wong at the Internet Movie Database
• baidu post－largest fanclub in china (Chinese)
• Tianya Joey group－Joey database (Chinese)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011)

Benny Hill
A waxwork of Hill in character as Fred Scuttle on The Benny Hill Show
Birth name	Alfred Hawthorne Hill
Born	(1924-01-21)21 January 1924[1] Southampton, Hampshire, England
Died	20 April 1992(1992-04-20) (aged 68) Teddington, London, England
Medium	Comedian, actor
Nationality	British
Years active	1937–1992
Genres	Comedy, television
Influences	Jack Benny
Notable works and roles	The Benny Hill Show (1951–91) Who Done It? (1956) Light Up the Sky! (1960) Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) The Italian Job (1969)

Benny Hill (21 January 1924 – 20 April 1992) was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.

Early life[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Alfred Hawthorne Hill was born in Southampton and attended Taunton's School. During World War II, he was evacuated to Bournemouth.^{[citation needed]}

After leaving school, Hill worked at Woolworth's,^[2] as a milkman, a bridge operator, a driver and a drummer before he finally got a foot in the door of the entertainment industry by becoming assistant stage manager with a touring review. He was called up in 1942 and trained as a mechanic, but transferred to the Combined Services Entertainment^[3] division before the end of the war. It was there that he met his future agent, Richard Stone, then a colonel.^{[citation needed]}

Inspired by the "star comedians" of British music hall shows, Hill set out to make his mark in show business. For the stage, he changed his first name to 'Benny', in homage to his favourite comedian, Jack Benny.^[2] Hill began appearing at working men's clubs and Masonic dinners before moving on to nightclub and theatre jobs. Hill auditioned for Soho's famed Windmill Theatre (home of Revudeville, a popular show of singers, comedians and nude girls), but he was not hired. Hill's first job in professional theatre as a performer was as Reg Varney's straight man, beating a then unknown Peter Sellers to the role.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Between the end of World War II and the dawn of television, Hill worked as a radio performer. His first appearance on television was in 1950. In addition, he attempted a sitcom anthology, Benny Hill, which ran from 1962 to 1963, in which he played a different character in each episode. In 1964, he played Nick Bottom in an all-star TV film production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. He also had a short-lived radio programme, Benny Hill Time, on BBC Radio's Light Programme from 1964 to 1966.

Films and recordings[link]

Benny Hill's film credits include parts in nine films including Who Done It? (1956); Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965); Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), in which he played the relatively straight role of the Toymaker; The Italian Job (1969); and, finally, a clip-show film spin-off of his early Thames shows (1969–73), called The Best of Benny Hill (1974). Hill's audio recordings include Gather in the Mushrooms, (1961), Pepys' Diary (song), (1961), Transistor Radio (1961), Harvest of Love (1963), and Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West) (1971). He also appeared in the 1986 video of the song Anything She Does by the band Genesis. Hill's song, Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West), on the Best of Benny Hill album, was the UK Singles Chart Christmas number one single in 1971.^[4]

The Benny Hill Show[link]

Hill had struggled on stage and had uneven success in radio. But in television he found a form that played to his strengths, allowing him a format that included live comedy and filmed segments, with him at the focus of almost every segment. It was to prove one of the great success stories of television comedy, keeping Hill a star for nearly four decades, generating impressive revenues for Thames TV, and remaining a cult series in much of the world long after Hill's death.

The show had a music hall-derived format and its humour relied on slapstick, innuendo, and parody. Recurring players on his show during the BBC years included Patricia Hayes, Jeremy Hawk, Peter Vernon, Ronnie Brody, and his co-writer from the early 1950s to early 1960s, Dave Freeman. He remained mostly with the BBC through to 1968, except for a few sojourns with ITV station ATV between 1957 and 1960 and again in 1967. In 1969, his show moved from the BBC to Thames Television, where it remained until cancellation in 1989, with an erratic schedule of one-hour specials. The series showcased Hill's talents as an imaginative writer, comic performer and impressionist. He also bought scripts from various comedy writers but they never received an onscreen credit. He had a need to be in sole control of the show. There is evidence that he bought a script from one of his regular cast members in 1976, Cherri Gilham, whom he wrote to from Spain and told her he was using her "Fat Lady idea on the show" in January 1977.

The most common running gag in Benny Hill's shows was the closing sequence, The 'run-off', which was literally a "running gag" in that it featured various members of the cast chasing Hill as part of the chase, along with other stock comedy characters, such as policemen, vicars, old ladies, and so on. This was commonly filmed using stop motion and time-lapse techniques for comic effect, and included other comic devices such as characters running off one side of the screen and reappearing running on from the other. The tune used in all the chases, Boots Randolph's "Yakety Sax", is commonly referred to as "The Benny Hill Theme". It has been used as a form of parody in many ways by television shows and a small number of films. The Wachowskis used the same style (and musical theme) in a scene in the film V for Vendetta (2006). It also appears in the cult movie The Gods Must Be Crazy.

From the start of the eighties the show featured a troupe of attractive young women, known collectively as 'Hills Angels'. They would appear either on their own in a dance sequence, or in character as foils against Hill. Sue Upton, one of the longest serving members of the Angels, said of Hill, "He was one of the nicest, kindest, most gentle of men to work with".^{[citation needed]} However, the sexual content of the routines contributed to feminist accusations of sexism.^{[citation needed]}

The alternative comedian Ben Elton made a headline-grabbing allegation, both on the TV show Saturday Live and in the pages of Q magazine (in its January 1987 issue), that The Benny Hill Show was single-handedly responsible for the incidences of rape in England during the period in question, and also suggested the programme incited other acts of violence against women.^[5] But a writer in The Independent newspaper opined that Elton's assault was "like watching an elderly uncle being kicked to death by young thugs".^[6] Elton later claimed his comment was taken out of context, and he appeared in a parody for Harry Enfield and Chums, Benny Elton, where Elton ends up being chased by angry women, accompanied by the "Yakety Sax" theme, after trying to force them to be more feminist rather than letting them make their own decisions.

In response to the accusations of sexism, defenders of Hill have said the show used traditional comic stereotypes to reflect universal human truths in a way that was non-malicious and fundamentally harmless. Hill's friend and producer Dennis Kirkland said it was the women who chased Hill in anger for undressing them, all of which was done accidentally by some ridiculous means. An article on 27 May 2006 in The Independent quoted Hill and Kirkland as saying they believed this misrepresentation demonstrated critics could not have watched his programmes.^{[citation needed]}

In an episode about Hill transmitted as part of the documentary series Living Famously, John Howard Davies, the head of light entertainment at Thames Television who had cancelled the show, stated there were three reasons why he did so: "The audiences were going down, the programme was costing a vast amount of money, and he (Hill) was looking a little tired."^{[citation needed]}

The loss of his show totally devastated Hill (or, as one former supporting player put it, "He started to die from there"), and what followed was a self-inflicted decline in his health. In 1990 a new show was produced complete with Hill and his usual team, called Benny Hill's World Tour: New York!.

In February 1992, Thames Television, which received a steady stream of requests from viewers for The Benny Hill Show repeats, finally gave in and put together a number of re-edited shows. Hill died on 20 April 1992, the same day that a new contract arrived in the post from Central Independent Television, for which he was to have made a series of specials. Hill turned down competing offers from Carlton and Thames.

Celebrity fans[link]

Charlie Chaplin was a fan of Hill's work: Hill had discovered that Chaplin, his childhood idol, was a fan when he was invited to Chaplin's home in Switzerland by Chaplin's family and discovered that Chaplin had a collection of Hill's work on video. Hill and Dennis Kirkland were the first outside the family to be invited into Chaplin's private study. Hill was awarded the Charlie Chaplin International Award for Comedy at the 1991 Festival of Comedy in Vevey, Switzerland.^[7]

Radio and TV show host Adam Carolla claimed that he was a fan of Benny Hill and that he considered Hill "as American as the Beatles." Indeed, during an episode of The Man Show, Carolla performed in what was billed as a tribute to "our favourite Englishman, Sir Benny Hill" in a more risqué takeoff of the sketches that Hill popularised. (Note: Hill was never knighted.) Carolla played a rude and lecherous waiter; a role Hill essayed numerous times in his shows—and the sketch featured many of the staples of Hill's shows, including a Jackie Wright-esque bald man, as well as the usual scantily-clad women.

Michael Jackson was a Benny Hill fan: "I just love your Benny Hill!" the young Jackson told a bemused English music-press critic during a 1970s tour. "He's so funny!". During Benny Hill's decline in his health he was visited by Jackson, who was in the UK at the time.

In Benny Hill: The World's Favourite Clown, filmed shortly before his death, celebrities such as Burt Reynolds, Michael Caine, John Mortimer, Mickey Rooney, and Walter Cronkite, among others, expressed their appreciation of and admiration for Hill and his humour – and in Reynolds' case, the appreciation extended to the Hill's Angels as well. More surprisingly, perhaps, the novelist Anthony Burgess made no secret of his admiration for Hill. Burgess, whose novels were often comic, relished language, wordplay and dialect, admired the verbal and comedic skill that underlay Hill's success. Reviewing a biography of Hill, Saucy Boy, in the Guardian in 1990, Burgess described Hill as "a comic genius steeped in the British music-hall tradition" and "one of the great artists of our age". A meeting between the two men was described in a newspaper article by Burgess and recalled in the Telegraph newspaper by the satirist Craig Brown.^[8]

In 2006, broadcaster and critic Garry Bushell launched a campaign to erect a statue of Hill in Southampton, with the support of Barbara Windsor, Brian Conley and other British comedy favourites. Those taking part in the first fundraising concert included Neville Staple, Right Said Fred and Rick Wakeman.

In a June 2011 interview in The Observer, the American rapper Snoop Dogg declared himself to be a fan of Benny Hill.^[9]

In a 2011 interview British actor and director Mark Noyce stated that Benny Hill was his all-time favourite comedian. He was quoted as saying “he was way ahead of his time and an absolute master of his art. I would have loved the opportunity to have met him and I hope he will be remembered as the genius I believe he was.”^[10]

Personal life[link]

Hill never married, although he did propose to three women—one the daughter of a British writer—but was turned down by all three. Although he owned the family home in Southampton, he never owned his own home in London, nor a car. Hill preferred to rent a place to live rather than buy one, first a large double apartment in Queensgate, London for 26 years until 1986, and then a small flat in Teddington, London, within walking distance of the studios of Thames Television where he recorded his shows.

His mother died in 1976 at age 82, and Hill kept the family house at 22 Westrow Gardens in Southampton as a shrine to her, not changing a thing. Before his move to Teddington, whilst looking for somewhere else to live in the Richmond area of London, he lived at 22 Westrow Gardens. Travelling was the one luxury Hill permitted himself; he became a francophile, enjoying frequent visits to France, and in particular Marseille, where until the 1980s he could enjoy anonymity in outdoor cafés, on public transport, and socialising with local women. Besides mastering French, Hill also spoke enough German, Dutch and Italian to get by when travelling. Such holidays were often gathering missions for comedy material, borrowed from regional acts.

Death[link]

After suffering a mild heart attack on 24 February 1992, doctors told him he needed to lose weight and recommended a heart bypass. He declined, and a week later was found to have kidney failure. Hill died at the age of 68 on 20 April 1992.^[1] On 22 April, after several days of unanswered telephone calls, his producer, Dennis Kirkland, climbed a ladder to the balcony of Hill's 3rd floor apartment and upon seeing the body through a window had the neighbours call the police. The police broke into the apartment and found Hill, dead, sitting in his armchair in front of the television. Hill's cause of death was recorded as coronary thrombosis.^[11]

Hill was buried at Hollybrook Cemetery near his birthplace in Southampton on 26 April 1992. In October 1992, following rumours that he was buried with large amounts of gold jewellery, an attempt was made by thieves to exhume his body. When authorities looked into his open grave the following morning "The vandals had dug down, exposing his coffin [...] Within two hours of the discovery, cemetery staff had refilled the grave and covered it with a half-ton concrete slab."^[12]

Hill's fortune was estimated at £10 million. His only will, however, dated from 1961 and left his entire estate to his parents, both of whom had since died. Next in line were his brother Leonard and sister Diana, both of whom were also dead. This left his seven nieces and nephews, among whom the money was divided. A note was found among his belongings assigning huge sums of money to his close friends, but because there was no witness the note had no legal standing.^{[citation needed]}

Posthumous reception[link]

Although still shown worldwide, The Benny Hill Show has not been shown on UK terrestrial, networked television since a tribute season on Channel 4 in 1992, and not on satellite or cable since a run on the now defunct channel Granada Plus – now ITV3 – in 1999. To quote his biographer Mark Lewisohn, "In Britain, Benny Hill is taboo". In the United States the show has recently been aired on the BBC America cable channel and over Tribune Broadcasting's Antenna TV digital subchannel network. An Australian channel, Seven Network, showed some episodes as part of a Great Comedy Classics slot. On the new Australian channel 7TWO, The Benny Hill Show is shown frequently. In Italy, Sky television broadcasts quite regularly on Comedy Channel. And in Finland the channel MTV3 MAX presents "The Benny Hill Show" every weekend.

In 1998 Channel 4 featured Hill in one of its Heroes Of Comedy programmes.

On 28 December 2006, Channel 4 broadcast the documentary Is Benny Hill Still Funny?. The programme featured an audience that comprised a cross-section of young adults who had little or no knowledge of Hill, to discover whether Hill's comedy was valid to a generation that enjoyed the likes of Little Britain, The Catherine Tate Show and Borat. The participants were asked to watch a 30-minute compilation that included examples of Hill's humour from both his BBC and ITV shows. The responses and results demonstrated that none of the sample of viewers took offence at any of the sketches shown.

Hill's silent "Wishing Well" sketch was discovered to be the most popular. The alternative comedian Ben Elton, who had criticised Hill for sexism, was interviewed in the programme. Elton said he still had reservations about certain aspects of Hill's sketches, but claimed to be an admirer of Hill's talent and abilities as a comic performer.

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

• Lewisohn, Mark. Funny, Peculiar – The True Story of Benny Hill
• Smith, John. Benny Hill Story New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989
• GRO – Alfred H. Hill born MAR qtr 1924 2c 52 SOUTHAMPTON, mmn = Cave
• GRO – Alfred Hawthorne Hill died: APR 1992 14 1352 Richmond-upon-Thames, aged 68, his date of birth was 21 January 1924

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Benny Hill

Biography portal

• Benny Hill - Daily Telegraph obituary
• Benny Hill page at the Museum of Broadcast Communications
• The Benny Hill Show page at the Museum of Broadcast Communications
• Benny Hill at the Internet Movie Database
• The Eastleigh Photograph Archive Photos of the dairy and streets where Benny worked as a milkman, inspiring the song Ernie (The fastest milkman in the west)
• The Benny Hill Songbook Lyrics, guitar chords and transcripts
• Benny's Place featuring Louise English & Hill's Angels A tribute to Benny Hill and his beautiful ladies known as Hill's Angels
• Laughterlog.com Article with complete list of appearances on television, radio and record
• BBC Hampshire BBC article on Benny Hill's Hampshire connections