Benny Hill

Alfred Hawthorne Hill (21 January 1924 – 20 April 1992), known by his stage name Benny Hill, was an English comedian and actor, best remembered for his long-running internationally popular television programme The Benny Hill Show.

Early life

Alfred Hawthorne Hill was born on 21 January 1924 in Southampton, on the south coast of England. His father, Alfred, and grandfather, Henry, had both been circus clowns. After leaving school, Hill worked at Woolworths, as a milkman, a bridge operator, a driver and a drummer before becoming assistant stage manager with a touring review. He was called up in 1942 and trained as a mechanic in the British Army. Saw action as a mechanic, truck driver and searchlight operator in Normandy after September 1944 and later transferred to the Combined Services Entertainment division before the end of the war.

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.

Benjamin Hill

Benjamin Hill or Ben Hill or Benny Hill may refer to:

People

Places

See also

Benny

Benny or Bennie is a given name or a shortened version of the given name Benjamin, or less commonly, Benedict, Bennett, Bernice, Ebenezer or Bernard.

People

Bennie

Hill

A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit, although in areas with scarp/dip topography a hill may refer to a particular section of flat terrain without a massive summit (e.g. Box Hill, Surrey).

Terminology

The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be less tall and less steep than a mountain. In the United Kingdom, geographers historically regarded mountains as hills greater than 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level, which formed the basis of the plot of the 1995 film The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain. In contrast, hillwalkers have tended to regard mountains as peaks 2,000 feet (610 m) above sea level: the Oxford English Dictionary also suggests a limit of 2,000 feet (610 m) and Whittow states "Some authorities regard eminences above 600 m (2,000 ft) as mountains, those below being referred to as hills." The Great Soviet Encyclopedia defines hill as an upland with a relative height up to 200 m (660 ft).

Bob Todd

Brian Todd (born 15 December 1921 – 21 October 1992), known professionally as Bob Todd, was an English comedy actor, mostly known for appearing as a straight man in the sketch shows of Benny Hill and Spike Milligan. For many years he lived in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

Life and career

Todd was born in Faversham, Kent. One of the great stooges of television comedy, Todd was best known for his lugubrious expression and talent for slapstick, and was known to fellow comedians by the nickname 'Silly Todd'.

Before working in television, Todd trained to be a dentist. The outbreak of the Second World War saw him enlist in the Royal Air Force, where he became a navigator stationed at RAF Goxhill, Lincolnshire. He had ambitions of becoming a farmer—making money from cattle breeding, whilst working as a manager at London Airport. The farming business, once begun, failed and almost made him bankrupt, so at the age of 42 he found himself looking for a new career. Meeting scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson in a pub, he bluffed them into believing that he was in fact an actor and ended up with the part of a policeman in the Sid James comedy series Citizen James in 1963. He appeared as several characters in Milligan and John Antrobus' stage play The Bed-Sitting Room, which opened at the Mermaid Theatre on 31 January 1963.