Kenneth Connor MBE (6 June 1918^[1][2] – 28 November 1993) was an English comedy stage, radio, film and TV actor, best known for his appearances in the Carry On films.

Career[link]

Born in Islington, London, the son of a naval petty officer who organised concert parties^[1] Connor first appeared on the stage at the age of 2 as an organ-grinder's monkey in one of his father's shows, in Portsmouth. By 11 years old, he had his own act. He attended the Central School of Speech and Drama, where he was a Gold Medal winner. Connor made his professional debut in J.M. Barrie's The Boy David, at His Majesty's Theatre, London in December 1936. During World War II he served as an infantry gunner with the Middlesex Regiment but continued acting by touring Italy and the Middle East with the Stars in Battledress concert party and ENSA. While waiting to be demobbed in Cairo, Connor received a telegram from William Devlin asking him to join the newly formed Bristol Old Vic, where he gained a solid grounding in the classics. He moved on to the London Old Vic Company for a 1947–48 season at the New Theatre. His most notable performances there were as Chaplain de Stogumber in Saint Joan and Dobchinsky in The Government Inspector, which starred Alec Guinness. Realising he was not a ``tall, impressive juvenile lead or a young lover type`` he decided to specialise in comedy.

He took over from Peter Sellers in Ted Ray's radio show Ray's a Laugh – launched by the BBC in 1949 as a successor to Tommy Handley's ITMA. He played the brother-in-law and other oddball characters such as Sidney Mincing. Ray took Connor with him to his TV shows, and the pair would star together in the third Carry On film, Carry On Teacher.

On occasion he appeared in The Goon Show, standing in for regular cast members struck down by illness. He also appeared in the anarchic, Goon-style TV series Idiot Weekly, Price 2d (1956) and A Show Called Fred (1956).

In 1955, Connor gained a small role in the film The Ladykillers (1955) as a taxi driver. In 1958, he was cast in the first Carry On film, Carry On Sergeant and became one of the regular cast in the series, appearing in seventeen of the original thirty films and many of the associated television productions. Alongside Kenneth Williams and Eric Barker, Connor was one of only three actors to appear in both the first and last of the original sequence of Carry On films (Carry On Sergeant and Carry On Emmanuelle).

In his earlier Carry On appearances, Connor frequently played the romantic lead or other sympathetic straight roles, while later appearances saw him play pompous unsympathetic characters such as married men with wandering eyes and lascivious remarks. In Carry On Nurse (1959), his real-life son Jeremy^[3] appeared as his character Bernie Bishop's son. In 1961, he starred with fellow Carry On stars Sid James and Esma Cannon in the comedy film What a Carve Up!. In the early 1960s, he appeared as various characters in the Four Feather Falls puppet series.

In contrast with some of his Carry On co-stars, Connor found further success on the London stage. Connor starred in the revue One Over the Eight (1962), at the Duke of York's Theatre, the original London West End production with Frankie Howerd of the Stephen Sondheim musical A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum (1963), as Hysterium – and directed the show when it went on tour – The Four Musketeers (1967), with Harry Secombe at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, playing King Louis XIII, and the revue Carry On London (1973) at the Victoria Palace.

Between 1971 and 1973, Connor joined Dad's Army stars Arthur Lowe and Ian Lavender on the BBC radio comedy Parsley Sidings. On television he appeared in The Black and White Minstrel Show, as Whatsisname Smith in the children's show Rentaghost (1983–1984), and as Monsieur Alfonse in 'Allo 'Allo! (1984–1992) and Uncle Sammy Morris in Hi-de-Hi! (1986–1988). He also made guest appearances in sitcoms including That's My Boy and You Rang, M'Lord? and he made a memorable cameo in an episode of Blackadder the Third in 1987, alongside fellow veteran comic star Hugh Paddick.

His final TV appearance, as Mr Warren in The Memoirs Of Sherlock Holmes episode The Adventure of the Red Circle, was broadcast posthumously in 1994. He was in over fifty films and was honoured by the Queen with an MBE in 1991.

He made his first stage appearance at the age of two and was still working just two days before his death, with an appearance on Noel Edmond's Telly Addicts.

Connor died of cancer at his home in Harrow, London in 1993,^[4] and was survived by his wife Margaret (Miki), his son and three grandchildren, Thomas, Hayley and Rose, all of whom have been accomplished child actors.

Television roles[link]

Selected filmography[link]

• Poison Pen (1939)
• Don't Say Die (1950)
• Miss Robin Hood (1952)
• There Was a Young Lady (1953)
• Marilyn (1953)
• The Black Rider (1954)
• The Ladykillers (1955)
• Davy (1957)
• Carry On Sergeant (1958)
• Make Mine a Million (1959)
• Carry On Nurse (1959)
• Carry On Teacher (1959)
• Watch Your Stern (1960)
• Carry On Constable (1960)
• Dentist in the Chair (1960)
• Nearly a Nasty Accident (1961)
• His and Hers (1961)
• Carry On Regardless (1961)
• A Weekend with Lulu (1961)
• Dentist on the Job (1961)
• What a Carve Up! (1961)
• Carry On Cruising (1962)
• Carry On Cabby (1963)
• Carry On Cleo (1964)
• Gonks Go Beat (1965)
• Cuckoo Patrol (1967)
• Rhubarb (1969)
• Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (1969)
• Carry On Up the Jungle (1970)
• Carry On Henry (1971)
• Carry On Matron (1972)
• Carry On Abroad (1972)
• Carry On Girls (1973)
• Carry On Dick (1974)
• Carry On Behind (1975)
• Carry On England (1976)
• Carry On Emmannuelle (1978)

References[link]

• Daily Telegraph, 29 November 1993
• The Times, 29 November 1993
• The Independent, 30 November 1993

1. ^ ^{a b} "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=URAqg07LMlz3gfXu8C4q1g&scan=1. Retrieved 21 February 2011. 
2. ^ BFI biodata
3. ^ Jeremy Connor at IMDb
4. ^ Fade to Black 4th Ed – Paul Donnelley, Omnibus Press, 2010

External links[link]

• Kenneth Connor at the Internet Movie Database

Vince Hill (born Vincent Hill, 16 April 1937, Holbrooks, Coventry, England^[1]) is an English traditional pop music singer, songwriter and record producer.

Biography[link]

Hill first sang professionally in a public house called The Prospect in Margate, Kent, when he was fifteen years old.^[1][2] But the decision to become a full time musician came after he had worked as baker, truck driver, and coal miner.^[2]

When he called up for military service, Hill received the deciding trigger for a professional career.^[1] He went on to be a singer with the Royal Signals Band.^[2] After leaving the military service he toured with a musical called Floradora, and he then became a singer with the Teddy Foster's Band, a big band based in London.^[1]

At the beginning of the 1960s, he joined the critically acclaimed British vocal group, The Raindrops, which gave him his first opportunity to perform in television and radio shows, especially on the BBC radio show Parade Of The Pops.^[1] The Raindrops also had in its ranks Jackie Lee, Len Beadle and Johnny Worth.^[1] After leaving The Raindrops, Lee went on to record the popular singles "White Horses", and "Rupert", whilst Johnny Worth worked as a songwriter (under his pen-name, Les Vandyke he wrote many hits including the early successes of Eden Kane and Adam Faith).^[1] By late 1961 however, Hill left The Raindrops for a fledgling solo career.^[1][2]

His debut entry in the UK Singles Chart was the Vandyke penned "The River's Run Dry", which went to #41 in June 1962.^[1][3] In 1963, he participated in A Song for Europe, the UK heat of the Eurovision Song Contest, with another Vandyke penned song, "A Day at the Seaside".^[1] The next few years proved fallow as a succession of single releases failed to chart.^[1] His first song in the Top 20 was "Take Me To Your Heart Again" - Hill's cover of the Édith Piaf hit, "La Vie En Rose" climbed to #13 in 1966.^[1][3] "Roses of Picardy", composed during the First World War, was another Top 20 success, reaching #13 in the summer of 1967.^[1][3] Further notable songs that he recorded included "Heartaches" (#28, 1966); "Merci Cherie" (written by the Austrian singer Udo Jürgens), which was the winning song in the Eurovision Song Contest 1966, (#36, 1966); "Love Letters in the Sand" (#23, 1967); "The Importance of Your Love" (music by Gilbert Bécaud; English lyrics by Norman Newell) and "Look Around (And You'll Find Me There)".^[1][3] The latter track, taken from the soundtrack to the film, Love Story was another Top 20 hit, but proved to be his chart swansong, reaching a pinnacle of #12 in the latter half of 1971.^[1][3]

His most successful hit was "Edelweiss".^[1] This song, from the soundtrack to the musical film, The Sound of Music, was a #2 hit in the UK Singles Chart in March 1967.^[1][3] "Edelweiss" was to become his signature tune for the rest of his career, that saw him top the bill at the London Palladium and Talk of the Town.^[2] His album Edelweiss was his only hit album for Columbia,^[3] but between 1966 and 1973 he recorded albums normally including hits of the time mixed with his own title song.

Another notable Hill recording was "Pray for Love", based on a melody by Mascagni, with a lyric by Norman Newell. He also made a vocal recording of the Russ Conway favourite, "Always You and Me", which became the title of an album.

Once the hits had dried up, Hill continued to perform regularly in clubs, cabaret, and various stage productions. He still recorded albums and moved to CBS Records in 1975, where his first album for them Mandy included more contemporary material like "Streets of London". However, the albums failed to chart but he was a regular on TV shows in the 1970s, and beyond.^[1]

His later career took his voice on to work on cruise ships. Although known mainly for his voice he has composed songs as well.^[2] He and his musical director Ernie Dunstall wrote a song for Brendan Dougan that went to number one in the New Zealand chart.^[2]

In 1982 he appeared on the Children's TV show Rainbow. In October 1983, he performed on one of the last episodes of BBC One's, light entertainment show, The Good Old Days. Other television appearances occurred in shows including Cash in the Attic, 3-2-1, Top of the Pops, The Morecambe & Wise Show and Seaside Special. In the mid 1980s Hill also appeared in an episode of Jim'll Fix It performing a ballad called "Sharon", requested by a viewer who claimed nobody had ever written a love song of that name.

By 1983 he had added acting to his CV, first in the radio drama, Tolpuddle (which he also wrote) and playing Ivor Novello in the stage play, My Dearest Ivor.^[2] Hill also wrote the stage musical, Zodiac.^[2]

Hill's first production credit for an album was the 1997 In Thine Eyes, CD a collection of classical church music and voices.^[2] His most recent tour, was entitled the 'I'm Still Standing Show', so named because of his recent battle with cancer.^[2]

Hill currently lives in Lower Shiplake, which is a village in Oxfordshire on the River Thames, near Henley-on-Thames.

He has also written his autobiography, Another Hill to Climb (Bank House Books), in collaboration with Nick Charles MBE.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

at Columbia Records

• At The Club
• Edelweiss - UK Albums Chart #23^[3]
• Always You and Me

at EMI

• The Other Side of Me (1973)

at K-tel

• That Loving Feeling (1978)

Singles[link]