- published: 08 Oct 2013
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Robert Dorning (13 May 1913 – 20 February 1989) was a musician, dance band vocalist, ballet dancer, and (stage, film, and television) actor. He is known to have performed in at least seventy-seven television and film productions between 1940 and 1988.
Robert Dorning was born at 108 Croppers Hill in St Helens, Lancashire, England on 13 May 1913. His father was Robert John Dorning who worked in a local pit as a coal miner haulier and his mother was Mary Elizabeth Dorning, formerly Howard. He was educated at Cowley Grammar School in St Helens, where he also learnt to play violin and saxophone. After leaving school, Dorning studied drama and dance in Liverpool with the intention of becoming a ballet dancer. During the 1930s he had a brief career as a musical comedian in theatre, before choosing acting as his profession.
His first known film role was in the crime drama, They Came By Night (1940). However, his acting career was interrupted by World War II and Dorning served in the RAF. After being demobbed, he utilised his ballet dancing talents when cast as a dancer in The Red Shoes (1948). During the 1950s he had supporting roles in at least ten films, mainly B-film crime dramas. Although his film career was overshadowed by his more prolific television work, towards the end of his career he was cast in a number of notable film productions. These included Cul-de-Sac (1966), directed by Roman Polanski, The Black Windmill (1974), Ragtime (1981), Agatha Christie's Evil Under the Sun (1982) and Mona Lisa (1986).
Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan KBE (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was a British comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the British government declared him stateless. He was the co-creator, main writer and a principal cast member of The Goon Show, performing a range of roles including the popular Eccles.
Milligan wrote and edited many books, including Puckoon and his seven-volume autobiographical account of his time serving during the Second World War, beginning with Adolf Hitler: My part in his downfall. He is also noted as a popular writer of comical verse; much of his poetry was written for children, including Silly Verse for Kids (1959). After success with the ground-breaking British radio programme, The Goon Show, Milligan translated this success to television with Q5, a surreal sketch show which is credited as a major influence on the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus.