Benny Hill
Benny Hill shows sold to over 140 countries around the world, and his audience could be counted in billions.
Born	January 21, 1924 Southampton, England
Died	April 20, 1992 Teddington, England

Born Alfred Hawthorn Hill (January 21, 1924 - April 20, 1992), Benny Hill was a prolific comic British actor. He was left-handed. He worked compulsively and had only a few friends, although colleagues who knew him closely insist that he was never lonely, but was content with his own company. He never married, although he did propose to two different women, and was rejected by both. He never owned his own home, nor even a car, instead preferring to rent a modest little flat in Teddington, a convenient walking distance to the Teddington Studios where he filmed the one-off one-hour episodes of his television program, The Benny Hill Show.

Contents

1 Career 2 Death 3 Also see 4 External link

Career

As a boy, Hill liked appearing in school productions and credited his favorite childhood actor Charlie Chaplin as the inspiration for his becoming a star. After leaving school, he worked variously as a milkman, bridge operator, driver and drummer, before he finally found a foot in the door of the entertainment industry by becoming an assistant stage manager.

During World War II, Hill worked in working men's clubs, revues and end-of-the-pier shows all over Britain. For the stage he changed his first name to "Benny", in homage to his favourite comedian Jack Benny. Between the end of the war and the dawn of television, he worked as a radio performer. An early believer in television, his first appearance over the airwaves was in 1949 in a show called Hi There. He continued to work on and off until his career took off with The Benny Hill Show in 1955 on BBC Television.

The Benny Hill Show featured him in innumerable short sketches (along with Henry McGee , Carol Cleveland, and others) portraying a leering, lecherous, never-quite-succeeding, yet charming protagonist. Slapstick and double entendre were his hallmark. He used speeded up film and sight gags to create what he called "live animation". He was also a skilled composer and singer of patter song s. His shows were seen in over 100 countries across the world.

In 1969, his show moved to ITV, where it remained until cancellation with an erratic schedule of one hour specials. The show was first broadcast in the United States in January 1979 and screened there with a series of re-edited half hour programs culled from the ITV specials. The US versions of his show have far less risqué material than the shows which were aired in the UK.

The Benny Hill Show (1969-1989) is in syndication and is available on videotape in the US (ironically, there is far less material currently available in the UK). The syndicated version consists of 111 half-hour episodes, re-edited from the original hour-long specials made by Thames Television and screened on Britain's ITV network three or four times a year. Half-hour edits also appeared on ITV, although the contents may be different from the syndicated versions. In 1989 Thames dropped Hill because his material was no longer considered politically correct. He later recorded some shows for US television.

His audio recordings include Gather In The Mushrooms (1961), Transistor Radio (1961), Harvest Of Love (1963), Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West) (1971), among many others.

His film credits include parts in nine films including Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), in which he played the relatively straight role of the Toymaker, and The Italian Job (1969).

He also appeared in the video of the song "Anything She Does" by the band Genesis.

Here is an example of his doggerel:

Roses are reddish

Violets are bluish

If it weren't for Christmas

We'd all be Jewish.

Death

Hill's health began declining in the early 1990s. Weighing 240 pounds at 5 feet, 10½ inches tall, he suffered heart problems related to his obesity. On February 11 1992, doctors told him that he needed to lose 30 pounds, and recommended a heart bypass. He declined, and was diagnosed a week later with renal failure. Hill passed away "on or about April 20", alone in his flat, at the age of 68. The cause of death was listed as coronary thrombosis. Neighbors found his body on April 24 sitting in an armchair. (His death closely coincided with that of another British comedy icon, Frankie Howerd, who died on April 19.)

Hill's will had left his estimated £10 million (GBP) estate to his long-dead parents. Next in line were his brother and sister Leonard and Diana, neither of whom he'd enjoyed the closest of relationships with, and both of whom were dead also. This left his seven nieces and nephews, amongst whom the money—approximately £7.5 million—was divided. A note was found among his belongings assigning huge sums of money to his close friends Sue Upton , Louise English , Henry McGee , Bob Todd and Dennis Kirkland , but because it was neither signed or witnessed, the note had no legal standing.

Also see

• UK topics

External link

• Lyrics and transcriptions http://www.tnsf.ca/bennyhill