biography

• Born: Alfred Hill (1924-1992)

  Benny Hill autographs, photographs and more @ ebay.co.uk (direct link to signed items)

  A light-haired, blue-eyed, round faced, tubby British comedian with mischievous grin who brings seaside-postcard humour to life. Benny Hill's film career, though, has been surprisingly spotty considering his consistent popularity on television through four decades. But the nature of his material is sketchy, in all senses of the word, and so it was perhaps not surprising that one of his most popular film outings was a compilation of his TV material: a very rare occurrence even in British film comedy.

  The son and grandson of men who had both spent time as circus clowns, Hill was, at 13, an amateur entertainer in his native Southampton with a group called Bobby's Concert Party. But with the outbreak of World War Two the troupe disbanded, and Benny had to forage for audiences on his own.

  As a teenager he entertained in pubs, halls and - during the early years of the war - even in air-raid shelters, while pursuing post-school occupations of shop assistant in Woolworths, then milkman, complete with horse and cart. The latter occupation would, many years later, give him material for one of the most successful of his famous saucy songs. At this time, he was playing guitar and drums and singing, rather than cracking jokes. He even became a singer with a dance band. Trying for a career as a comic actor, he got a job at a theatre in the East End of London as an assistant stage manager, playing small roles in productions as well. During his war service he built up on-stage experience with the show Stars in Battledress and switched to the music-hall stage in post-war years.

  Benny Hill autographs, photographs and more @ ebay.co.uk (direct link to signed items)

  His face became familiar as straight man to another comedian, Reg Varney, but he was soon making strides as a stand-up comedian under his own steam, billed as 'Britain's brightest boy'. His breathless delivery and impish demeanour, together with a self-written fund of material, made him a headliner inside a couple of years. He was a popular radio guest from the early 1950s, and had his own TV show from 1953. It was destined to run, in one form or another, for 36 years.

  The cinema sat up and took notice, and Ealing Studios brought the prodigy to the screen in 1955 in Who Done It? Benny played an ice-rink sweeper who sets himself up as a detective after winning £100 and a bloodhound. Although rough-edged, the caper that resulted was wildly funny in parts and performed well at the British box-office.

  However, Ealing was a fading force in the British cinema and Rank, who distributed their films, had its own star comedian in Norman Wisdom. So it was that Hill returned to television, never again to make a film as solo star.

  The format of his TV show settled into something similar to that which would bring success to another British comedian, Dick Emery, more than a decade later. The star appeared in a number of farcical disguises, proved slightly bland as a master of ceremonies, was surrounded with pretty girls (who chased whichever character he happened to he playing off the screen at the end) and amused with leery madrigals, often sung while dressed as a straw-sucking hayseed. One of these songs, Ernie (the fastest milkman in the west) soared to number one in the British pop charts.

  There was the odd film appearance, in increasingly eccentric cameo roles as the years wore on, but for the most part it was simply The Benny Hill Show, its latter-day appearances becoming sporadic as good material became scarce. The show achieved an amazing worldwide popularity, which continued even after its mentors, Thames Television, dropped it from British schedules after 1989. Greta Garbo was supposedly one of its greatest fans and Hill has often defended its simple vulgarity in print. Asked how he saw himself on TV, he told one interviewer:

  'I see several chins and a large tummy. That's why I rummage through supermarket shelves. It's not to see how much things cost, but to see how many calories they contain!'

  He was forced to ease up further on the calories after a heart attack in 1992, but died alone in his apartment from a further attack on the same day as his friend and fellow comic Frankie Howard.

  For many years and up until his death, he lived by the Thames in Teddington, Middlesex, often seen in the area doing his shopping with bundles of cash!

  When he passed on, his estate was worth an estimated £10million. The beneficiary obvious to those close to him was Sue Upton who was dearly loved by Benny. Sadly, the only will Benny created left his estate to his parents. They, however, were long gone. Next in line were his brother and sister Leonard and Diana neither of whom he'd enjoyed the closest of relationships with. They too were dead. So, the money, approximately £7.5million was divided among his seven nieces and nephews.

  Inevitably, since his death there has been one particular and nasty middle-aged ex-Hill's Angel girl coming out of the woodwork to make a claim of how she had to perform sexual acts on him to keep him happy. Sounds out of character and, of course, the case can't be proven.

  The most famous person to appear as a Hill's Angel was Jane Leeves who later found fame as the character Daphne in the US tv show Frasier. She appeared in the 1983/84 TV series.