Harry Fowler
| Harry Fowler | |
|---|---|
| Born | Henry James Fowler 10 December 1926 Lambeth, London, England |
| Died | 4 January 2012 (aged 85) |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1942–2004 |
Henry James "Harry" Fowler, MBE (10 December 1926 – 4 January 2012) was an English actor in film and TV. Over a career lasting more than sixty years he made nearly 200 appearances on screen.
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[edit] Personal life
Fowler was born in Lambeth, South London on 10 December 1926. As a “near illiterate newspaper boy” making eight shillings a week, he told film historian Brian McFarlane, he was invited on to radio to speak about his life in wartime London.[1]
Fowler married actress Joan Dowling, who took her own life in 1954 after her career began to fail.[2]
Fowler died on 4 January 2012. He is survived by his second wife, Catherine, to whom he was married for over 50 years.[1]
[edit] Career
Fowler made his on-screen debut as Ern in the 1942 film Those Kids from Town, a propaganda piece about wartime evacuee children from London. This role was given to him after film company executives heard him speaking on the radio about his experiences in wartime London. After a screen test at Elstree studios, Fowler was given the part to star alongside George Cole. His fee was £5 a day, compared with the 8 shillings a week he had been earning as a newspaper boy up to his audition.[1]
His early juvenile roles included Hue and Cry (1947), usually considered the first of the Ealing Comedies. Fowler later married Joan Dowling, one of his co-stars in the Ealing film. Dowling committed suicide in 1954, aged 26.[3]
During the Second World War he had been an aircraftman in the RAF and played a cheerful cockney character with the same job in the film Angels One Five (1952),[4] a portrayal he used in other contexts, often with a humorous slant, mostly especially during his year in The Army Game (1959–60) TV series.
He played Harry Danvers in the clerical comedy Our Man at St Mark’s (1965-66) opposite Donald Sinden[5] and made several appearances on children's television during the 1970s, reading on Jackanory and hosting the series Get This and Going A Bundle with Kenny Lynch.[3] He is also noted for having narrated Bob Godfrey Films’ Great: Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1975), the first British cartoon to win an Academy Award.[2] His familiar voice was regularly used for TV commercials.
In 1975, Fowler took the part of Eric Lee Fung, described as "a Chinese cockney spiv", in The Melting Pot, a sitcom written by Spike Milligan and Neil Shand. The series was cancelled by the BBC after the first episode had been broadcast.[6]
He was awarded an MBE in 1970, as part of Harold Wilson's Resignation Honours.[7]
[edit] Selected filmography
- Those Kids from Town (1942), Ern
- Went the Day Well? (1942), George Truscott
- Salute John Citizen (1942), Office Boy - uncredited
- The Demi-Paradise (1943), An evacuee - uncredited
- Don't Take It to Heart (1944), Telegraph Boy
- Painted Boats (1945), Alf Stoner
- Hue and Cry (1947), Joe Kirby
- A Piece of Cake (1948), Head Spiv
- For Them That Trespass (1949), Dave
- Once a Sinner (1950), Bill James
- Scarlet Thread (1951)
- The Last Page (1952)
- Angels One Five (1952)
- The Pickwick Papers (1952)
- Up to His Neck (1954)
- Fire Maidens from Outer Space (1956)
- Behind the Headlines (1956)
- Town on Trial (1957)
- West of Suez (1957)
- Booby Trap (1957)
- Lucky Jim (1957)
- The Birthday Present (1957)
- I Was Monty's Double (1958)
- The Heart of a Man (1959)
- Crooks Anonymous (1962)
- Flight from Singapore (1962)
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
- Ladies Who Do (1963)
- Tomorrow at Ten (1964)
- The Nanny (1965)
- Doctor in Clover (1966)
- George and Mildred (1980)
- Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1980)
- Chicago Joe and the Showgirl (1990)
[edit] Selected TV appearances
- The Army Game - catchphrase "Follow Flogger"
- Dixon of Dock Green
- Z-Cars
- Jackanory
- Minder
- Doctor Who
- The Bill
- Casualty
- Eastenders
- Super Gran
- The Impressionable Jon Culshaw
- Going A Bundle
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Baxter, Brian (4 January 2012). "Harry Fowler obituary". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 8 January 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jan/04/harry-fowler. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
- ^ a b Minovitz, Ethan (5 January 2012). "Cockney character actor Harry Fowler dies at 85". Big Cartoon News. http://blog.bcdb.com/cockney-character-actor-harry-fowler-dies-85/. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- ^ a b Pendreigh, Brian (6 January 2012). "Obituary: Harry Fowler - Cockney actor found fame in The Army Game and enjoyed career spanning half a century". The Scotsman. Archived from the original on 8 January 2012. http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary_harry_fowler_cockney_actor_found_fame_in_the_army_game_and_enjoyed_career_spanning_half_a_century_1_2040095. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
- ^ Flight 6 July 1951, p. 9
- ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9003414/Harry-Fowler.html
- ^ Milligan, Spike; Shand, Neil (1983). The Melting Pot. London: Robson Books. introductory pages. ISBN 0 86051 195 2.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 45165. pp. 8677–8678. 4 August 1970. Retrieved 2011-01-09.
