Jimmy Logan

Jimmy Logan, (4 April 1928 - 13 April 2001), born James Short in Dennistoun, Glasgow, Scotland. Entertainer, theatre owner, producer, director, and actor.

Logan was part of a family of entertainers beginning with his parents who were the music hall act Short and Dalziel. His aunt from whom he took his stage surname, was Ella Logan, star of Broadway musicals. His sister, Annie Ross (1930- ) is an actress and jazz singer.

Educated at Gourock High School, Inverclyde, Logan left at age 14 for the theatre. His family, in the 1930s and 1940s toured the small music halls of Scotland and Northern Ireland. By 1944 he was in pantomime when he played the cat in Dick Whittington. His connection with pantomime would continued throughout his life.

A comic, dancer and singer, Jimmy established himself in the forefront of Scottish showbusiness, particularly with The Five Past Eight Show at the Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow.

With his parents and siblings the Logan family played the Glasgow Metropole from the late 1940s. He bought this theatre for £80,000 in 1964, refurbishing it at great cost but further development was blocked by the Glasgow authorities and the spiralling costs almost ruined him and the theatre closed in 1972.

His first acting role was in the film Floodtide (1949) which also featured Gordon Jackson, a drama set on Clydeside. He also performed in Carry on Abroad (1972), one of the long running Carry on series of films. His London stage debut came in The Mating Game (1973).

His adaptation of Oor Wullie, the Sunday Post comic strip character, for the Dundee stage was a failure, but his show Lauder (1976), a one-man musical based on the life of his hero, famed Scottish entertainer Sir Harry Lauder, proved a success. Logan's large collection of Lauder memorabilia now rests in the Scottish Theatre Archive at the University of Glasgow.

Other theatrical successes included The Entertainer (1984), Brighton Beach Memoirs (1989), The Comedians (1991), On Golden Pond (1996) and Death of a Salesman at the Pitlochry Festival (1992).

In 1991 he had a prominent supporting role in the popular Swedish comedy film Den ofrivillige golfaren, which was partly filmed in Scotland.

Logan was awarded an honorary doctorate by Glasgow Caledonian University (1994), honoured with an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to Scottish theatre (1996) and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) (1998).

Logan died of cancer in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, aged 73.