Eric Sykes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (March 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
This page is about Eric Sykes the comedian. For the inventor of the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife see Eric A. Sykes
Eric Sykes
Born 4 May 1923 (1923-05-04) (age 85)
Oldham, Lancashire, England
Medium television
radio
Years active 1947-present
Spouse Edith Milbrandt
Notable works and roles Sykes, The Goon Show, The Plank
British Comedy Awards
1992 Lifetime Achievement Award

Eric Sykes, CBE (born 4 May 1923) is an English comedic writer and actor. He is perhaps best known for his BBC television sitcom with Hattie Jacques and Deryck Guyler, called Sykes. However, he was well-known on radio during the 1950s, both behind the scenes and in front of the microphone.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Career

His career in entertainment began during his time in a Special Liaison Unit, when he worked with Flight Lieutenant Bill Fraser. He first collaborated with Spike Milligan on a radio special called Archie in Goonland, which was a crossover between The Goon Show and the "radio ventriloquism" show Educating Archie starring Peter Brough and his dummy Archie Andrews, which Sykes had been writing. Archie in Goonland was not a success; recordings and scripts are not known to have survived. Milligan and Sykes though, collaborated on numerous Goon Show scripts, as Milligan was unable to meet the workload, and they shared an office, as colleagues at Associated London Scripts, for years afterward. In 1956-57, Sykes wrote and starred in The Tony Hancock Show.

One of Sykes' best known creations is his classic wordless slapstick routine, The Plank, which began as a sketch, "Sykes and a Plank", in his TV series. It was later expanded into an enduringly popular 45-minute film in 1967, The Plank (1967), co-starring Sykes, Tommy Cooper, Jimmy Edwards, Roy Castle, Graham Stark, Stratford Johns, Jim Dale, Jimmy Tarbuck, Hattie Jacques and Bill Oddie. A third version was made in 1979, The Plank (1979), as a half-hour special, with an all-star cast including Arthur Lowe (taking Cooper's role), Charlie Drake, Charles Hawtrey and Wilfrid Hyde-White. Edwards and Sykes also toured in their theatrical farce Big Bad Mouse, which while keeping more or less to a script, gave them free rein to ad lib and address the audience.

On 25 December 1979 Sykes was the subject of Thames Television's This Is Your Life. Guests included Sean Connery, Spike Milligan, Douglas Bader, and Hattie Jacques. Sykes toured Australia with the play Run for Your Wife during (1987-1988). The cast also included Jack Smethurst, David McCallum and Katy Manning.

In the British New Year's Honours List published 31 December 2004, Sykes was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to Drama, following a petition by MPs after he was excluded from the Birthday Honours List. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. Also in 2005, his autobiography If I Don't Write It, Nobody Else Will was published.

More recently, Sykes appeared as Mollocks, the servant of Dr Prunesquallor, in the BBC's mini-series adaptation of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast. He continues to act on stage and on television, despite his advancing years - he appears in the 2007 series of Last of the Summer Wine. Also in 2007, he had a small role in an episode of popular sitcom My Family.

[edit] Personal life

Sykes was educated at Ward Street Central School in Oldham. He joined the Royal Air Force during World War II and qualified as a Wireless Operator with the rank of Leading Aircraftman. Sykes became partially deaf due to illness as an adult. His distinctive spectacles contain no lenses, but they are rather a bone-conducting hearing aid. Disciform macular degeneration, a condition brought about by age (and possibly smoking) has left Sykes partially-sighted, and he is registered as blind.

He married Edith Eleanore Milbrandt on 14 February 1952 and they have three daughters : Catherine, Julie, Susan and a son, David.[1]

He is an honorary president of the Goon Show Preservation Society.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Created by and starring Eric Sykes

[edit] Other roles

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1][dead link]

[edit] External links

v • d • e
The Goons
Spike Milligan · Harry Secombe · Peter Sellers
Michael Bentine
Other contributors
Radio and TV series
Films
Characters
Other topics


Persondata
NAME Sykes, Eric
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Scriptwriter, comic actor
DATE OF BIRTH 1923-05-04
PLACE OF BIRTH Oldham, Lancashire
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Languages