Norman Wisdom: Difference between revisions
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==Retirement== |
==Retirement== |
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Wisdom announced his retirement from the entertainment industry on his ninetieth birthday, 4 February, [[2005]]. He intends to spend his retirement spending more time with his family, playing [[golf]] and driving around the [[Isle of Man]], where he lives; his next door neighbour is actor [[John Rhys-Davies]]. |
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In mid-2006 |
In mid-2006 Wisdom was admitted to hospital after he suffered an irregular heart rhythm. He was in hospital in [[Liverpool]] for a few days after he was fitted with a [[heart pacemaker]] to steady his heartbeat.<ref>{{citeweb|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/isle_of_man/5165764.stm|title=BBC report on fitting of pacemaker|accessdate=2007-08-12}}</ref> |
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In [[2007]] he made his return to acting in the independent movie Expresso, premiering at the [[Cannes Film Festival]] on the 27th May. |
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An article in Newcastle upon Tyne's 14th of August 2007 Evening Chronicle reported that Sir Norman was in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimers. |
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It was reported on BBC News on 27th August 2007 that Sir Norman came out of retirement to play a vicar plagued by a fly in a cafe, suffers from [[vascular dementia]] and lives in a care home. Expresso, which will raise funds for [[Macmillan Cancer Support]], also features [[Dame Judi Dench]]. |
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In [[2007]] he made his return to acting in the independent movie ''[[Expresso]],'' shot in January 2007 but premiering at the [[Cannes Film Festival]] on the [[27 May]], [[2007]]. In the film which will raise funds for [[Macmillan Cancer Support]] and features [[Dame Judi Dench]], Wisdom plays a vicar plagued by a fly in a cafe. The film's producer [[Nigel Martin Davey]] gave him only a visual role so he would not have to remember any lines, but on the day Wisdom was alert and had his performance changed to add more laughs.<ref name="BBCEspres">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6965560.stm Sir Norman's swansong is released] BBC News - 27 August, 2007</ref> |
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In August 2007, [[Newcastle upon Tyne|newcastle]]'s [[Evening Chronicle]] reported that Sir Norman was in a nursing home. On release of ''Espresso'' to [[DVD]] in the same month, BBC News confirmed that Wisdom lives in a care home, due to his suffering from [[vascular dementia]].<ref name="BBCEspres"/> |
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==Trivia== |
==Trivia== |
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Revision as of 17:54, 27 August 2007
Sir Norman Wisdom, OBE | |
|---|---|
| Born | Norman Wisdom |
| Years active | 1948 - 2004, 2007 |
| Height | 5'2 (five ft two in) |
| Spouse | Freda Simpson (1947-69) |
Sir Norman Wisdom, OBE (born 4 February, 1915) is an English comedian, singer and actor.
Early life
Norman J Wisdom was born in the London district of Marylebone to Frederick and Maud Wisdom (nee Targett), who married in Marylebone in 1912. His father was a chauffeur and his mother a dressmaker. After a difficult and poverty-stricken childhood he joined the 10th Hussars and began to develop his talents as a musician and stage entertainer. Wisdom’s mother left when he was nine, and he and his brother were left in the charge of their father. Wisdom ran away from home when he was 11, but returned to become an errand boy with a grocery store on leaving school at 13. Later he was a coal-miner, a waiter, a pageboy and a cabin-boy, before joining the army and seeing service in India. Leaving in 1946, he made his debut as an entertainer at the advanced age of 31 - but his rise to the top was phenomenally fast. A West End star within two years, he made his TV debut the same year and was soon commanding enormous audiences. By this time, he had adopted the suit that would remain his trademark - tweed cap askew with peak turned up, too-tight jacket, barely-better trousers, crumpled collar and tie awry. The character known as "the Gump" was to dominate Wisdom's film career.
Film career
Wisdom made a series of low-budget star-vehicle comedies for the Rank Organisation, beginning with Trouble in Store in 1953. Their cheerful, unpretentious appeal make them the direct descendants of the films made a generation earlier by George Formby. Never highly thought of by the critics, they were very popular with domestic audiences, and in some unlikely overseas markets, helping Rank stay afloat financially when their more expensive film projects were unsuccessful.
The films usually involved the Gump character in some manual occupation, in which he is barely competent, and in a junior position to a "straight man" superior, often played by Edward Chapman. They benefited from Wisdom's capacity for physical slapstick comedy and his skill at creating a sense of the character's helplessness. The series often contained a romantic subplot; the Gump's inevitable awkwardness with women is a characteristic shared with the earlier Formby vehicles.
By the mid-1960s, despite a move to filming in colour, Wisdom's commercial appeal was in eclipse. The obvious incongruity of a fifty-year old man playing the Prime Minister's grandson in Press for Time (1966) counted against him - though Wisdom's age was inaccurately reported for many years.
Later career
In 1966, Wisdom went to America to star on Broadway in the James Van Heusen-Sammy Cahn musical comedy Walking Happy. His highly-acclaimed performance was Tony nominated. He also completed his first American film as a vaudeville comic in The Night They Raided Minsky's. Any opportunities which might have opened up by this Stateside success were cut short when he had to return to London owing to a family crisis. His subsequent career was largely confined to television and he toured the world with his successful cabaret act.
He won critical acclaim in 1981 for his dramatic role of a dying cancer patient in the play Going Gently. On 11 February, 1987 Norman Wisdom was the subject of Thames Television's This Is Your Life for the second time.
He became prominent again in the 1990s, helped by the young comedian Lee Evans, whose act was heavily influenced by Wisdom's work. The highpoint of this new popularity was the knighthood he received in 1999 from Queen Elizabeth II. Also in the 1990s he appeared in the recurring role of Billy Ingleton in the long-running BBC comedy Last Of The Summer Wine. The role was originally a one-off appearance, but proved so popular that he returned as the character on a number of occasions.
In 2004 he made a cameo appearance in Coronation Street playing fitness fanatic pensioner Ernie Crabbe.
After he was knighted, true to his accident-prone persona, he couldn't resist pretending to trip off the platform on his way out.
A "Norman Wisdom moment"
On 25 January, 2006, Nick Flynn, a visitor at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, destroyed three Qing Dynasty Chinese porcelain vases worth approximately £500,000. He claimed to have tripped over his own shoelaces and called the accident a "Norman Wisdom moment" (that is, a moment of extreme clumsiness), although he was later arrested under suspicion of causing criminal damage.
Popularity in Albania
Norman Wisdom is a well-known and loved cult film icon in Albania and was the only Western actor whose films were allowed in the country during the Communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha. Tony Hawks uses this fact to much comic effect in his book and TV series One Hit Wonderland where the two unite, along with Sir Tim Rice to release a single Big In Albania in an attempt to enter the Albanian pop charts. He is known as "Mr. Pitkin" in Albania, after the character he played in his films.
The archetypal Wisdom plot where the common working man gets the better of his bosses was considered ideologically sound by Hoxha. In 1995, he visited the post-Stalinist country, where to his surprise he was greeted by many appreciative fans including the then-president of Albania, Sali Berisha. His fondness for Brighton & Hove Albion is renowned in Albania and consequently there are many 'Seagulls' fans in Albania.
On a visit in 2001 which coincided with the England football team playing Albania in Tirana, his presence at the training ground even eclipsed that of David Beckham.[1]
Retirement
Wisdom announced his retirement from the entertainment industry on his ninetieth birthday, 4 February, 2005. He intends to spend his retirement spending more time with his family, playing golf and driving around the Isle of Man, where he lives; his next door neighbour is actor John Rhys-Davies.
In mid-2006 Wisdom was admitted to hospital after he suffered an irregular heart rhythm. He was in hospital in Liverpool for a few days after he was fitted with a heart pacemaker to steady his heartbeat.[2]
In 2007 he made his return to acting in the independent movie Expresso, shot in January 2007 but premiering at the Cannes Film Festival on the 27 May, 2007. In the film which will raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support and features Dame Judi Dench, Wisdom plays a vicar plagued by a fly in a cafe. The film's producer Nigel Martin Davey gave him only a visual role so he would not have to remember any lines, but on the day Wisdom was alert and had his performance changed to add more laughs.[3]
In August 2007, newcastle's Evening Chronicle reported that Sir Norman was in a nursing home. On release of Espresso to DVD in the same month, BBC News confirmed that Wisdom lives in a care home, due to his suffering from vascular dementia.[3]
Trivia
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (June 2007) |
- He is a supporter and a former board member of Brighton and Hove Albion F.C.
- In 1998, a newly discovered asteroid was named 17826 Normanwisdom (sic) in his honour.
- He is referenced in the lyrics to the song "Things that Dreams Are Made of" by the Human League (from their recording Dare).
- He claimed that his left leg is half an inch (1.25 cm) shorter than his right.
- Member of the Grand Order of Water Rats
- Communicates with his fans on his profile on imdb.com
- Considered a cultural icon in Albania
- On 1st May, 2005 Norman unveiled a statue of the Cheeky Chappie, Max Miller, in Brighton.
- In 2007 A Norman Wisdom themed bar opened at the Sefton Hotel, Douglas, Isle of Man called Sir Norman's. It has many pictures of all his films on the walls and TV screens showing some of his old films.
- Norman starred in a music video in 2005 for a Manx girl group called the Twisted Angels, the video was for their single called LA.
- There is a bronze statue of Norman on a bench outside Douglas Town Hall, Ridgeway Street, Isle of Man
Filmography
- 1948: A Date with a Dream
- 1948-50: Wit and Wisdom (TV)
- 1953: Trouble in Store
- 1954: One Good Turn
- 1955: As Long as They're Happy
- 1955: Man of the Moment
- 1956: Up in the World
- 1957: Just My Luck
- 1958: The Square Peg
- 1959: Follow a Star
- 1960: There Was a Crooked Man
- 1960: The Bulldog Breed
- 1962: On the Beat
- 1962: The Girl on the Boat
- 1963: A Stitch in Time
- 1965: The Early Bird
- 1966: The Sandwich Man
- 1966: Press for Time
- 1967: Androcles and the Lion (TV)
- 1968: The Night They Raided Minsky's (The Night They Invented Striptease)
- 1969: What's Good for the Goose (Girl Trouble)
- 1970: Norman (TV)
- 1970: Music Hall (TV)
- 1973: Nobody Is Norman Wisdom (TV)
- 1974: A Little Bit of Wisdom (TV)
- 1981: BBC PlayHouse: Going Gently (TV)
- 1983: BBC Bergerac: "Almost Like a Holiday"(TV)
- 1988: The 1950s: Music, Memories & Milestones (TV)
- 1992: Double X: The Name of the Game (Double X, Run Rabbit Run)
- 1995: Last of the Summer Wine (TV): episode "The Man Who Nearly Knew Pavarotti"
- 1996: Last of the Summer Wine (TV): episode "Extra, Extra!"
- 1998: Where on Earth Is ... Katy Manning (TV)
- 2000: Last of the Summer Wine (TV): episode "The Coming of the Beast"
- 2002: Last of the Summer Wine (TV): episode "A Musical Passing for a Miserable Muscroft"
- 2002: Dalziel and Pascoe (TV): episode "Mens Sana"
- 2004: Coronation Street (TV)
- 2004: Last of the Summer Wine (TV): episode "Variations on a Theme of the Widow Winstanley"
CDs and vinyl
- I Would Like to Put on Record
- Jingle Jangle
- The Very Best of Norman Wisdom
- Androcles and the Lion
- Where's Charley?
- Wisdom of a Fool
- Nobody's Fool
- Follow a Star
- 1957 Original Chart Hits
- Follow a Star/Give Me a Night in June
- Happy Ending/The Wisdom Of A Fool
- Big in Albania - One Hit Wonderland
Books
- Lucky Little Devil: Norman Wisdom on the Island He's Made His Home (2004)
- My Turn: Autobiography (2002)
- Don't Laugh At Me / Cos I'm a Fool (1992) (two volumes of autobiography)
- Trouble in Store (1991)
Norman also played a big part in the Tony Hawks book, One Hit Wonderland. Tony and Norman had a top twenty hit in Albania in 2002 with a song called "Big in Albania" written by Hawks and Oscar-winning lyricist Tim Rice.
References
- ^ Clown Prince of Albania - BBC website
- ^ "BBC report on fitting of pacemaker". Retrieved 2007-08-12.
- ^ a b Sir Norman's swansong is released BBC News - 27 August, 2007