Who is Charles Hawtrey?

Who is Charles Hawtrey?

George Frederick Joffre Hartree (30 November 1914 – 27 October 1988), known as Charles Hawtrey, was an English comedy actor and musician.

Beginning at a young age as a boy soprano, he made several records before moving on to the radio. His later career encompassed the theatre (as both actor and director), the cinema (where he regularly appeared supporting Will Hay in the 1930s and '40s in films such as The Ghost of St. Michael's), through the Carry On films, and television.

Born in Hounslow, Middlesex, England in 1914, to William John Hartree and his wife Alice Hartree née Crow as George Frederick Joffre Hartree, he took his stage name from the theatrical knight, Sir Charles Hawtrey, and encouraged the suggestion that he was his son. However, his father was actually a London car mechanic.

Following study at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London, he embarked on a career in the theatre as both actor and director.

By the 1940s, Hawtrey was appearing on radio during Children's Hour in the Norman and Henry Bones, the Boy Detectives series alongside the actress Patricia Hayes (first broadcast in 1943). Later he also played the voice of snooty Hubert Lane, the nemesis of William in the Just William series. His catchphrase was "How's yer mother off for dripping?" Hawtrey's film career continued, but The Ghost of St. Michael's (1941) and The Goose Steps Out (1942) were his last films with Will Hay. After the latter film he asked Hay to give him a bigger role, which Hay refused.

Hawtrey also took a hand at directing films himself, including What Do We Do Now? (1945) a musical-mystery written by the English author George Cooper, and starring George Moon. Around the same time, Hawtrey directed the British actress Dame Flora Robson in Dumb Dora Discovers Tobacco (1946). Both films are believed lost.

In Our House (1960–62), Hawtrey played the character of council official Simon Willow. The series was created by Norman Hudis, the screenwriter for the first six Carry On films. In the opening episode ('Moving into Our House') two couples and five individuals meet at an estate agent's and realise that if they pool their resources they can buy a house big enough to accommodate them all. Hattie Jacques as librarian Georgina Ruddy, who was forced to keep quiet at work and so made up for it by being extremely noisy at home, was arguably the star of the series. Joan Sims starred as the unemployable Daisy Burke.

The series initially ran for 13 episodes from September to December 1960, returning the following year with Bernard Bresslaw and Hylda Baker as Henrietta added to the cast. Of the 39 episodes transmitted, only three survive today

By this time, he had become a regular participant in the Carry On films series. Hawtrey was in the first entry, Carry On Sergeant (1958), and more than 20 of the subsequent films. Hawtrey's characters ranged from the wimpish through the effete to the effeminate.

His last film was Carry On Abroad (1972), after which he was dropped from the series. The last straw occurred in 1972 when, in a bid to finally gain higher billing, Hawtrey withdrew from a Carry On Christmas television programme in which he was scheduled to appear, giving just a few days' notice for his absence and despite appearing in promotional material. After this, producer Peter Rogers stopped using him for Carry On roles. Rogers explained: "He became rather difficult and impossible to deal with because he was drinking a lot. We used to feed him black coffee before he would go on. It really became that we were wasting time." Hawtrey's alcohol consumption had noticeably increased since Carry On Cowboy (1965), which was released in the year his mother died.

On the 24th of October 1988 Hawtrey collapsed in the doorway of the Royal hotel in Deal.He shattered his femur and was rushed in an ambulance to the Buckland hospital in Dover. He was discovered to be suffering from peripheral vascular disease, a condition of the arteries brought on by a lifetime of heavy smoking. Hawtrey was told that to save his life, his legs would have to be amputated. He refused, allegedly saying he preferred to die with his boots on, and died later in the month, aged 73, in a Walmer, Kent nursing home, near Deal. On his deathbed, Hawtrey supposedly threw a vase at his nurse who asked for an autograph[19] – it was the last thing he did. His ashes were scattered in Mortlake Crematorium, close to Chiswick in London; no friends or family attended.

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