Who Is Sid James?

Who Is Sid James?

Sid James (born Solomon Joel Cohen; 8 May 1913 – 26 April 1976) was a South African-born English actor and comedian.

Appearing in British films from 1947, he was cast in numerous small and supporting roles into the 1960s. His profile was raised as Tony Hancock's co-star in Hancock's Half Hour, which ran on television from 1956 until 1960, and then he became known as a regular performer in the Carry On films, appearing in 19 films of the series with the top billing role in 17, in the other two he was cast below Frankie Howerd. Meanwhile, his starring roles in television sitcoms continued for the rest of his life. He starred alongside Diana Coupland in the 1970s sitcom Bless This House which aired from 1971 until James died in 1976.

In 1954, he had begun working with Tony Hancock in his BBC Radio series Hancock's Half Hour. Having seen him in The Lavender Hill Mob, it was the idea of Hancock's writers, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, to cast James. He played a character with his own name (but having the invented middle name Balmoral), who was a petty criminal who would usually manage to con Hancock, although the character eventually ceased to be Hancock's adversary. With the exception of James, the other regular cast members of the radio series were dropped when the series made the transition to television. His part in the show now greatly increased, many viewers considered Hancock and James to be a double act.

Feeling the format had become exhausted, Hancock decided to end his professional relationship with James at the end of the sixth television series in 1960. Although the two men remained friends, James was upset at his colleague's decision. Galton and Simpson continued to write for both men for a while, and the Sidney Balmoral James character resurfaced in the Citizen James (1960–62) series. Sid James was now consistently taking the lead role in his television work. Taxi! (1963–64) was his next series.

James became a leading member of the Carry On films team, originally to replace Ted Ray who had appeared in Carry On Teacher (1959). It was intended that Ray would become a recurring presence in the Carry On series, but he had been dropped after just one film because of contractual problems. James ultimately made 19 Carry On films, receiving top-billing in 17, making him one of the most featured performers of the regular cast.

The characters he portrayed in the films were usually very similar to the wise-cracking, sly, lecherous Cockney he was famed for playing on television, and in most cases bore the name Sid or Sidney, including Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond in Carry On... Up the Khyber (1968) and elsewhere in his credits. His trademark "dirty laugh" was often used and became, along with a world-weary "Cor, blimey!", his catchphrase.

There were Carry On films in which James played characters who were not called Sid or Sidney, namely, Carry On Henry (1971, a parody of The Six Wives of Henry VIII TV series) and Carry On Dick, a parody of legendary highwayman Dick Turpin, in both of which he played the title roles, and Carry On Cleo, in which he played Mark Antony. In Carry On Cowboy, he even adopted an American accent for his part as "The Rumpo Kid".

In 1967, James was intending to play Sergeant Nocker in Follow That Camel, but was already committed to recording the TV series George and the Dragon (1966–68) for ATV, then one of the ITV contractors. James was replaced in Follow That Camel by the American comic actor Phil Silvers. On 13 May 1967, two weeks after the filming began of what eventually became an entry in the Carry On series, James suffered a severe heart attack. In the same year in Carry On Doctor. James was shown mainly lying in a hospital bed, owing to his real-life health problems. After his heart attack James gave up his heavy cigarette habit and instead smoked a pipe with an occasional cigar; he lost weight, ate only one main meal a day, and limited himself to two or three alcoholic drinks per evening.

Meanwhile his success in TV situation comedy continued with the series Two in Clover (1969–70), and Bless This House (1971-76) as Sid Abbott, a successful enough series in its day to spawn its own film version in 1972.

On 26 April 1976, while on a revival tour of The Mating Season, a 1969 farce by the Irish playwright Sam Cree, James suffered a heart attack on stage at the Sunderland Empire Theatre. Actress Olga Lowe thought that James was playing a practical joke at first when he failed to reply to her dialogue. The technical manager called for the curtain to close and requested a doctor, while the audience laughed, believing the events to be part of the show. He was taken to hospital by ambulance, but died about an hour later. James, aged 62, was cremated and his ashes were scattered at Golders Green Crematorium.

Some, including Comedian Les Dawson claim to have seen the ghost of James at the theatre.

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