Who is Arthur Mullard?

Arthur Mullard

Arthur Mullard was an English actor and singer.
Mullard was born in a humble background in Islington, London. He started work at the age of 14 as a butcher's assistant, and joined the Army at 18. It was there that he began boxing, becoming champion of his regiment. When he left the army after three years, he had a short stint at boxing professionally. This ended after 20 fights over three years, following a knock-out from which he lost his memory.
Following the end of the Second World War in 1945, Mullard sought work as a stuntman at Pinewood and Ealing film studios, from which he drifted into uncredited bit-parts in British films such as Oliver Twist (1948), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955).

Mullard's face and cockney accent lent itself to a certain character, and he graduated to more visible roles in comedy films and on television. It was on television that Mullard made a name for himself, first as a straight man for Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd and Benny Hill, then in The Arthur Askey Show. It was the London Weekend Television series Romany Jones, first aired in 1973, which give Mullard his highest profile, playing Wally Briggs, a crafty caravan-dweller.
So popular was Mullard's character that a sequel, Yus, My Dear, was broadcast in 1976, in which Wally and his wife Lily (Queenie Watts) had moved out of their caravan into a council house. The series gained modest ratings, though it later gained a reputation as one of the worst sitcoms ever made.

Mullard (or "Arfur" as he was known) was regularly a guest in other programmes and television commercials. He and Watts also appeared as a married couple in the film Holiday on the Buses (1973), the last feature-length version of the popular On the Buses comedy series of the time.
Mullard also appeared in Ladies Who Do (1963), Morgan! (1966), The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), and Adventures of a Plumber's Mate (1978). In 1986, invited by producer Victor Lewis-Smith, Mullard hosted an edition of Midweek on BBC Radio 4 to replace regular host Libby Purves during her absence; the resulting programme was a unique hour of radio.

In 1967, Mullard recorded "I Love You, You Love Me"/"Was It Something I Said" on the Masquerade label. This was followed the same year by an album Arthur Mullard of London. The LP included Mullard's cover of the Beatles' "Yesterday", jokes and philosophy. More singles followed in the 1970s, including 1974's "Not Now Arthur"/"If I Only Had My Time Again", and in 1975 "I Only Have Eyes for You"/"One 'Fing 'N' Annuver" with "Yus My Dear"/"Arthur" released in 1976.
He entered the UK Singles Chart in 1978 with "You're the One That I Want" (from the film, Grease) with Hylda Baker, who was in her seventies. The single was taken from the album, Band On The Trot.

The single was the last professional success of Mullard's life; there followed an uncredited narration
His wife Florence died of an overdose of sleeping tablets in 1961 after suffering from poor health. Mullard continued to live in a council house in Islington after his success, and spent much of his free time in local pubs. He died in his sleep on 11 December 1995, aged 85.
In a newspaper interview after his death, Mullard's daughter, Barbara, claimed he was a pedophile that had sexually abused her for years and had driven her mother to suicide.
on the Glenn Close-led live action 101 Dalmatians, released in 1996 after his death.

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