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thumb|upright=1.35|Terry-Thomas in [[Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968)]]
Terry-Thomas (born Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens; 10 July 1911 – 8 January 1990) was an English character actor and comedian who became internationally known through his films during the 1950s and 1960s. He often portrayed disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads, toffs and bounders, using his distinctive voice; his costume and props tended to include a monocle, waistcoat and cigarette holder. His striking dress sense was set off by a gap between his two upper front teeth.
Born in London, Terry-Thomas made his film debut, uncredited, in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). He spent several years appearing in smaller roles, before wartime service with Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) and Stars in Battledress. The experience helped sharpen his cabaret and revue act, increased his public profile and proved instrumental in the development of his successful comic stage routine. On his demobilisation, he starred in Piccadilly Hayride on the London stage and was the star of the first comedy series on British television, How Do You View? (1949). He appeared on various BBC Radio shows, and made a successful transition into British films. His most creative period was the 1950s when he appeared in Private's Progress (1956), The Green Man (1956), Blue Murder at St Trinian's (1957), I'm All Right Jack (1959) and Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959).
From the early 1960s Terry-Thomas began appearing in American films, coarsening his already unsubtle screen character in films such as Bachelor Flat (1962), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and How to Murder Your Wife (1965). From the mid-1960s on he also frequently starred in European films, in roles such as Sir Reginald in the successful French film La Grande Vadrouille.
In 1971 Terry-Thomas was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which slowly brought his career to a conclusion; his last film role was in 1980. He spent much of his fortune on medical treatment and, shortly before his death, was living in poverty, existing on charity from the Actors' Benevolent Fund. In 1989 a charity gala was held in his honour, which raised sufficient funds for him to spend the final months of his life in a nursing home.
Biography
Early life: 1911–1933
thumb|right|upright=1.2|[[Ardingly College, where Terry-Thomas engaged in amateur dramatics.]]
Terry-Thomas was born Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens at 53 Lichfield Grove, Finchley, North London. He was the fourth of five children born to Ernest Frederick Stevens, managing director of a butcher's business at Smithfield Market and part-time amateur actor, and his wife Ellen Elizabeth Stevens (née Hoar). As a child, Terry-Thomas was often referred to as Tom, the diminutive used by his family. He led a generally happy childhood, but believed his parents secretly desired a daughter in his place. By the time he reached adolescence, his parents' marriage had failed and both had become alcoholics. In an attempt to bring them together, he often entertained them by performing impromptu slapstick routines, reciting jokes and singing and dancing around the family home. The performances seldom worked, and his father became increasingly distant from his family.
In 1921 Terry-Thomas began to nurture his distinctive, well-spoken voice, reasoning that "using good speech automatically suggested that you were well-educated and made people look up to you". He used the speech of the actor Owen Nares as a basis for his own delivery. Terry-Thomas became fascinated by the stage, and regularly attended the Golders Green Hippodrome to see the latest shows. It was there that he developed an interest in fashion, and adopted the debonair dress-sense of his hero Douglas Fairbanks. Terry-Thomas attended Fernbank School in Hendon Lane, Finchley, which was a welcome escape from the stresses of his parents' break-up. When he was 13, he transferred to Ardingly College, a public school in Sussex. He excelled in Latin and geography, and briefly took up drama. The latter subject later led to his expulsion from the school, after his frequent and inappropriate use of ad lib during lessons. He also took up a position in the school jazz band, first playing the ukulele and then percussion. He also often performed comedy dance routines to the band's music.
thumb|left|upright|[[Erich von Stroheim, on whom Terry-Thomas based his early look.]]
Terry-Thomas enjoyed his time at Ardingly, and relished his association with upper middle class school friends. His academic abilities were modest, and he came to the notice of staff only through his frequent tomfoolery. Although he initially felt intimidated by his school surroundings, his confidence grew as he put on "a bold, undiluted and sustained show of chutzpah", according to his biographer, Graham McCann. On his return home to Finchley in 1927, his more mature manner impressed the family's housekeeper Kate Dixon, who seduced him at the family home. He stayed at Ardingly for one more term and returned home to London, but made no plans to further his education or start long-term work. Instead, he accepted a temporary position at Smithfield Market, where he earned 15 shillings a week as a junior transport clerk for the Union Cold Storage Company.
By his own admission, he never stopped "farting around" and often kept his colleagues entertained with impersonations of the Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Erich von Stroheim. He invented various characters, including Colonel Featherstonehaugh-Bumleigh and Cora Chessington-Crabbe, and frequently recited comic stories involving them to his colleagues. His characterisations soon came to the notice of the company's management who prompted him to enrol in the company's amateur drama club. He made his début with the drama company as Lord Trench in The Dover Road which was staged at the Fortune Theatre, London. The production was popular with audiences, and he subsequently became a regular performer in amateur productions.
Terry-Thomas made his professional stage début on 11 April 1930 at a social evening organised by the Union of Electric Railwaymen's Dining Club in South Kensington. He was billed as Thos Stevens, but only appeared as a minor turn. His performance brought heckles from the drunken audience, but earned him a commission of 30 shillings. After this, he played a few minor roles in Gilbert and Sullivan productions by the Edgware Operatic Society at the Scala Theatre. In 1933, he left Smithfield Market to work briefly with a friend at an electrical shop before he became a travelling salesman of electrical equipment. He enjoyed the job and relished being able to dress up in elaborate clothing in order to make his pitch. In his spare time, he began playing the ukulele with a local jazz band called the Rhythm Maniacs. He took up dancing and formed a partnership with a sister of Jessie Matthews. The act starred in local exhibitions and at minor venues, and they earned well from it. News soon travelled of the couple's talent, and they were engaged as ballroom dancers at a hall in Cricklewood. He found the dance-style too restrictive and he left the act to try other aspects of entertainment.
Early performances: 1933–1939
thumb|right|"Everyone was talking about the gap between my teeth, my monocle, the fancy waistcoats I wore and the seven-inch cigarette holders I used."<br />—Terry-Thomas on his unique look
By 1933 Terry-Thomas had moved out of Finchley and into a friend's flat; the friend was a film extra who introduced him to the idea of working in the industry. Terry-Thomas made his uncredited film debut in the 1933 film, The Private Life of Henry VIII, which starred Charles Laughton in the title role. Later the same year he appeared in Make Mine Mink as Major Albert Rayne, a veteran of the Second World War who forms a gang of mink coat thieves with his female co-lodgers. When he made an appearance at a screening of the film in Dalston, north-east London, he was presented with a white mink waistcoat by a local furrier.
In 1961 Terry-Thomas played Archibald Bannister in A Matter of WHO, which he described as "my first (fairly) serious role". He was joined in the film by his cousin's son Richard Briers, with Terry-Thomas noting that he provided "no nepotic help" in getting Briers the part. The film was not well received by the critics; an internal BBC memo described that in the UK the film was "murdered by the critics", although it was "something of a success" in America. By this time Terry-Thomas had decided to stop being a stand-up comedian and compere and instead concentrate solely on making films. He stopped appearing on television and radio shows of his own, declaring "it was the cinema for me and me for the cinema!" Having accumulated considerable experience by appearing in British films, he decided to try Hollywood, and moved to America.
Breaking into Hollywood: 1961–1965
Terry-Thomas spent part of 1961 in America, filming the role of Professor Bruce Patterson in Bachelor Flat—his first Hollywood role—before flying to Gibraltar to film Operation Snatch, in which he teamed up with Lionel Jeffries. By the end of 1961 Terry-Thomas was appearing on radio, such as the December broadcast of The Bing Crosby Show and in guest spots on American television shows; he was frequently the subject of US newspaper interviews. In 1962 Bachelor Flat and Operation Snatch were both released, Although he initially struggled to find the right plot of ground for the right price, he eventually settled on an appropriate location; declaring he was "allergic to architects", he designed the house himself. His former wife Pat moved to the nearby island of Mallorca, and Terry-Thomas's relationship with her became warm and friendly; Patlanski also had a firm friendship with Terry-Thomas's wife.
In between films Terry-Thomas appeared on television on both sides of the Atlantic. In the US in March–April 1967 he was in "The Five Daughters Affair", a two-part story in the TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and on 22 May he appeared on The Red Skelton Hour. On British television, in an episode of the Comedy Playhouse called "The Old Campaigner", he played James Franklin-Jones, a salesman for a plastics company who was continually searching for love affairs while travelling on business. This character was "yet another variation on his rakish cad persona", according to Mark Lewisohn. The episode was well-received, and a six-part series was commissioned that ran over December 1968 and January 1969. Although the series performed well in the ratings, a second series was not commissioned. In between the pilot and the series of The Old Campaigner, in April 1968, Terry-Thomas appeared on the British ITV network in a one-off variety special, The Big Show, which combined musical numbers and his urbane monologues. Robert Ross commented that Terry-Thomas "seemed to delight in resurrecting his vintage sophisticated patter after years in movies ... the top raconteur was back where he belonged". In 1969 he again teamed up with Eric Sykes and director Ken Annakin for a joint Italian, French and British production Monte Carlo or Bust!. The film was "the only copper-bottomed sequel to ... Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines", according to Richard Ross. Terry-Thomas played Sir Cuthbert Ware-Armitage, the "thoroughly bad egg son of flying ace Sir Percy Ware-Armitage", his role in Those Magnificent Men. Terry-Thomas secured four other roles in minor films that year, including Arthur? Arthur! (which he joked had "never been shown anywhere—as far as I know!"), as well as on television in the UK, US and Australia.
The 1970s began well for Terry-Thomas; television appearances in the UK and US were augmented by filming for The Abominable Dr. Phibes, which became what author Bruce Hallenbeck called a "camp classic", despite being described by Time Out critic David Pirie, as "the worst horror film made in England since 1945"; the film was released in 1971. On 1 August 1970 Terry-Thomas made his second appearance on Desert Island Discs; his luxury item was a case of brandy, chosen because it lasted longer than champagne.
Dealing with Parkinson's: 1971–1983
thumb|right|Terry-Thomas (right) and [[Red Skelton in The Red Skelton Show (1968)]]
While appearing in Don't Just Lie There, Say Something! at the Metro Theatre, Sydney in 1971, Terry-Thomas felt unwell and visited a doctor, who noticed his patient's left hand was shaking slightly. The doctor suggested he visit a specialist on his return to the UK, who diagnosed him with Parkinson's disease. Fearing the condition would affect offers of work, Terry-Thomas did not make the news public, but as the symptoms began to manifest themselves in tremors, a shuffling gait, stooped posture and affected speech, he made the news known—partly to stop rumours of on-set drunkenness.
Terry-Thomas continued to work as much as possible, although—as the film historian Geoff Mayer pointed out—the situation "reduced his film career to supporting roles and cameos". The lucrative voice-over role of Sir Hiss in the 1973 Walt Disney film Robin Hood was one notable part, while others were less well-known, such as The Vault of Horror, a film described by Richard Ross as a "cornball terror", in which he starred with Curd Jürgens, Tom Baker and Denholm Elliott. He also continued to appear on television shows in both the US and UK, as well as advertisements, including appearing with June Whitfield for Birds Eye fish fingers, a series of vermouth advertisements filmed in Italy, and an award-winning series for Benson & Hedges cigarettes, with Eric Sykes.
During the 1970s he starred in a series of low-budget British films, including two in 1975, Spanish Fly—called a "gruesome smutfest" by the writer Christopher Fowler—and The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones, described by the Film Review Digest as a "cheap, crude, sexed-up rehash" of the other film adaptations of Henry Fielding's source novel.
In 1977 he starred in The Last Remake of Beau Geste and The Hound of the Baskervilles, the latter starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore as Holmes and Watson; Terry-Thomas thought "it was the most outrageous film I ever appeared in ... there was no magic ... it was bad!" By then he had exhibited a decrease in bodily movement, a sign of how serious his condition had become. His distinctive voice had developed a softer tone and his posture was contorted. Between 1978 and 1980, he spent much time with medical consultants. Despite this he was offered a few engagements and was voted the most recognisable Englishman among Americans in a poll which also featured Laurence Olivier, Robert Morley and Wilfrid Hyde-White. As a result, he secured a lucrative advertising contract with the Ford Motor Company. Derek Jarman offered Terry-Thomas a role in his 1979 film The Tempest, but the actor was forced to pull out because of his deteriorating health.
Terry-Thomas undertook his final film role in 1980 in Febbre a 40!, a German-Italian co-production that was "nondescript and barely screened", according to Robert Ross, and did not even have a theatrical release in its two domestic markets.
Terry-Thomas's popularity continued after his death. In February 1999 the National Film Theatre ran a season of his films;
Filmography and other works
Notes and references
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
- Terry-Thomas at the British Film Institute
- Terry-Thomas on Pathé News