CAUSE: In February 1992 Benny was admitted to the Cromwell Hospital after suffering a minor heart attack. The situation was exacerbated because in 1976 he had had a kidney removed and the remaining one began to create water which settled on his chest making breathing difficult. On March 8 he was readmitted after suffering a panic attack. He was released five days later and went home to 7 Fairwater House, Twickenham Road, Teddington, Middlesex. (Benny Hill moved from his long-term residence, 2 Queensgate, when the rent went up.) It was there that he was discovered sitting on the settee in front of his two televisions and two videos. He had died of a heart attack probably on April 18. He was 68. He was buried in Southampton next to his parents. He left £7,548,192, and no will.
FURTHER READING: The Benny Hill Story – John Smith (London: W.H. Allen, 1988); Saucy Boy: The Revealing Life Story Of Benny Hill – Leonard Hill (London: Grafton, 1992); Benny: The True Story By His Best Friend – Dennis Kirkland with Hilary Bonner (London: Smith Gryphon, 1992); The Benny Hill Story – Margaret Forwood (London: Robson Books, 1992); Star Turns: The Life And Times Of Benny Hill & Frankie Howerd – Barry Took (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1992); Funny Peculiar: The True Story Of Benny Hill – Mark Lewisohn (London: Pan, 2003).
Dame Wendy Hiller
Born August 15, 1912
Died May 14, 2003
Theatrical dame. Wendy Margaret Hiller was born in Bramhall, Cheshire, the daughter of Frank Watkin Hiller, a Manchester cotton manufacturer, and Marie Elizabeth Stone. She was sent to Winceby House School in Bexhill, Sussex, to rid her of her Mancunian accent. The reason for the elocution was not to aid a stage career but because it was thought that a regional accent would count against her chances of marrying. In fact she married a northern research chemist and schoolmaster, Ronald Gow (b. Heaton Moor, November 1, 1897, d. April 27, 1993) by whom she had a son and a daughter, who had written Love On The Dole, the 1934 play about the Depression which brought her sudden fame as Sarah Hardcastle. Her work was seen by George Bernard Shaw who, in July 1936, invited her to perform in two of his plays at the Malvern Festival, Pygmalion (as Eliza Doolittle) and Saint Joan (in the title role). She gained a reputation by appearing in Shavian plays and films, in Ibsen, and in modern adaptations (some by her husband) of novels by Walter Greenwood, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, and others. She made her movie début in Lancashire Luck (1937) playing Betty Lovejoy. Her second film was Pygmalion (1938) for which she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar (losing out to Bette Davis in Jezebel). Her other films included: Sons And Lovers (1960), Alice More in A Man For All Seasons (1966) for which she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar (she was beaten by Sandy Dennis for Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? but collected Paul Scofield’s Best Actor Oscar for him), Murder On The Orient Express (1974) as the Countess, David Lynch’s The Elephant Man (1980), with John Hurt, and The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne (1987). She won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in Terence Rattigan’s Separate Tables (1958) although she was not present at the ceremony on April 6, 1959 and the producer Harold Hecht collected the gong. She later said, “All you could see of me in the picture was the back of my head. Unless they give some award for acting with one’s back to the camera, I don’t see how I could have won. They cut my two best scenes and they gave one to Rita Hayworth … I am sure the honour is very nice. I hope this award means cash – hard cash. I want lots of lovely offers to go filming in Hollywood, preferably so I can avoid all the horrid cold [in England].” She was appointed OBE in 1971 and DBE in 1975. Asked by Sheridan Morley how she wanted to be remembered, if at all, she said, “Oh, I think a little posterity must always be nice. After I’m dead I’ll probably be a cult and they’ll have entire seasons of me at the National Film Theatre. Thank God I won’t have to watch them all.”
CAUSE: She spent much of the last decade of her life as an invalid cared for by her children. She died in Beaconsfeld, Buckinghamshire.
Dame Thora Hird
Born May 28, 1911
Died March 15, 2003
Grande dame. Born in Morecambe, Lancashire, the daughter of James Henry Hird the manager of the Royalty Theatre, Morecambe, where she began her career in 1931, and Mary Jane Mayor. She appeared in rep until making her London début in 1944. Best known in her later years for her work on religious programmes, sitcoms (Last Of The Summer Wine, etc) and with Alan Bennett, she appeared in several films. She made her début in The Big Blockade (1940) playing a German barmaid and went on to appear in 48 Hours (1942) as Ivy Dawking, The Weaker Sex (1948) as Mrs Gaye, The Entertainer (1960) as Ada Lapford, A Kind Of Loving (1962) as Mrs Rothwell, Term Of Trial (1962) as Mrs Taylor, Rattle Of A Simple Man (1964) as Mrs Winthram and The Nightcomers (1972) as Mrs Grose. In 1988 she won a Best TV Actress BAFTA as Doris for Alan Bennett’s monologue in A Cream Cracker Under The Settee (1987). On May 3, 1937, she married the musician James ‘Scottie’ Scott (d. 1994) by whom she had one daughter Janette (who was engaged to Sir David Frost and married Mel Tormé). She was made OBE in 1983 and created DBE ten years later.
CAUSE: She died aged 91 in Brinsworth House, Twickenham, Middlesex, following a stroke.
Alfred Hitchcock
Born August 13, 1899
Died April 29, 1980
Nightmare creator. Born at 517 Leytonstone High Road, east London, the second son and youngest of three children, Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was educated at St Ignatius College, Stamford Hill, London, (from October 5, 1910, until July 25, 1913) and this Jesuitical upbringing undoubtedly influenced much of his outlook on life. When Hitchcock was five his father (who died on December 12, 1914) arranged to have him locked up in a police station for ten minutes as a punishment for being naughty. Hitch joined the Islington Film Studios in November 1920 and five years later directed his first film, The Pleasure Garden (1925). His interest in matters criminal developed as a boy, when he was in the habit of attending trials at the Old Bailey. He used this background and his knowledge of Jack the Ripper to make his first thriller, The Lodger (1926). It was also the first time he took a cameo part in a movie, a quirk that he was to maintain throughout his film-making career. Three years later, he showed the first signs of the talent and promise that would arrive in later years when he made Blackmail (1929). In the Thirties Hitchcock became the master of the suspense thriller. He found great satisfaction in carefully crafting each film and really thought the actual execution to be a bore. His famous comment “Actors should be treated like cattle” only meant that they were there to bring to life his vision and for no other reason. His success in films such as The 39 Steps (1935) and Sabotage (1936) inevitably meant that Hollywood came a-calling and in 1939 he set off for Tinseltown, where he directed Rebecca (1940). It won a Best Film Oscar. Hitchcock made his life in Hollywood although he didn’t renounce British citizenship until April 20, 1955. From the mid-Forties Hitchcock’s name became a by-word for well-crafted suspense-laden movies. He made a string of memorable thrillers, including Spellbound (1945), Dial M For Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), To Catch A Thief (1955) North By Northwest (1959) and The Birds (1963). In the latter, the creatures that follow the children have no shadows. This was because they were painted on to the celluloid after the scene was shot. One scene in the film nearly resulted in female lead Tippi Hedren losing an eye. She was placed in a small room (her attic on film) and numerous birds were tied to her so they could not fly away. They then began to peck as she flapped her arms to shush them away though, of course, the cords prevented them from escaping. “Finally, one gull decided to perch on my eyelid,” Hedren recalled, “producing a deep gash and just missing my eyeball. I became hysterical.” As a result of the incident, Hedren collapsed and shooting was abandoned for a week to allow her to recover. This period also saw the production of Marnie (1964), Torn Curtain (1966) and Frenzy (1971), films for which Hitchcock is rightly revered. His most famous feature is probably Psycho (1960), the story of the mother-fixated Norman Bates, proprietor of the Bates Motel. It is claimed by amate
ur film psychologists that Hitchcock had a fascination for glacial blondes such as Grace Kelly and Tippi Hedren but because he believed they would never be physically interested in him, he sought to ‘punish’ them, exacting his revenge by having dastardly things happen to them in his films. A notorious practical joker, some of his japes definitely went a little too far. One revolved around a rather brash cameraman who boasted he could stay alone in the studio all night and not be afraid. Hitchcock heard about it and bet the man he would not stay. The wager was made and Hitchcock arranged for the man to be handcuffed to a camera just before the studio was locked for the night. As he was leaving, Hitchcock handed the man a bottle of brandy to keep his spirits up. Unbeknownst to this latest victim of a Hitchcockian jape, the bottle was laced with a very strong laxative. When the unfortunate man was discovered in the morning he was in tears, as he had badly despoiled himself. On December 2, 1926, Hitchcock married Alma Reville (b. 69 Caroline Street, Nottingham, August 14, 1899, d. 1982) and they had one daughter, actress Patricia (b. 153 Cromwell Road, London, July 7, 1928). By the time he was 40 years old Hitchcock had decided to become celibate, although that decision may have been caused by his diabetes. He was created an honorary KBE in the 1980 New Year’s Honours List. The devoutly Catholic Hitchcock donated £20,000 for a chapel to be built at the Jesuit school of the present author. The gift was kept a secret until after his death.
CAUSE: He died at 9.17am in Beverly Hills, California, of an enlarged heart and liver and kidney failure.
FURTHER READING: Hitch: The Life And Work Of Alfred Hitchcock – John Russell Taylor (London: Faber & Faber, 1978); The Art Of Alfred Hitchcock – Donald Spoto (New York: Dolphin, 1979); The Dark Side Of Genius: The Life Of Alfred Hitchcock – Donald Spoto (New York: Ballantine, 1983).
Valerie Hobson
Born April 14, 1917
Died November 13, 1998
Faithful wife. Born in Larne, County Antrim, Ireland, the daughter of a Royal Navy captain, Valerie Babette Louise Hobson seemed destined for the stage from the age of two when she would wrap herself in a towel and pretend to be the Queen of Sheba. She began to learn ballet aged five but fell victim to scarlet fever, necessitating a lengthy spell of convalescence. When she got out of bed again she was too tall for ballet. She was educated at RADA and became a stalwart of the British and Hollywood cinema, appearing in Two Hearts In Waltz Time (1934) as Susie, Oh, What A Night (1935) as Susan, Chinatown Squad (1935) as Janet Baker, The Mystery Of Edwin Drood (1935) as Helena Landless, Bride Of Frankenstein (1935) as Elizabeth Frankenstein, Werewolf Of London as Lisa Glendon, No Escape as Laura Anstey, When Thief Meets Thief (1937) as Glory Fane, The Drum (1938) as Mrs Carruthers, Q Planes (1939) as Kay Lawrence, Sabotage Agent (1943) as Maruschka Brunn, Great Expectations (1946), Blanche Fury (1947) as Blanche Fury, Kind Hearts And Coronets (1949) as Edith, Meet Me Tonight (1952) as Stella Cartwright, The Card (1952) as Countess of Chell, Background (1953) as Barbie Lomax and Monsieur Ripois (1954) as Catherine. “I’ve thought this out carefully, why I went on the stage. Why I needed an audience. I was a very plain, wishy-washy child. Large, wistful eyes. A real gumdrop. Awful. My sister was exquisite. She could never believe this pasty-faced mouse was her sister. Everybody called me Monkey.” In 1954 she appeared in The King & I at Drury Lane. That year she retired from acting to marry (on December 31) rising Conservative politician John Profumo. (She had previously been married to Anthony Havelock-Allan by whom she had two sons, Simon and Mark. Simon had been born severely mentally disabled and was put in a home, where he died.) It seemed as if Profumo might be destined for Number 10 … then it all came crashing down. On July 8, 1961, Profumo, by then War Minister, met good-time girl Christine Keeler at the swimming pool at Cliveden, home of Lord Astor. (She was naked at the time and Valerie Hobson handed her a towel to cover her modesty.) After that initial meeting, ‘Jack’ Profumo regularly enjoyed Keeler’s favours, a generosity she also shared with Soviet naval attaché Evgeny Ivanov, with obvious implications for national security. The rumours of Profumo’s affair with Keeler came to the ears of Labour MP Colonel George Wigg, who raised the matter under parliamentary privilege during a debate on the Vassall enquiry in which two journalists had been imprisoned for refusing to reveal their sources. The Home Secretary Henry Brooke refused to comment and criticised Labour for even raising the matter. Nonetheless, Profumo was roused from his Regents Park bed – the one he had once shared with Christine Keeler – and questioned by senior Tories over the allegations. Told that nothing less than a personal statement would satisfy his critics, Profumo stood at the Dispatch Box shortly after 11am on March 22, 1963, and, flanked by Harold Macmillan, Iain Macleod, R.A. Butler and the Attorney-General, blatantly lied to the House of Commons. Before a hushed House (it is Commons procedure that a member is not questioned or interrupted during a personal statement) Profumo denied any “impropriety whatsoever in my acquaintance with Miss Keeler”. The lie was to destroy not only Profumo’s political career and reputation but also help bring about the fall of the Tory government in the 1964 General Election. On June 4, 1963, Profumo resigned from the government and entered a life of charity working for the dregs of society in Toynbee Hall. Valerie Hobson publicly stood by her husband to the end.
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 92
