Norman Wisdom

Norman Wisdom was born in the London district of Marylebone. His parents were Frederick—a chauffeur—and Maud Wisdom (née Targett); a dressmaker who often worked for West End theatres. The couple married in Marylebone in 1912, and Wisdom's older brother Fred was born in 1913. The family resided at 91 Fernhead Road, London W9, where they slept in one room and bathed in a tin tub¹.

After a period in a children's home in Deal, Kent, Wisdom ran away when he was 11, but returned to become an errand boy with a grocery store on leaving school at 13. After this he walked (by his own account) to Cardiff, where he became a cabinboy in the Merchant Navy. He also worked as a coal-miner, waiter, and pageboy. He then enlisted as a drummer boy in the 10th Royal Hussars of the British Army and in 1930 was posted to Lucknow, India as a bandsman. There he gained an education certificate, rode horses, was the flyweight boxing champion of the British Army in India and learnt to play the trumpet and clarinet.¹ While performing a comedy boxing routine in an army gym, Wisdom discovered he had a talent for entertainment² and began to develop his talents as a musician and stage entertainer.³ Upon leaving the army he learnt to drive and worked as a private hire car driver and having improved his diction in the army he also took a job as a night telephone operator.¹

World War Two

Upon the outbreak of World War II Wisdom was sent to work in a communications centre in a command bunker in London where he connected telephone calls from war leaders to the prime minister. He met Winston Churchill on several occasions when he asked him for updates on incoming calls.¹ He then joined the Royal Corps of Signals and performed a similar function with a military unit based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. After a charity concert at the Cheltenham Town Hall, actor Rex Harrison came backstage and urged him to become a professional entertainer.⁴

Theatre

Leaving the Army in 1946, Wisdom made his debut as a professional entertainer at the age of 31, and his rise to the top was phenomenally fast. Initially the straight man to the magician David Nixon,³ he had adopted the suit that would remain his trademark; tweed flat cap askew, with peak turned up; a suit at least two sizes too tight; a crumpled collar and a mangled tie. This character known as "the Gump" was the perfect antidote to the bleak austerity of post-war Britain, and was to dominate Wisdom's film career.

A West End star within two years, he made his TV debut the same year and was soon commanding enormous audiences. Sir Charlie Chaplin called Wisdom his "favourite clown".³

Film career

Wisdom made a series of low-budget star-vehicle comedies for the Rank Organisation, beginning with Trouble in Store in 1953. This film earned him a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Film in 1954.⁵

Their cheerful, unpretentious appeal make them the direct descendants of the films made a generation earlier by George Formby. Never highly thought of by the critics, they were very popular with domestic audiences and Wisdom's films outsold Sean Connery's James Bond features from 1955 through till 1966³ and in some unlikely overseas markets, helping Rank stay afloat financially when their more expensive film projects were unsuccessful.

The films usually involved the Gump character—Norman Pitkin—in some manual occupation, in which he is barely competent and in a junior position to a straight man, often played by Edward Chapman—Mr Grimsdale. They benefited from Wisdom's capacity for physical slapstick comedy and his skill at creating a sense of the character's helplessness. The series often contained a romantic subplot; the Gump's inevitable awkwardness with women is a characteristic shared with the earlier Formby vehicles.

Despite a move to filming in colour, by the mid-1960s Wisdom's commercial film appeal was in eclipse. The obvious incongruity of a fifty-year old man playing the Prime Minister's grandson in Press for Time (1966) counted against him; though Wisdom's age was inaccurately reported for many years.

Later career

He also completed his first American film as a vaudeville comic in The Night They Raided Minsky's. After a typical performance on the Ed Sullivan Show³ the opportunities which might have been in the United States were cut short when he had to return to London when his second wife left him.

His subsequent career was largely confined to television and he toured the world with his successful cabaret act. He won critical acclaim in 1981 for his dramatic role of a dying cancer patient in the television play "Going Gently".

On 11 February 1987 Norman Wisdom was the subject of Thames Television's This Is Your Life for the second time. He became prominent again in the 1990s, helped by the young comedian Lee Evans, whose act was heavily influenced by Wisdom's work. His classic Rank films were playing to new audiences on television screens and DVD, with a growing number of new young fans in the UK and abroad. The highpoint of this new popularity was the knighthood he received in 2000 from Queen Elizabeth II.

From 1995 until 2004 he appeared in the recurring role of Billy Ingleton in the long-running BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine. The role was originally a one-off appearance, but proved so popular that he returned as the character on a number of occasions. In 1996, he became recipient of a Special Achievement Award from the London Film Critics.

Norman Wisdom was a guest on a This Is Your Life special in the year 2000 for his friend, actor and director Todd Carty. ⁶

Popularity in Albania

Wisdom is a cult icon in Albania, where he was the only Western actor whose films were allowed in the country during the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha. He is known as "Mr Pitkin" after the Gump character from his films. In 1995, he visited the post-Stalinist country, where to his surprise he was greeted by many appreciative fans including the then president of Albania, Sali Berisha. On a visit in 2001, which coincided with the England football team playing Albania in Tirana, his presence at the training ground eclipsed even that of David Beckham.⁷

In his book and TV series One Hit Wonderland, Tony Hawks united with Wisdom and, along with Sir Tim Rice, released a single Big In Albania in an attempt to enter the Albanian pop charts. Wisdom's fondness for Brighton & Hove Albion is renowned in Albania and consequently there are many "Seagulls" fans in Albania.

Retirement

Wisdom announced his retirement from the entertainment industry on his ninetieth birthday; 4 February 2005. He announced that he intended to spend more time with his family, playing golf and driving around the Isle of Man, where he now lives.

In 2007, he made a singular return to acting in a movie Directed by Kevin Powis called Expresso. The movie, which Sir Norman announced later (reported BBC/ITV News) to be officially his last film role, is set during one day in a Coffee Shop and was funded by the UK Film Council and ScreenWM. Shot in January, it premièred at the Cannes Film Festival on the 27 May and was later adopted by the UK charity Macmillan and released on DVD in aid of the charity. Details can be seen at the official web site www.expressofilm.com. In the movie Wisdom plays a vicar plagued by a fly in a café. Producer Nigel Martin Davey gave him only a visual role so he would not have to remember any lines, but on the day Wisdom was alert and had his performance changed to add more laughs.⁸

Personal life

Wisdom married his second wife Freda Simpson, who was a dancer, in October 1947, and they had his only two children: Nicholas (born 1953) and Jacqueline (born 1954). The couple divorced in 1969, and Wisdom was granted full custody of the children. Freda died in 1994.⁹

A supporter of various charities including Mencap, in 2005 Wisdom starred in a video for Manx girl group Twisted Angels for their single LA, in support of local charity Project 21.¹¹ In 2007, a Norman Wisdom themed bar opened at the Sefton Hotel, Douglas, called Sir Norman's. It has many pictures of all his films on the walls and TV screens showing some of his old films. There was a bronze statue of Wisdom on a bench placed outside Douglas Town Hall, which has since been moved to a location outside the bar.

Health decline

In mid-2006, after he suffered an irregular heart rhythm, Wisdom was flown by helicopter to hospital in Liverpool and after a few days was fitted with a heart pacemaker.¹²

On release of Expresso to DVD in the same month, BBC News confirmed that Wisdom lived in a care home, due to him suffering from vascular dementia.⁸ It was also reported that his children had secured full power of attorney over Sir Norman's affairs, and having sold off his flat in Epsom, Surrey, were now in the process of selling his Isle of Man home to raise money to fund his longer term care.¹⁴⁹

In an exclusive interview on 27 August with the News of the World, journalists were given access to Wisdom's room at the home, where he claimed to be happy and content in a routine which his family and carers considered kept him safe; in spite of the memory losses associated with his condition.¹⁵

On 16 January 2008,¹⁶ BBC2 aired Wonderland: The Secret Life Of Norman Wisdom Aged 92 and 3/4,¹⁷ a documentary highlighting the dilemma of coping with an aging parent. In a spoken trailer on BBC Radio 5 Live for the programme and in later publicity interviews undertaken by his family, it was stated that Wisdom's memory loss is now so severe that he no longer recognises himself in his own films.¹⁸

Filmography

CDs and vinyl

Books

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Norman Wisdom, William Hall (2003). My Turn. Arrow Books. ISBN 978-0099446767.
^ Sir Norman takes final stage bow BBC News - 18 October 2004
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Sir Norman: Nobody's fool BBC News - 6 June 2000
^ Plaque marks comic's time in forces BBC News - 6 September 2003
^ BAFTA official site, last accessed March 4, 2008.
^ London Film Critics Circle official site, last accessed March 4, 2008
^ Clown Prince of Albania - BBC website
^ ^a ^b Sir Norman's swansong is released BBC News - 27 August 2007
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Keith Beaty and Elizabeth Sanderson Revealed: Why Sir Norman Wisdom's family won't let his friends see him Daily Mail - 11 August 2007
^ Wooden Spoon Isle of Man
^ Sir Norman 'launches punk career' BBC News - 23 September 2005
^ "BBC report on fitting of pacemaker". Retrieved on 2007-08-12.
^ Comic legend needs time to settle in home, says son IoMtoday.co.im - 12 August, 2007
^ Comedy legend leaves Epsom flat for good Surrey Comet - 18 August 2007
^ Chris Tate "GRIM? NOT ME! I'm happy in my care home, legend Norman tells fans", News of the World
^ "Wisdom family makes care decision". BBC News (15 January 2008). Retrieved on 2008-01-16.
^ Matthew Hemley (9 October 2007). "Wisdom to feature in BBC2 documentary". The Stage. Retrieved on 2008-01-16.
^ Sabine Durrant (15 January 2008). "Norman Wisdom's family reveal how dementia has left him not knowing who he is". Daily Mail. Retrieved on 2008-01-16.

Contents

Biography