Frankie Howerd

Non-comedy TV and film credits may be found here:
Frankie Howerd on IMDb

Born

Tuesday 6th March 1917

Died

Sunday 19th April 1992 (aged 75)

Full name

Francis Howerd

Title

Francis Alick Howerd OBE

Nationality

English

Frankie Howerd was born Francis Howard in York in March 1917, before moving to south London at the age of 3 when his serviceman father was posted to the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich.

Picking up his mother's love of the theatre and show business at a young age, he made his first stage appearance - and began writing his own jokes and plays - whilst studying under a scholarship at Shooter's Hill Grammar School.

Plying his trade across London at whatever opportunity arose, Frankie's career - like so many others - was interrupted, and then greatly emboldened, but the outbreak of war. Called up just days before his 23rd birthday in 1940, he began performing for his fellow troops, although failed auditions for every formal concert party group.

After being demobbed in 1946 he secured an agent and began conquering the stage, radio, and eventually both the small and silver screen. His career has often been described as a series of ups and downs; going out of fashion, before being rediscovered by a new generation and fitting his performing talents to a new vehicle or other; from bawdy farce, to biting satire at Peter Cook's Establishment club.

Frankie's biggest career 'up' was the 1969-1975 BBC1 sitcom Up Pompeii!, which spawned not only a feature film adaptation, but numerous sequels in the same vein, both on film and television, and was revived again by ITV at Christmas 1991.

His final career resurgence began in the late 1980s, and he was still riding this wave at the time of his death, on 19th April 1992, aged 75. He had at this time recorded four of six episodes for a brand new TV stand-up series, Frankie's On....

BAFTA Television Awards 1971

Best Light Entertainment Performance (Nominee)