Charles Hawtrey (actor, born 1914)

George Frederick Joffre Hartree (30 November 1914 – 27 October 1988), known professionally as Charles Hawtrey, was an English actor, comedian, singer, pianist and theatre director.

He began at an early age as a boy soprano, in which role he made several records, before moving on to radio. His later career encompassed the theatre (as both actor and director), the cinema (where he regularly appeared supporting Will Hay in the 1930s and 1940s in films such as The Ghost of St. Michael's), through the Carry On films, and television.

Life and career

Early life

Hawtrey was born in Hounslow, Middlesex, England, in 1914, to William John Hartree (1885–1952) and his wife Alice (née Crow) (1880–1965), of 217 Cromwell Road, as George Frederick Joffre Hartree. He took his stage name from the theatrical knight Sir Charles Hawtrey, and encouraged the suggestion that he was Hawtrey's son (though his father was actually a London car mechanic).

Following study at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London, he embarked on a career in the theatre as both actor and director.

1920s and 1930s

Hawtrey made his first appearance on the stage in Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, as early as 1925. At the age of 11 he played a 'street Arab' in Frederick Bowyer's fairy play The Windmill Man.

His London stage debut followed a couple of years later when, aged 13, he appeared in another 'fairy extravaganza', this time at the Scala Theatre, singing the role of the White Cat and Bootblack in the juvenile opera Bluebell in Fairyland.