The Funniest Actors

[David Brent]

Are there certain actors that make you start smiling even before they've uttered a word?

Two comedy actors that I found hard to take seriously and who always brought a smile to my face upon seeing them were George Cole and Bill Pertwee. Both thankfully still with us.

Just watching George Cole as the spiv in St.Trinians and his demeaner as 'Arfur Daley in 'Minder' used to make me laugh before any dialogue was used.



Bill Pertwee was brilliant as Warden Hodges in 'Dad's Army' but was really good in whatever he appeared in. He always appeared as a self assured character before falling into his bumbling comedy. As soon as he appeared on screen you knew he was heading for a fall. His high pitched voice under pressure was always very funny.



[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rotfl.gif[/img]



Dave.

[tonewheel]

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rotfl.gif[/img] [quote]name='David Brent' date='Mar 25 2006, 06:17 AM' post='37259']

Are there certain actors that make you start smiling even before they've uttered a word?



Yes! Moore Marriot & Graham moffat in those wonderful Will Hay films

[samkydd]

(David Brent @ Mar 25 2006, 06:17 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

Are there certain actors that make you start smiling even before they've uttered a word?

Two comedy actors that I found hard to take seriously and who always brought a smile to my face upon seeing them were George Cole and Bill Pertwee. Both thankfully still with us.

Just watching George Cole as the spiv in St.Trinians and his demeaner as 'Arfur Daley in 'Minder' used to make me laugh before any dialogue was used.



Bill Pertwee was brilliant as Warden Hodges in 'Dad's Army' but was really good in whatever he appeared in. He always appeared as a self assured character before falling into his bumbling comedy. As soon as he appeared on screen you knew he was heading for a fall. His high pitched voice under pressure was always very funny.



[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rotfl.gif[/img]



Dave.

[/b]

As well as Moore Marriot, Graham Moffat and George Cole some of my favourites are:



Bill Maynard makes me laugh because he always looks like he's just remembered his lines a second or two before he comes out with them, and he plays each part like a reluctant schoolboy roped in to do the end of term play!



Richard Griffiths is just naturally a very funny actor who will always be fondly remembered as Uncle Monty in Withnail and I, but a couple of weeks ago I saw him on an old Minder episode playing the brother of a former pop star and he was just so good at being an eccentric, and also in the recent Bleak House!



Terry-Thomas always makes me smile, he just seemed naturally funny.



Arthur Lowe is one of my favourites, and the comic timing he had in Dad's Army was impeccable. He'd honed it to perfection after many years in rep, and some of his comedy style was Rob Wilton to a tee. Like Hancock, much of the comedy was in the facial expressions. The looks of sheer exasperation as he listened patiently to Lance Corporal Jones going off at a tangent and wittering away, or Private Godfrey come up with some totally irrelevant suggestion or idea.



Unlike some of today's comedy actors they didn't try and say "Look at me aren't I funny?" their craftsmanship did all the talking for them! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[tonewheel]

[quote]name='samkydd' date='Mar 25 2006, 10:22 AM' post='37268']

As well as Moore Marriot, Graham Moffat and George Cole some of my favourites are:



Bill Maynard makes me laugh because he always looks like he's just remembered his lines a second or two before he comes out with them, and he plays each part like a reluctant schoolboy roped in to do the end of term play!



I can remember when I was in a band in the 60s on the same venue as Bill Maynard he was a stand up comedian I am sure he was billed as the sweater man (as in woolley Jumper) as he always wore one on stage. He was very good and a very nice bloke.

[Steve Crook]

(David Brent @ Mar 25 2006, 06:17 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

Are there certain actors that make you start smiling even before they've uttered a word?

Two comedy actors that I found hard to take seriously and who always brought a smile to my face upon seeing them were George Cole and Bill Pertwee. Both thankfully still with us.

Just watching George Cole as the spiv in St.Trinians and his demeaner as 'Arfur Daley in 'Minder' used to make me laugh before any dialogue was used.



Bill Pertwee was brilliant as Warden Hodges in 'Dad's Army' but was really good in whatever he appeared in. He always appeared as a self assured character before falling into his bumbling comedy. As soon as he appeared on screen you knew he was heading for a fall. His high pitched voice under pressure was always very funny.



[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rotfl.gif[/img]



Dave.

[/b]

Maybe it's just me, but I thought that Bill Pertwee was about the unfunniest thing in Dad's Army. A real one-trick pony.



The trouble is (for me) that he's now one of the few left alive so he always gets interviewed in any programmes about the series.



Steve

[penfold]

(Steve Crook @ Mar 25 2006, 06:14 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

Maybe it's just me, but I thought that Bill Pertwee was about the unfunniest thing in Dad's Army. A real one-trick pony.



The trouble is (for me) that he's now one of the few left alive so he always gets interviewed in any programmes about the series.



Steve

[/b]

Agree entirely...my faves from that era are the wonderful Tommy Cooper - forget the stand-up and the magic routines, watch The Plank - if he had been born fifty years earlier he would have been one of the great silent comedians...effortlessly wipes the floor with the very good indeed Eric Sykes in those films - just one look at that eternally puzzled mug....and the eternally underrated Barry Cryer, who could recite the phone book and make me laugh.....

.....from earlier times, not a comedian, just a lowly character actor (and generally the same character) but even so I have to stifle a cheer whenever I'm watching a British film from the 20's through to the 60's and Wally Patch appears.....and that is in most of the British films in those decades...was there a Wally Patch law that said he had to appear in a film if he was available??? Until Sam Kydd took over ??

Here's to the old buffer!!!

[David Brent]

(Steve Crook @ Mar 25 2006, 06:14 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

Maybe it's just me, but I thought that Bill Pertwee was about the unfunniest thing in Dad's Army. A real one-trick pony.



Steve

[/b]

Granted Steve, that Bill Pertwee's character in 'Dad's Army' was rather snide but you always knew that the platoon would always get the better of him.

As I said before, you knew he was heading for a fall.

That's when I found him at his funniest, as he received his retribution. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]



Cheers



Dave.

[smudge]

[quote]name='penfold' date='Mar 25 2006, 08:46 PM' post='37305']

Agree entirely...my faves from that era are the wonderful Tommy Cooper - forget the stand-up and the magic routines, watch The Plank - if he had been born fifty years earlier he would have been one of the great silent comedians...effortlessly wipes the floor with the very good indeed Eric Sykes in those films - just one look at that eternally puzzled mug....and the eternally underrated Barry Cryer, who could recite the phone book and make me laugh.....





Have to agree about Barry Cryer, but not about Eric Sykes being wiped out. TC was amazing, but Eric could easily hold his own against anybody. Eric's wonderful 'I'm in charge' character is gloriously deflated by Tommy, but it's the relationship that counts most - not one or the other.



Eric Sykes is one of the funniest men alive and a genius to boot. As soon as he walks on I know I am going to crack up, and he's responsible for one of the greatest adaptable lines ever, which kills me every time ; from SYKES,



"Don't forget/Remember/Look what happened to Mr. Hackenschmitt !" [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rotfl.gif[/img]



SMUDGE



[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/vampire.gif[/img]

[Steve Crook]

(David Brent @ Mar 25 2006, 06:17 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

Are there certain actors that make you start smiling even before they've uttered a word?

[/b]

Yes, Alastair Sim.

One of his best that I ever saw was in an extract from Pinero's The Magistrate, opposite Patricia Routledge at the 1969 Chichester festival. After a night on the town, the morning after, washing in front of the mirror. He wags his finger at the image in the mirror, asking "Who was naughty?" The finger hesitates, slowly turns to point to himself and then he puts it to his lower lip with a lovely, hang-dog look. A beautiful piece of work.



He consistently makes me smile almost every time I see him in anything. Some of the classics like when he played Miss Fritton and her brother in The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954) or playing Mr Squales in London Belongs to Me (1948). He might not be on screen for long, but whenever he is, you can't take your eyes off him.



Steve

[Steve Crook]

(penfold @ Mar 25 2006, 08:46 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

Agree entirely...my faves from that era are the wonderful Tommy Cooper

[/b]

One of the few people who could have the audience laughing just by coming on stage and standing there, doing nothing.



Steve

[samkydd]

(Steve Crook @ Mar 26 2006, 06:28 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

One of the few people who could have the audience laughing just by coming on stage and standing there, doing nothing.



Steve

[/b]

Barry Cryer and Tommy Cooper aren't what you'd call comedy actors though. Cryer is a writer, occassional stand-up and panelist while Tommy was an out and out stand-up comedian. Comedy actors are people who are actors first and foremost, and have specialised in and are best known for comedy roles; Peter Sellers, Alistair Sim, Leslie Philips, Terry-Thomas, Peggy Mount, Sid James, June Whitfield, David Jason, Richard Beckinsale, Bill Fraser, Peter Jones et al.

[penfold]

(samkydd @ Mar 26 2006, 07:59 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

Barry Cryer and Tommy Cooper aren't what you'd call comedy actors though. Cryer is a writer, occassional stand-up and panelist while Tommy was an out and out stand-up comedian. Comedy actors are people who are actors first and foremost, and have specialised in and are best known for comedy roles; Peter Sellers, Alistair Sim, Leslie Philips, Terry-Thomas, Peggy Mount, Sid James, June Whitfield, David Jason, Richard Beckinsale, Bill Fraser, Peter Jones et al.

[/b]

Partly, at least, my point...Tommy Cooper should have been a silent comedy actor....he was a complete revelation in The Plank and those other films of that ilk that Eric Sykes put together. Barry Cryer, I know, but he makes me laugh without saying much at all....



re. Smudge's comments...don't get me wrong Smudge, I bow to no man in admiration of Eric Sykes, a true and deseving legend and a true gentleman and trouper too....we put on an event in Bristol a year or two ago, Eric was the main attraction; he insisted he came by train and not the chauffered car we offered...it was four hours late. At the age of eighty, he brushed aside any suggestion of a rest , a sandwich or something (he hadn't eaten, and the restaurant we had booked for lunch had closed)....because the audience - his audience - was waiting ... and he was fantastic...it was billed as an interview, but I think Chris got about five questions in before Eric went into another routine... the jokes were all familiar, but the timing, genius, just genius....and having been stuck on a train for six hours.

My point was (tremendous though Eric is, and was in those films) Tommy Cooper in The Plank was something beyond even that...it screams out at you that this is what he should have been...IMHO of course...

[theuofc]

(David Brent @ Mar 25 2006, 06:17 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

Are there certain actors that make you start smiling even before they've uttered a word?....

Dave.

[/b]

Hello, Dave and All,



I've seen almost none of the comedians you mention as they were or are not frequently shown in the States, if at all. And when I do, the truth is I don't roar with laughter the way my Brit friends do. It's I who am out of synch, not they. I'm convinced there is a strong cultural component at play in some comedy which is hard to tap unless one was raised in the culture and instinctively understands the well of referents, body movements and all the subtleties which make something funny. By way of comparison, are there any American or non-Brit comedians who also make you laugh?



Thanks [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]



Barbara

[Fellwanderer]

(theuofc @ Mar 26 2006, 10:50 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>



Hello, Dave and All,



I've seen almost none of the comedians you mention as they were or are not frequently shown in the States, if at all. And when I do, the truth is I don't roar with laughter the way my Brit friends do. It's I who am out of synch, not they. I'm convinced there is a strong cultural component at play in some comedy which is hard to tap unless one was raised in the culture and instinctively understands the well of referents, body movements and all the subtleties which make something funny. By way of comparison, are there any American or non-Brit comedians who also make you laugh?



Thanks [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]



Barbara [/b]

I think you're right. In my opinion, the way we react to comedy on either side of the pond is just about the most marked cultural difference.



I have to admit to finding very little funny originating from Stateside [except Dubya]. Although a lot of the writing is heavily praised over here I invariably find it far too stage managed. Naturally, an example doesn't come to mind because I tend to avoid such programmes where possible.



FELL

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/angel_not.gif[/img]

[theuofc]

(Fellwanderer @ Mar 26 2006, 11:13 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

I think you're right. In my opinion, the way we react to comedy on either side of the pond is just about the most marked cultural difference.



I have to admit to finding very little funny originating from Stateside [except Dubya]. Although a lot of the writing is heavily praised over here I invariably find it far too stage managed. Naturally, an example doesn't come to mind because I tend to avoid such programmes where possible.



FELL

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/angel_not.gif[/img]

[/b]

Exactly, Fell.



I'm always so glad there are many other things and areas which make for cordial communication and enjoying times as human beings under the same blue sky. Film talk is one of them. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]



Best,



Barbara

[penfold]

From the States...well, the obvious ones; Keaton, Chaplin (Anglo/US I know) and the underrated Harry Langdon.....Harold Lloyd occasionally, early Laurel and Hardy....but to be brutal, not much since....apart from Phil Silvers as Ernie Bilko, and The Simpsons....and I do laugh out loud every time I see a Mel Gibson film, but that's a different thing..scorn.

From the rest of the world...Jacques Tati....

[Steve Crook]

(theuofc @ Mar 26 2006, 11:50 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

Hello, Dave and All,



I've seen almost none of the comedians you mention as they were or are not frequently shown in the States, if at all. And when I do, the truth is I don't roar with laughter the way my Brit friends do. It's I who am out of synch, not they. I'm convinced there is a strong cultural component at play in some comedy which is hard to tap unless one was raised in the culture and instinctively understands the well of referents, body movements and all the subtleties which make something funny. By way of comparison, are there any American or non-Brit comedians who also make you laugh?



Thanks [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]



Barbara

[/b]

The late, great, Bill Hicks. But he was a stand-up comedian rather than a comic actor.



"I was just down in Dallas, Texas. You know, you can go down there and to Dealey Plaza where Kennedy was assassinated. And you can actually go to the sixth floor of the Schoolbook Depository. It's a museum called ... 'The Assassination Museum'. I think they named it that after the assassination. I can't be too sure of the chronology here, but ... Anyway, they have the window set up to look exactly like it did on that day. And it's really accurate, you know, 'cause Oswald's not in it."



Much missed.

See Wiki Quotes for some good examples but be prepared for the language and to have your point of view questioned.



Steve

[samkydd]

(Steve Crook @ Mar 26 2006, 10:31 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

The late, great, Bill Hicks. But he was a stand-up comedian rather than a comic actor.



"I was just down in Dallas, Texas. You know, you can go down there and to Dealey Plaza where Kennedy was assassinated. And you can actually go to the sixth floor of the Schoolbook Depository. It's a museum called ... 'The Assassination Museum'. I think they named it that after the assassination. I can't be too sure of the chronology here, but ... Anyway, they have the window set up to look exactly like it did on that day. And it's really accurate, you know, 'cause Oswald's not in it."



Much missed.

See Wiki Quotes for some good examples but be prepared for the language and to have your point of view questioned.



Steve

[/b]

I believe that there is a feature film being made about the short life of Mr Hicks. I don't know any details but there maybe some info on the Net somewhere. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[Fellwanderer]

Of the younger British comedians/comic actors I'd say my favourite is Peter Kay - probably completely unknown in the States.



I'd be interested to know how he goes down in the south over here.



FELL

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/angel_not.gif[/img]

[Steve Crook]

(samkydd @ Mar 27 2006, 08:09 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

I believe that there is a feature film being made about the short life of Mr Hicks. I don't know any details but there maybe some info on the Net somewhere. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[/b]

Shame, terrible idea. Just watch the videos of the man himself. There are a few documentaries on some of the DVDs of his shows that have friends, family and other comedians talking about him.



Unlike with someone like Lennie Bruce, where not many of his shows were recorded, quite a few of Bill Hicks' shows were recorded.



Steve