Ronnie Barker facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ronnie Barker
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Barker in the 1980s
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| Born |
Ronald William George Barker
25 September 1929 Bedford, Bedfordshire, England
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| Died | 3 October 2005 (aged 76) Adderbury, Oxfordshire, England
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| Resting place | Banbury Crematorium, Banbury, Oxfordshire, England |
| Other names | Bob Ferris Jack Goetz Gerald Wiley David Huggett Jonathan Cobbald |
| Education | City of Oxford High School for Boys |
| Occupation | Actor, comedian, writer |
| Years active | 1946–1988, 1999–2005 |
| Spouse(s) |
Joy Tubb
(m. 1957) |
| Children | 3, including Charlotte Barker |
| Comedy career | |
| Medium | Books, film, stand-up comedy, television, theatre |
| Genres | Black comedy, improvisational comedy, insult comedy, observational comedy, ribaldry, shock humour |
Ronald William George Barker (born September 25, 1929 – died October 3, 2005) was a very famous English actor, comedian, and writer. He was best known for his roles in popular British TV comedy shows. These included Porridge, The Two Ronnies, and Open All Hours.
Ronnie Barker started acting in plays in Oxford while working at a bank. He soon realized he was great at making people laugh. He became a professional actor and had early success in London's West End theatres. He also appeared in BBC radio and TV comedies. His big break came in 1966 with the comedy show The Frost Report. There, he met Ronnie Corbett, who would become his comedy partner.
After joining the BBC again, Barker became hugely successful with the sketch show The Two Ronnies (1971–1987), alongside Ronnie Corbett. They also had their own separate careers. Barker famously played the prisoner Norman Stanley Fletcher in the sitcom Porridge (1974–1977). He also played the shopkeeper Arkwright in Open All Hours (1976–1985). He wrote many of his comedy scripts himself, often using made-up names like "Gerald Wiley" so his work would be judged fairly. He won many awards, including four BAFTA awards for best entertainment performance. He was also given an OBE award in 1978 for his services to entertainment.
Later TV shows like The Magnificent Evans and Clarence were not as popular. He decided to retire from acting in December 1987. The next year, he opened an antique shop with his wife, Joy. After 1999, he appeared in a few non-comedy roles in films. Ronnie Barker passed away from heart failure on October 3, 2005, at the age of 76.
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Ronnie Barker's Early Life
Ronnie Barker was born on September 25, 1929, in Bedford, England. He was the only son of Leonard and Edith Barker. He had two sisters, Vera and Eileen. His father worked for Shell-Mex, which meant the family moved to Oxford when Ronnie was four.
Ronnie had a very happy and peaceful childhood. He loved dressing up, especially in his father's clown costume. He also enjoyed films, comic books, and animals. He developed a love for theatre and often went to plays with his family. He even skipped school once to see the famous actor Laurence Olivier in a play. He enjoyed collecting autographs from actors outside theatres.
Ronnie grew up in Oxford and went to Donnington Junior School and then the City of Oxford High School for Boys. He discovered his talent for humor at school. He also improved his musical skills by singing in the church choir. He left school early because he felt what he was learning would not help him later.
After school, he tried training as an architect but quit after six months. He then took his sister's job as a bank clerk. But his dream was to become an actor. He joined amateur drama groups, at first just to meet girls! For 18 months, he worked at the bank while also acting and managing the stage. He eventually quit his bank job to become a full-time actor. His father was not happy about his choice at first.
Ronnie Barker's Career Beginnings
Starting in Theatre
Ronnie Barker tried to get into a drama school but didn't succeed. Instead, he joined the Manchester Repertory Company in Aylesbury. He often played funny roles in their weekly shows. He started as an assistant stage manager, earning a small amount of money each week. His first professional acting role was on November 15, 1948.
After a few roles, Ronnie realized he wanted to be a comedy actor. He said, "I want to make people laugh." He appeared in plays like Treasure Island before getting his first main role in The Guinea Pig. When that play moved to another town, Ronnie followed.
He then worked at a hospital for a short time, where he entertained patients with comedy routines. He later joined the Oxford Playhouse in 1951 and worked there for three years. He appeared in many plays. In 1955, he got his big break in London's West End theatre. By then, he had acted in about 350 plays!
Ronnie stayed a West End actor for several years, from 1955 to 1968. He appeared in many plays, including Irma La Douce for two years. He also performed in The Real Inspector Hound in 1968.
Early TV and Radio Work
Ronnie's success in theatre helped him get into radio. He started being called "Ronnie" instead of "Ronald" after a director changed his name in the credits. His first radio show was in 1956. He then played many characters in The Navy Lark, a popular comedy show about the navy. This show ran from 1959 to 1977, and Ronnie was in about 300 episodes.
He also appeared in other radio shows. Soon, he started working in film and television. His first TV acting job was in a show called I'm Not Bothered. He appeared in various comedy series like The Seven Faces of Jim from 1962. He also had serious roles in shows like A Tale of Two Cities in 1965.
In 1966, Ronnie got his big break with the comedy sketch show The Frost Report. He was recommended for the show by a producer. The show starred David Frost and Ronnie's future comedy partner, Ronnie Corbett. They had met in 1963 and became good friends.
Ronnie Corbett said they became friends because they had similar backgrounds. Unlike many others on The Frost Report, neither of them had gone to university. The show was performed live and featured sketches from Barker, Corbett, and John Cleese. One of their most famous sketches was about the British class system, where Barker played the middle-class character.
After the first series, a special show called Frost Over England won an award. David Frost then signed both Barker and Corbett to his production company. As part of the deal, Barker got his own show in 1968, The Ronnie Barker Playhouse. This show had six different short plays, and Barker played a different character in each.
After two series of The Frost Report on the BBC, Frost moved to ITV. Barker and Corbett followed him and continued to perform sketches on his new show, Frost on Sunday. Barker started writing sketches for the show using a secret name: Gerald Wiley. He wanted his writing to be judged on its own quality, not just because he was a famous actor. He kept this secret for a long time, even pretending to criticize his own "Gerald Wiley" scripts!
People started guessing who Gerald Wiley was. Famous writers like Tom Stoppard and Alan Bennett were rumored. Finally, after the second series of Frost on Sunday, Barker revealed he was Gerald Wiley. At first, no one believed him!
In 1969, Barker wrote, produced, and starred in the film Futtock's End. It had very little talking, mostly just grunts and mumbles. The Ronnie Barker Playhouse was meant to find ideas for new sitcoms. One episode, "Ah, There You Are," introduced a clumsy rich character, Lord Rustless. This character became the main star of the 1969–1970 series Hark at Barker. Barker wrote for this show using another fake name, Jonathan Cobbald. As Gerald Wiley, he also wrote the 1971 series Six Dates with Barker.
The Two Ronnies and Other Hits
Working with Ronnie Corbett
Soon after, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, and Josephine Tewson performed a sketch at the 1971 BAFTAs (a big TV awards show). They impressed the BBC bosses, who offered them their own show together. They also got a separate show each. Barker and Corbett didn't want to be known only as a duo, so they kept their solo careers going too.
Their show together was The Two Ronnies. It was a sketch show that ran for twelve series and eight specials from 1971 to 1987. It was an instant success! The show featured comedy sketches, short plays, songs, and funny parodies. It usually included a long story from Corbett, a solo character sketch from Barker, and a musical number. It always started and ended with them reading funny news headlines from a desk. They would finish with their famous catchphrase: "It's good night from me – and it's good night from him."
This format was used for almost the entire show. The ending catchphrase and newsreader characters were created because Barker found it hard to act as himself. Corbett explained that Barker was a very private and quiet man. He found it almost impossible to talk directly to an audience as himself. Each Ronnie also had their own solo parts to make sure they weren't seen only as a double act.
Ronnie Barker wrote most of the show's material, about three-quarters of it, still using the name Gerald Wiley. He was very involved in making the show, especially the longer stories. Corbett said Barker was a "perfectionist" and knew exactly how he wanted every shot to look. He and Corbett always got along well. Barker said, "People refuse to believe that we don't have rows... It's a strange thing after so many years but we never have."
One of the show's most famous sketches was called "Four Candles" (which was originally titled "Annie Finkhouse"). It aired in 1976. In the sketch, a customer (Barker) asks for items in a hardware store. The humor comes from how similar some words sound, leading to funny misunderstandings. For example, "four candles" sounds like "fork handles." The idea for the sketch came from real-life misunderstandings reported by a hardware shop. The "Four Candles" sketch is considered the show's most famous. It was voted the best sketch in a TV special and placed fifth on Channel 4's 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches. Barker's original handwritten script for the sketch was sold for £48,500 at an auction in 2007.
The Two Ronnies was a huge hit, with 15 to 20 million viewers regularly tuning in. Barker won a BAFTA award for Best Light Entertainment Performance in 1971 and 1977 for the show. The show ended with the 1987 Christmas special. In 1978, the two performed a stage version of the show in London. It lasted three months and followed the same format as the TV show.
In 1979, Barker and Corbett moved to Sydney, Australia, for a year to save on taxes. They performed their stage show there, which was very popular. Because of their success, a TV series called The Two Ronnies in Australia was made. They returned for a second series in 1986.
Barker and Corbett also starred in two short, mostly silent films: The Picnic (1976) and By the Sea (1982). By the Sea was Barker's tribute to funny seaside postcards.
Porridge, Open All Hours, and More
After the success of The Two Ronnies, the BBC let Barker choose his next project. He decided to make some pilot episodes for sitcoms in 1973. Two of these pilots became full series: Open All Hours and Prisoner and Escort.
Prisoner and Escort became Porridge, which aired from 1974 to 1977. Barker starred as Norman Stanley Fletcher, a clever and cynical prisoner. Porridge was the first sitcom set in a prison. The show was a huge success, attracting 15 million viewers. Many people called it one of the best British sitcoms ever. The Times newspaper called Fletcher his "finest creation." Barker himself thought Porridge was the best work of his career. He won a BAFTA award for his performance in 1975.
In 1976, Barker played Friar Tuck in the film Robin and Marian. That same year, he decided to end Porridge after three series. He wanted to focus on Open All Hours, where he starred alongside David Jason. Barker played Arkwright, a shopkeeper who loved money and had a stutter. The stutter was not in the script; Barker was inspired to add it after seeing another actor use one. Open All Hours first aired in 1976 but wasn't renewed due to low ratings. So, Barker decided to make a third series of Porridge and a film adaptation. This was followed by a spin-off show called Going Straight, which showed Fletcher after he left prison.
Plans for more shows were stopped when Barker's co-star, Richard Beckinsale, sadly died in 1979 at age 31. Later, repeats of Open All Hours became very popular. So, the BBC ordered more series of the show in 1981, and it continued to be a success. Both Porridge and Open All Hours were voted among the top ten British sitcoms in a 2004 poll.
Ronnie Barker was also the first actor considered for the role of Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, but he turned it down.
His next sitcom, The Magnificent Evans (1984), about a Welsh photographer, was not very successful. His final sitcom was Clarence in 1988. In this show, he played Clarence Sale, a removal man whose eyesight was failing. Barker wrote this show himself, using yet another fake name, "Bob Ferris".
Retirement and Later Appearances
In 1987, Ronnie Barker decided to retire from show business at the age of 58. He was at the peak of his fame. He said his writing quality was declining, and he wanted to stop while he was still at the top. He had decided to retire in 1985 but kept it a secret for two years. Only Ronnie Corbett knew about it. He announced his retirement on a TV chat show called Wogan.
After retiring, Barker opened and ran an antique shop called The Emporium in Oxfordshire. He refused all offers to return to acting. He joked, "I lose money every week, but it's a hobby. It's cheaper than skiing and safer at my age." The shop was sold after ten years because it wasn't making a profit. He wrote his autobiography, Dancing in the Moonlight: My Early Years on Stage, in 1993. He also released All I Ever Wrote, which contained all his scripts, in 1999.
Just over ten years after retiring, Barker was convinced to make a few TV appearances again. In 1997, he appeared with Ronnie Corbett at the Royal Command Performance. In 1999, he reunited with Corbett for Two Ronnies Night on BBC One. In 2002, a director persuaded Barker to play Winston Churchill's butler in the TV drama The Gathering Storm. He then cast him in a bigger role in the TV film My House in Umbria in 2003, alongside Maggie Smith. In the same year, he briefly played Norman Stanley Fletcher again in a funny documentary called Life Beyond the Box.
Ronnie Barker received several awards for his lifetime of work. He won the Royal Television Society's award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in 1975. Sir Alec Guinness gave him a lifetime achievement award at the first British Comedy Awards in 1990. In 2004, he received a special BAFTA lifetime achievement award at a TV tribute show. In 2005, he and Corbett were among the first 100 people to get stars on London's Avenue of Stars.
After the success of the BAFTA tribute, Barker wanted to bring The Two Ronnies back to TV. The BBC ordered The Two Ronnies Sketchbook, which showed their best sketches with new introductions. These were filmed in one day because Barker's health was getting worse. The show aired in 2005 and was very popular. The final special, The Two Ronnies Christmas Sketchbook, was recorded in July 2005 and aired after his death in December.
Ronnie Barker's Acting and Writing Style
Ronnie Barker became a comedy actor because he believed "it's better to make people laugh than cry." People described him as "an actor with a talent for comedy" who could easily become different characters. Barker himself felt he was only funny when he was playing a character. The BBC said he was "completely boring" without a script.
Peter Hall, a famous theatre director, said Barker was "the great actor we lost" and wished he had acted in more serious plays. But Barker preferred comedy. He felt comedy was "as good and as important as serious work." The American actor Gene Wilder compared him to Charlie Chaplin, saying that even in his funniest performances, there was always a touch of reality. Ronnie Corbett praised Barker's skill at playing serious characters who said absurd things.
Barker's writing style was known for "precise scripts and perfect timing." He loved playing with language, using humor that involved wordplay, like spoonerisms (mixing up sounds in words) and double entendres (words with two meanings). Dennis Baker of The Guardian newspaper wrote that Barker "preferred innuendo over the crudely explicit." This meant his comedy was clever and made the audience think. Corbett said he had "a mastery of the English language."
Ronnie Barker's Personal Life
Ronnie Barker met Joy Tubb in Cambridge. She was a stage manager for two plays he was in. They got married nine months later in July 1957. They had three children: two sons, Larry (born 1959) and Adam (born 1968), and one daughter, Charlotte (born 1962), who also became an actress. Larry was named after Barker's idol, Laurence Olivier. Adam Barker also became an actor.
The family lived in Pinner for many years, and later in a converted mill in Oxfordshire. According to Ronnie Corbett, Barker was "first and foremost a family man." Joy passed away in January 2011 at age 78.
Ronnie Barker received an OBE award in 1978. He loved collecting antiques, books, and posters. He had a collection of over 53,000 postcards! He even published several books of his postcard collections. Barker rarely appeared in public as himself. He once said, "I've always known I haven't a personality of my own, I have to be someone else to be happy. That's why I became an actor, I suppose."
Ronnie Barker's Death and Legacy
Ronnie Barker chose not to have heart surgery, and his health quickly got worse after filming The Two Ronnies Christmas Sketchbook. He died of heart failure at a hospice in Adderbury, Oxfordshire, on October 3, 2005. He was 76 years old, and his wife was with him. News of his death was a top story on TV news.
Ronnie Barker's body was cremated at a private humanist funeral. Only his family and close friends attended. A public memorial service for Barker was held on March 3, 2006, at Westminster Abbey. About 2,000 people attended, including many famous actors and comedians. During the service, a recording of Barker's funny rhyming slang sermon from The Two Ronnies was played. Also, four candles were placed in the aisle instead of the usual two, as a tribute to his famous "Four Candles" sketch. Barker was only the third comedy professional to have a memorial service at Westminster Abbey.
Ronnie Barker's Lasting Impact
After his death, the Writer of the Year Award at the British Comedy Awards was renamed in his honor. In 2005, he was voted the 16th greatest comedy act ever by other comedians.
The BBC called him "one of the leading figures of British television comedy" and "much loved and admired." The Independent newspaper called him "a master of television sitcom." The Guardian newspaper said he was "much loved... a master of pyrotechnic puns, surreal behavior... and crackling cross-chat."
In 2006, Barker's stage play Mum was adapted for BBC Radio 4. In Oxford, a pub near his old school is named after his "Four Candles" sketch.
A bronze statue of Ronnie Barker was unveiled in September 2010. It shows him as his famous character Norman Stanley Fletcher. The statue is at the entrance of the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre.
In 2015, the BBC started the Ronnie Barker Comedy Lecture. This lecture focuses on the future of British sitcoms.
Images for kids
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Ronnie Barker in the 1980s
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A plaque marking Ronnie Barker's birthplace
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Ronnie Barker filming The Two Ronnies with Susie Silvey
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A pub named after Ronnie Barker's famous "Four Candles" sketch
See also
In Spanish: Ronnie Barker para niños
