Harry Tate
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Harry Tate was an English comedian who performed both in the Music Halls & in Films
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[edit] Biography
Harry Tate was born in 1872 as Ronald Macdonald Hutchinson. He worked in the Tate Sugar Factory before going on the stage and he took his stage name from them. He became famous from his sketch, "Motoring", in which he played the part of a new car owner trying to repair it. His other sketches inclded "Billiards" and "Fishing". The catch phrase that he used "How's your Father" was highly used in Britain in the 1930s. He used his bristling moustache to express all kinds of emotion by twitching or moving it. He died in 1940 as a result of injuries suffered in an air raid during the London Blitz.
[edit] Films
- Her First Affair - 1932
- Happy - 1934
- Midshipsman Easy - 1935
- Hyde Park Corner - 1935
- Keep your Seats Please - 1936
- Wings of the Morning - 1937
[edit] Trivia
The phrase "Harry Tate" entered the 20th century English (British) language as slang, initially as a nickname for the Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 biplane. When used as an adjective it became to mean; "amateur" or even "incompetent". In cockney rhyming slang it could mean a "plate" or "worried" (from the expressin "being in a state").
[edit] References
- "Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies" - published by Harper-Collins - ISBN 0-06-093507-3
- "The Entertainers" published by Pitman House - ISBN 0-273-01540-7
