June Whitfield
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| June Whitfield | |
| Born | 11 November 1925 Streatham, London, England |
| Notable roles | Rose Garvey in Beggar My Neighbour Various in the Carry On films June Medford in Terry and June Mother/Gran in Absolutely Fabulous |
June Rosemary Whitfield CBE (born 11 November 1925) is an English actress who is well known for her appearances in four Carry On films, Terry and June and Absolutely Fabulous.
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[edit] Early life
June Rosemary Whitfield was born in Streatham, London in 1925.[1] She attended Streatham High School and in 1944 Whitfield graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art with a diploma.[1] In 1955, June Whitfield married Tim Aitchison and they had one daughter, Suzy, who later became an actress.[1]
[edit] Early career
In the 1950s, June Whitfield become well known on radio for starring as Eth in the Jimmy Edwards comedy Take It From Here.[1] In 1951, she had her first credited television role in The Passing Show. During the next 15 years Whitfield had many small roles on television, including appearances in The Tony Hancock Show, Hancock's Half Hour, Dixon of Dock Green, Arthur's Treasured Volumes, The Arthur Askey Show, Faces of Jim, Hancock, The Benny Hill Show, Steptoe and Son and Frankie Howerd. One of three episodes of Hancock's Half Hour, later shortened to Hancock, was the episode "The Blood Donor", in which she played the nurse. In 1959, Whitfield appeared in Carry On Nurse.[1]
[edit] Televison fame
In 1966, Whitfield got the first starring role, in the sitcom Beggar My Neighbour[1] playing Rose Garvey. The year after Beggar My Neighbour finished in 1968, Whitfield then appeared on Scott On... for six years until 1974.[2] This started a working relationship with Terry Scott that would last until 1987. During Scott On... she had also appeared in The Best Things In Life, The Goodies, The Dick Emery Show, Bless This House and The Pallisers. In 1972 she appeared in the Bless This House film, with Terry Scott as her husband, and Carry On Abroad, followed by an appearance in 1973 in Carry On Girls.[1]
In 1974, Whitfield starred in a Comedy Playhouse sitcom pilot called Happy Ever After alongside Terry Scott. Later that year a first series of this was made, and it continued for five series until 1979. That year they appeared together in the first series of Terry and June. Happy Ever After and Terry and June were very similar programmes, with a only a change of surname, from Fletcher to Medford, and a new house and family.[3] Both sitcoms had Scott and Whitfield as a suburban middle-class married couple. Terry and June ran for 65 episodes until 1987. Five years later in 1992, Julian Clary created Terry and Julian, a Channel 4 sitcom which spoofed the title of Terry and June, and Whitfield made an appearance in one episode.[4] During the eight-year run of Terry and June, Whitfield also appeared in It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Minder.
During the 1980s, June Whitfield went back to working on radio. From 1984 she appeared with Roy Hudd on the satire programme The News Huddlines,[1] which finished in 2001. On The News Huddlines she often impersonated people, and was well known for her impersonation of the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.[1] During the 1980s and 1990s, June Whitfield made several stage appearances, including plays such as An Ideal Husband and Babes in the Wood.[1] In 1982, Whitfield was made a Freeman of the City of London and was made an OBE in 1985.[1]
[edit] Recent years
Having appeared in an episode of French & Saunders in 1988, from 1992 June Whitfield played Mother/Gran in Jennifer Saunders's sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, a role she continued until the show end in 2003. In 2000, she starred with the rest of the Absolutely Fabulous cast in the pilot Mirrorball. From 1993 to 1995, June Whitfield played Miss Marple in three radio adaptations of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books.[4] In recent years, she has appeared in films such as Carry On Columbus, Jude and Faeries, as the voice of Mrs. Combs. In 1998, Whitfield played the housekeeper in the London-set episode of Friends "The One with Ross's Wedding, Part Two".[5]
In 1994 June Whitfield was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the British Comedy Awards,[1] and in 1998 she was upgraded to a CBE.[5] Whitfield's husband Tim Aitchson died in 2001.[4] Since 2000, Whitfield has appeared in The Royal, Midsomer Murders, Marple and Last of the Summer Wine, which she had also appeared in back in 1973.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Whitfield, June - British Comedy Actor", The Museum of Broadcast Communications.
- ^ "BBC Comedy Guide", BBC, 2003.
- ^ Lewisohn, Mark. "Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy", BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2003.
- ^ a b c "June Whitfield", Comedy Zone, 1999-2006.
- ^ a b "Whitfield, June (1925-)", Scree Online, 2003-06.
