Harry Worth

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Harry Worth

Born Harry Bourlon Illingsworth
20 November 1917(1917-11-20)
Tankersley near Barnsley, Yorkshire
Died 20 July 1989 (aged 71)
Hertfordshire
Cause of death Spinal Cancer
Burial place Cremated
Residence Berkhamsted
Nationality British
Occupation Comedian
Website
www.harryworth.info

Harry Worth (real name Harry Illingsworth) (born 20 November 1917 in Tankersley near Barnsley, Yorkshire - 20 July 1989 Hertfordshire) was an English comedy actor, His standard performance was as a genial, bumbling middle-class and middle-aged man from the North of England, who reduced all who came into contact with him to a state of frustration.

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[edit] Early life

Worth was the youngest of eleven children of a miner. When he was only 5 months old his father died from injuries resulting from an industrial accident. He left school at 14 and was himself a miner for 8 years, before joining the RAF. He taught himself ventriloquism as a teenager and toured for two years with Laurel and Hardy towards the end of their careers. He then became a comedian.

[edit] Television Career

Worth is now best remembered for his 1960s series, Here's Harry, later re-titled Harry Worth, of which he produced over 100 episodes. The famous opening credits of Harry Worth featured Harry stopping in the street to perform an optical trick involving a shop window. (Raising one arm and one leg which were reflected in the window, thus giving the impression of levitation). Reproducing this effect was popularly known as "doing a Harry Worth". He also starred in Thirty Minutes Worth and My Name is Harry Worth.

The shop window sequence was filmed at St. Annes Square, Manchester.

One famous comic sketch involved Worth and his family preparing for a royal visit to the area, during which the Queen was to visit his house. His fussing about the house drove his family mad. Just before the Queen was due to arrive, a beggar arrived at the door and kept coming back as an increasingly frustrated Worth tried to get him to go away. When a knock comes on the door one more time Worth grabs a bucket of filthy water and throws it out the door at the beggar, only to find that it wasn't the beggar but the Queen standing there, and he has just soaked her.

Another time Worth has bet on his local football team "Woodbridge" to win. They were a cert to win till Harry Worth started helping them, then they lost.

Another sketch involved Worth complaining to a police officer outside the Houses of Parliament that Big Ben was slow because Jimmy Young, the legendary presenter on BBC Radio 2 famed for "always being right" had said that it was ten minutes past ten, while Big Ben said it was 10am. After pestering the police officer, Worth got Big Ben adjusted forward by ten minutes (the first time the timepiece had ever been adjusted). Just as Big Ben was changed, Young appeared on the radio to apologise that the studio clock was wrong by ten minutes. A mortified Worth was seen speeding away in his car, to furious shouts from the angry police officer.

Although never scripted, his catchprase was generally known as " My Name Is Harry Worth, I don't know why - but, there it is!"

Due to health problems, Worth was forced to retire early from his show but worked in radio up until a few months before he died in Hertfordshire [1]. Among the last appearances of his career were leading roles in the sitcoms How's Your Father? and Oh Happy Band!

Worth was a private person and resisted attempts by publishers to write his biography, and it was over sixteen years after his death before a book - My Name Is Harry Worth - was written.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ GRO Register of Deaths: JUL 1989 10 135 DACORUM, HERTFORDSHIRE - Harry Worth, DoB = 20 Nov 1917, aged 71
Persondata
NAME Worth, Harry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Illingworth, Harry
SHORT DESCRIPTION Comedian
DATE OF BIRTH 1917-11-20
PLACE OF BIRTH Tankersley near Barnsley, Yorkshire
DATE OF DEATH 1987-07-20
PLACE OF DEATH Hertfordshire