Lionel Blair

Lionel Blair
Lionel Blair in 2010
Born	Henry Lionel Ogus (1931-12-12) 12 December 1931 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Occupation	Actor, tap dancer, television presenter
Years active	1948–present[1]
Religion	Jewish
Spouse(s)	Susan Blair (1967-present; three children)

Lionel Blair (born Henry Lionel Ogus; 12 December 1931) is a British actor, choreographer, tap dancer and television presenter.

Early life

Blair was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is the son of Myer Ogus and Deborah (Della) Greenbaum (mother's name given as Brenner on FreeBMD). His father was a barber; he emigrated from Russia to Canada to start a new life and his wife joined him shortly afterwards. The family was Jewish.^[2] Blair came to Britain when he was two years old. His first public performances were with his sister Joyce (1932–2006) in London Underground Station air raid shelters during the Second World War. He attended the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford in 1944, followed by London's University of East London, where he majored in ethnography. Blair eventually rekindled his passion for musical theatre and began working in the West End. He gave up acting for dancing in 1947 although he subsequently appeared in the fringe production Out of the Blue (Chichester) and Who Killed Agatha Christie (national tour) among other acting credits. He took his stage name around this time, later changing it by deed poll just before he married in 1967 (his sister also decided to use the same surname professionally).

Career

Blair came to the fore in the 1960s when, with his dance troupe, he appeared on television variety programmes. He also appeared in the films A Hard Day's Night and Absolute Beginners, cameoed in an episode of The Persuaders! and in television comedy, including the short film, The Plank. In addition, he choreographed films such as Jazz Boat (1960) and The Magic Christian (1969).

Lionel Blair's handprints in Bath, UK

Blair was one of the team captains on the game show Give Us a Clue from 1979 until the early 1990s and was the second presenter of the British version of Name That Tune in the 1980s.

He published his autobiography "Stagestruck" in 1986.

In 2005, he took part in the Channel Five reality series, The Farm. Until 2005 he appeared extensively in pantomime, for which he earned up to £15,000 a week.^[3] Blair appeared in the 2007 Christmas special of the Ricky Gervais show Extras, as himself, portraying the end-stages of his showbiz career by trying to keep up his profile by appearing on Celebrity Big Brother alongside Lisa Scott-Lee and X Factor contestant Chico. In July 2010, Blair appeared in the "Great British Dog Walks" feature on ITV1's This Morning with his dog Lola. Also in 2010, he took part in the BBC's The Young Ones, in which six celebrities in their 70s and 80s attempt to overcome some of the problems of ageing by harking back to the 1970s.^[4] In December 2010, he appeared briefly in a sketch with Ronnie Corbett and Rob Brydon in BBC1's The One Ronnie. Blair also appeared as the celebrity darter for charity on Bullseye. On 24 December 2011 he appeared on the ITV program Text Santa with Ant & Dec. In 2012, he was cast in the film version of Ray Cooney's farce Run For Your Wife.

On 3 January 2014, he entered the Celebrity Big Brother house with Made in Chelsea reality star Ollie Locke after being handcuffed together as part of a task set by Big Brother. He became the third house mate to be evicted on 17 January 2014.^[5]

Personal life

He was in the news in 2006 when his pet dog Florence was apparently kidnapped in Surrey. The cross-breed collie disappeared when Blair's wife took her for a walk in a park in Ewell near the couple's home.^[1][6] On 21 September 2006, Blair and comedian Alan Carr helped save a man about to fall from a pier in Blackpool. The man was holding on by his fingers.^[7]

Blair and wife Susan celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in March 2007. They have three children and two grandchildren.

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue

Blair's camp public persona was regularly mocked in the introduction to the game Sound Charades on BBC Radio 4's comedy show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, normally by double entendre during over-the-top accounts of Blair's skills on Give Us A Clue. In one episode the host, Humphrey Lyttelton, introduced the game: "The expert's expert was, of course, Lionel Blair. Who could ever forget opposing team captain, Una Stubbs, sitting open-mouthed as he tried to pull off Twelve Angry Men in under two minutes?".^[8]

On 29 January 2011, during the Radio 4 show "Saturday Live", hosted by Fi Glover, Blair said of the remarks on the show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue that "My wife hates it" and that he had honestly never heard the remarks on the programme himself until "now with the internet". Referring to the presenter, (the deceased Humphrey Lyttelton), he added "People say you should always speak good of the dead. He's dead – good."^[9] Blair said in the same interview that he thought that double entendres about his sexuality were no longer made on ISIHAC (i.e. since Lyttelton's death). In fact, new presenter Jack Dee carries on the tradition with gusto.

Further reading

• "Still clued-up after 60 years", The Post, 3 December 2008

References

External links

• Lionel Blair chooses his friend Sammy Davis Jr on BBC Radio 4 Great Lives - listen online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wr8pq
• Humphrey Lyttelton's Sound Charade introductions, which often feature Lionel Blair.
• Blair on Lyttelton, on Radio 4's Saturday Live (29 January 2011)
• Lionel's appearance with dog Lola on ITV1's "This Morning" show