Geoffrey Hughes

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Geoffrey Hughes , DL (born February 2, 1944 in Wallasey , Cheshire , † July 27, 2012 on the Isle of Wight ) was a British actor .

Life

Education and theater

Geoffrey Hughes was born the elder of two sons to a Scottish mother and a Welsh father; he inherited from his parents a love of traditional Irish folk music . His father worked as a shipyard worker on the Liverpool docks . Hughes grew up in Merseyside County . He initially attended Ranworth Square Primary School in Liverpool until the age of eleven. He then went to Abbotsford Road Secondary Modern School in Norris Green , Liverpool. In the early 1960s he performed as a singer with the band The Strangers , who played beat music , in various clubs, including the Blue Angel in Liverpool and the Jive Hive in Crosby . He earned his living as a salesman in a department store and as a car salesman.

Besides Hughes played theater on Merseyside Unity Theater in Liverpool, a politically leftist amateur theater . There he was discovered by the actor Tom Bell and the playwright Alun Owen . He then got his first professional engagement and played repertory theater at the Victoria Theater in Stoke-on-Trent . He made his stage debut in London's West End in the 1964/1965 season at the Adelphi Theater with the role of the youthful hero in the musical Maggie May by Alun Owen and Lionel Bart . The play with Georgia Brown in the lead role ran for over a year in London's West End and gave Hughes experience as a stage actor.

He has also appeared in West End productions The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , Say Goodnight to Grandma (St Martin's Theater, 1973), The Secret Life of Cartoons , Run for your Wife (Criterion Theater, 1984/1985 season) and Semi-Monde (Royalty Theater, 1987/1988 season). He made several theater tours in the UK and abroad. During a tour in Australia in 1996 he played in the comedy Bedroom Guests by Alan Ayckbourn . In July 1997, he played the role of the servant Pistol in an open-air performance of the historical drama Henry V in Barnwell Manor in the county of Lincolnshire . In 2009 he joined the Oldham Coliseum Theater in Oldham in the role of Frank in the play Absolutely Frank by Tim Firth on.

watch TV

Hughes was a versatile actor. However, he was often used in the role of the rotund, but ultimately good-natured criminal. He embodied the type of the lovable crook. He drew his characters with lovable humor. Hughes convinced, although in the entire course of his career mostly cast according to type, but also in other roles, apart from his actual role type.

In 1966 Hughes made his television debut in the British television series The Likely Lads ; after that he worked regularly for television , including in the television series Z-Cars (1968). In the short-lived, after six episodes because of controversial criticism of the Independent Television Authority deposed sitcom Curry and Chips (1969), he played the role of Dick on the side of Spike Milligan .

Hughes achieved particular fame through his participation in the British soap opera Coronation Street . Hughes made his first appearance on Coronation Street in 1967; he played the criminal who beats up the pensioner Albert Tatlock. In 1974 he took on the role of garbage collector Eddie Yeats on Coronation Street , which led to Hughes' enormous popularity with television audiences. Hughes played, with a Liverpool accent , a character with a criminal past, a boy from the Borstal model reformatory , a former inmate of Walton Prison, who has just been released from prison and who is introduced as a lodger for the series character Minnie Caldwell. The highs and lows of his friendship with the series character Hilda Ogden ( Jean Alexander ) were among the highlights of the series , alongside the conversations with the bartender and innkeeper Betty Turpin (played by Betty Driver ). Hughes played this role continuously until 1983. In 1987 he returned to the series for a guest appearance.

Due to a popularity in Coronation Street , he got the lead role in the 1985 television series The Bright Side ; in it he embodied the friendly prison warden Mr. Lithgow.

Hughes had other continuous and recurring series roles as Onslow in the British sitcom Mehr Schein als Sein (1990-1995); he played the work-shy, beer-drinking, sloppy brother-in-law of the snobbish series character Hyacinth Bucket. In the British sitcom The Royle Family he regularly played the role of the criminal but good-natured Twiggy from 1998 to 2000. Hughes played a longtime family friend, a man again with a criminal past, a father of two illegitimate children who trades in stolen goods. He later appeared on the series in 2006 and 2008. Christmas 2008 he was seen in the episode The New Sofa , the Christmas special of the series under the title The Royle Family's Christmas Special . He played the unsuccessful but lovable entrepreneur and con artist Vernon Scripps in the police series Heartbeat (2001-2007). In the British television series Skins - Hautnah (2007-2009) he took on the role of Uncle Keith.

Hughes also appeared in several television films . He played a detective in the television film The Man from the Pru (1990) and took on the role of Trinculo in a BBC film adaptation of the Shakespeare play The Storm in 1992 . He played the Archangel Gabriel in the BBC production Liverpool Nativity (2007) .

movie theater

Hughes has also appeared in a number of movies where he was always cast in supporting roles , such as a construction worker in the comedy film Smashing Time (1967), as cook Private Samuel in the film drama Events while Guarding the Bofors Cannon (1968; directed by Jack Gold ) , as Mike's brother in the tragic comedy Till Death Us Do Part (1968), as the young recruit Lantry in the war film Recruits in the Death Jungle (1969), based on the novel by Leslie Thomas , as the beer driver Fred in the thriller Revenge (1971; with Joan Collins ), as Willie in the comedy Is Yes Crazy - A Strike Seldom Comes Alone (1971), in Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1972) and as the postman in the comedy Confessions of a Driving Instructor (1976).

His biggest box office success, however, was a role in which Hughes was not seen, only his voice could be heard. In the cartoon Yellow Submarine (1968) he lent his voice to Paul McCartney .

Private

Hughes was married to his wife Susan (Sue) Hughes. He had met her at the Navigation Inn in Buxworth , Derbyshire . The Navigation Inn was run by the owner, actress Pat Phoenix (Elsie Tanner on Coronation Street ) at the time.

While working on Coronation Street , Hughes and his wife Sue ran a small sheep-raising farm on their Lilford Park estate in the Nene Valley, Northamptonshire . His wife ran a small craft shop there .

Hughes was an avid sailor ; he was a member of the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club in Cowes . In 2003 he moved entirely to the Isle of Wight with his wife Susan. They moved to Newport ; Hughes and his wife ran a timber trade there . Hughes supported several national and local charities and relief organizations and other the Red Squirrel Trust (where he was a patron , so-called. Patron ), the Earl Mountbatten Hospice, the rescue organization Cowes Inshore Lifeboat, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and the St Mary's Hospital.

In 2009 he was appointed Deputy Lord Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight; in this capacity he represented the crown on official occasions.

In 1996, Hughes was diagnosed with prostate cancer . Hughes underwent major surgery and was considered cured. He starred in two short films , in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, with Expresso (2007) and Waiting in Rhyme (2009). In August 2010, Hughes was diagnosed with cancer again.

Hughes died of prostate cancer on the evening of July 27, 2012, according to his family, "peacefully, while sleeping" in his home on the Isle of Wight at the age of 68.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1966: The Likely Lads (TV series, 2 episodes)
  • 1967: Smashing Time
  • 1968: Events while guarding the Bofors Gun (The Bofors Gun)
  • 1968–1974: Z-Cars (TV series, 5 episodes)
  • 1968: Yellow Submarine ( Yellow Submarine) (speaking role)
  • 1969: Till Death Us Do Part
  • 1969: Curry and Chips (TV series, 6 episodes)
  • 1970: The Man Who Had Power Over Women
  • 1971: The Blood on Satan's Claw
  • 1971: Revenge
  • 1971: It's crazy - a strike rarely comes alone (Carry on at Your Convenience)
  • 1974: Crown Court (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1974–1983: Coronation Street (TV series)
  • 1976: Confessions of a Driving Instructor
  • 1980: Nijinsky
  • 1985: The Bright side (TV series, 5 episodes)
  • 1986: Doctor Who (TV series, 2 episodes)
  • 1990-1995: Up Appearances (Keeping Up Appearances) (TV Series)
  • 1992: The Tempest
  • 1998-2000; 2006; 2008: The Royle Family (TV series)
  • 2001–2007: Heartbeat (Heartbeat) (TV series)
  • 2007: Casualty (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 2007: Espresso (short film)
  • 2007: Liverpool Nativity (TV movie)
  • 2007–2009: Skins - Hautnah (Skins ) (TV series, 4 episodes)
  • 2009: Waiting in Rhyme (short film)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Coronation Street actor Geoffrey Hughes dies aged 68 BBC News Bristol on July 28, 2012
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Geoffrey Hughes: Versatile actor who was happy to be cast as the lovable scouser - Obituary in: The Independent of July 31, 2012
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Geoffrey Hughes obituary - Obituary in: The Guardian, July 29, 2012
  4. ^ My kingdom for a stage in: Britain ; Jul 97, Vol. 7, Issue 7, p. 7th
  5. ↑ a b c d e Geoffrey Hughes obituary in: The Daily Telegraph, July 29, 2012
  6. ^ Obituary: Geoffrey Hughes obituary on the IndieLondon website ; last accessed on August 7, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Hughes, Geoffrey
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hughes, Geoff
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Wallasey , Cheshire, England, UK
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 2012
Place of death Isle of Wight , England, UK