Harry Fowler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Henry James "Harry" Fowler (born December 10, 1926 in Lambeth , London , † January 4, 2012 there ) was a British actor .

Life

Origin and years of youth

Fowler was born in south London, in the district of Lambeth Walk, in what was then the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth . He attended Central School on Lollard Street in Kennington . Fowler had a tough childhood and adolescence. His grandmother, with whom he grew up, was killed in the 1940 air raids on London . He therefore had to make a living from the age of 13. At the age of 14 he left school without any significant education. He took over a newspaper stand in Piccadilly Circus , where he sold the London evening newspaper The Star and earned eight shillings a week. Fowler himself later referred to himself as a near illiterate newspaper boy , an "almost uneducated newspaper boy".

In his work as a young newspaper seller Fowler was a journalist of the BBC approached to the radio for the show In Town Tonight about his experiences as a teenager in London during the Second World War to report. Through this radio report, the British film company British National Films became aware of Fowler because of his broad Cockney dialect. He was invited to screen tests at Elstree Studios in London and engaged for the film.

Film career

Fowler made his film debut as a teenager at the age of 15 in the comedy-like propaganda film Those Kids from Town (1942). In it, Fowler played one of six young people who had been evacuated from London as part of the so-called Kinderland deportation due to the war events and who found refuge in a small village. In addition to Fowler, the young George Cole acted in another leading role. During the Second World War, Fowler played in a total of eight other films, mainly anti-war propaganda films, such as Went the Day Well? (1942) and, again as a war evacuate, in The Demi-Paradise (1943). Towards the end of the Second World War he was drafted into the military and served as a private in the Royal Air Force from 1945 to 1947 . However , he was released from work for the shooting of the film Auf him mit Gebrüll (1947).

Fowler embodied in on him with a roar ( Hue and Cry ) (1947), far occupied under his actual age, Joe Kirby, the youthful leader of a gang of South London street guys who find that their favorite comic secret -Heft in the weekly crime stories Includes codes for actual robberies and burglaries. Fowler's partners were Jack Warner as a gang boss and Alastair Sim as the cheated comic book writer Felix H. Wilkinson.

Fowler developed into a distinguished character actor in the further course of his career . He was the classic supporting actor ; he played petty criminals, servants, reporters, doormen and salesmen. His big grin and Cockney accent were his trademarks and made him popular and recognizable . From then on, leading roles remained the exception in his screen career.

Fowler starred in the feature film I Believe in You (1952), a film about correctional institutions and the probation system in Great Britain . As the underprivileged young man Charlie Hooker, who falls victim to his stepfather, Fowler was the focus of the film; he was cast at the side of Joan Collins , also as a lover, but lost his lover to his cinematic counterpart Laurence Harvey . Before filming began, Fowler had lived in a reformatory for several days to prepare for his role.

Fowler had other cinema roles as the cheerful shoeshine boy Sam Weller in The Pickwick Papers (1952), as a private in Angels One Five (1952), as a taxi driver in the comedy Volltreffer ins Glück (1957), as Corporal Potter in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), as the milkman in Was It Really Murder? (1965, next to Bette Davis ), as a nipper in the costume film The Prince and the Beggar (1977) and as a beggar in Fanny Hill (1983). Fowler's last feature film was Chicago Joe and the Showgirl (1990).

watch TV

Fowler has also been a regular television operator since the late 1960s .

From 1958 to 1960 he played the role of Corporal "Flogger" Hoskins in the British sitcom The Army Game , which made him very popular with television audiences. He had another continuous lead series, alongside Donald Sinden , as sexton and gravedigger Harry Danvers in the television series Our Man at St Mark’s (1965-1966).

Fowler has also taken on episode roles and guest roles in numerous British television series , including Z-Cars (1963, 1970, 1972), Crown Court (1973), Minder (1982), Casualty (1986, 1992) and Doctor Who (1988).

Private

Fowler was married twice. In 1951 he married his first wife, actress Joan Dowling , whom he met while filming Hue and Cry (1947). Dowling committed 1954 suicide after her film career had stalled. She had poisoned herself with gas . In 1960 Fowler married his second wife, Catherine Palmer. Both marriages remained childless.

In 1970, as part of Harold Wilson 's Prime Minister's Resignation Honors , he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II .

Filmography (selection)

  • 1942: Those Kids from Town
  • 1943: Went the Day Well?
  • 1943: The Demi-Paradise
  • 1944: Don't Take it to Heart
  • 1946: The Little Detectives (Hue and Cry)
  • 1948: A Piece of Cake
  • 1949: Convicted Innocent (For Them That Trespass)
  • 1950: Once a Sinner
  • 1952: The Last Page
  • 1952: I Believe in You
  • 1952: Angels One Five
  • 1952: Mr. Pickwick (The Pickwick Papers)
  • 1957: A direct hit in luck (Lucky Jim)
  • 1958-1960: The Army Game
  • 1962: Flight from Singapore
  • 1962: The Longest Day (The Longest Day)
  • 1962: Lawrence of Arabia (Lawrence of Arabia)
  • 1963–1972: Z-Cars (TV series, 4 episodes)
  • 1965: Was It Really Murder? (The Nanny)
  • 1965–1966: Our Man at St Mark's (TV series)
  • 1966: Doctor in Clover
  • 1966: The Soho Scandal Girl (Secrets of a Windmill Girl)
  • 1970: The French Revolution did not take place (Start The Revolution Without Me)
  • 1973: Crown Court (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1975: The Melting Pot (TV series)
  • 1977: The Prince and the Beggar (Crossed Swords)
  • 1982: Minder (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1983: Fanny Hill
  • 1986; 1992: Casualty (TV series, 2 episodes)
  • 1987: Body Contact
  • 1988: Doctor Who
  • 1989; 1992: The Bill (TV series, 2 episodes)
  • 1990: Chicago Joe and the Showgirl (Chicago Joe and the Showgirl)
  • 1993: Love Hurts (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1997: The Famous Five (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 2004: The Impressionable Jon Culshow (TV series, 1 episode)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Harry Fowler obituary in: The Daily Telegraph, January 9, 2012
  2. ↑ a b c d Harry Fowler obituary in: The Guardian, January 4, 2012
  3. ↑ a b c Harry Fowler: Prolific screen actor known for his 'cheerful cockney' characters Obituary in: The Independent, January 9, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Fowler, Harry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fowler, Henry James (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Lambeth , London, England, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH 4th January 2012
Place of death London , England, UK