Actor
 |
Best Film | Carry On Don't Lose Your Head |
| Best Character | Dr Stoppidge in Carry On Again Doctor | |
| Silliest name | Tonka in Carry On Up the Jungle | |
| Films | 24 - Sergeant, Nurse, Teacher, Constable, Regardless, Cabby, Jack, Spying, Cleo, Cowboy, Screaming, Don't Lose Your Head, Follow The Camel, Doctor, Up the Khyber, Again Doctor, Camping, Up the Jungle, Loving, Henry, At Your Convenience, Abroad, Matron, That's | |
| Best Line | In Carry On Don't Lose Your Head, a message arrives just before his be-heading to which the Duc replies "Put it in the basket, I'll read it later" |
If you had asked Charles Hawtrey what his family history was, he would have told you that
he was the son of the celebrated Sir Charles Hawtrey, the light comedy actor-manager and
he would have regaled anecdotes about him. This was not true. Charles Hawtrey’s youth
is a little known subject.
What we do know of him, though, is he first trod the boards in
1925 and this makes him the Carry Oner with the longest showbiz record. When he came to
the Carry On stable with Carry On Sergeant, he had already made a name for himself in
revues, pantomimes, stage and most notably, in films in the Will Hay comedies.
In the 30’s and 40’s he appeared on stage in classic plays, revues and pantomimes including The Taming Of The Shrew, but he will be remembered for this stage of his career as the elderly schoolboy sidekick in the Will Hay films like Good Morning Boys and The Goose Steps. He later on used this schoolboy image to appear in TV’s The Army Game.
Throughout the Carry Ons, he has played virtually the same role as a bespectacled, weedy, eager beaver who skips through life with a child-like unawareness. In Nurse, we see him in bed, locked into his earphones conducting to the music, laughing loudly at a comedy or weeping into his pillow, totally oblivious to the world around him. In Constable, he is a trainee policeman in virtually the same character. Cabby sees his role increased but not altered, playing the aptly named Pint Pot.
Camping see him epitomise his Carry On persona as Charlie
Muggins, a lone camper who inadvertently pitches his tent on an army firing range only to
have it blown away, to which he comments, "I know I shouldn’t have eaten those
radishes!" This sums up his innocence and ignorance to the situations as he
continues
his camping journey with no tent. As Private Widdle of the 3rd Foot and Mouth
Brigade in Up The Khyber, it is him alone, through his actions, who brings the wrath of
the natives down on the British. Standing at the Khyber Pass gate, he is confronted by
Bungdit Din and attempt to halt him with a backward-pointing gun and then proceeds to ask
Bungdit Din to "wait a minute", while he corrects the gun.
Hawtrey could never by confused as a sex symbol with his camped up voice and just when you think he’s going to embark on a love affair, the script flips him over and he is fact sharing a night watching television or having a game of cards. He does sometimes escape the typecasting and he is put into an unlikely role as the lecherous Sir Roger De Lodgerly, or the Great Tonka but that is still not really changing his character because the situations and the character he is put in is for comic effect.
Out of all the drag roles that have been played in the Carry Ons he seemed most at ease and the one with whom it seemed to work best.
Hawtrey died 27th October 1988 aged 73.
