Sir Harold Donald Secombe (8 September 1921 – 11 April 2001) was a Welsh comedian, actor, singer and television presenter.
His elder brother, Fred Secombe, was the author of several books about his experiences as an Anglican priest and rector. ==Army service== After leaving school in 1937, Secombe became a pay clerk at Baldwin's store.
With war looming, he decided in 1938 that he would join the Territorial Army.
In Sicily he joined a concert party and developed his own comedy routines to entertain the troops. When Secombe visited the Falkland Islands to entertain the troops after the 1982 Falklands War, his old regiment promoted him to the rank of sergeant – 37 years after he had been demobbed. ==As an entertainer== He made his first radio broadcast in May 1944 on a variety show aimed at the services.
Following the end of fighting in the war but prior to demobilisation Secombe joined a pool of entertainers in Naples and formed a comedy duo with Spike Milligan. Secombe joined the cast of the Windmill Theatre in 1946, using a routine he had developed in Italy about how people shaved.
He is also fondly remembered at the London Welsh Centre, where he opened the bar on St Patrick's Day (17 March) 1971. ==Family== Secombe met Myra Joan Atherton at the Mumbles Dance Hall in 1946.
The couple were married from 1948 until his death, and had four children: Jennifer Secombe (d.
Together with Spike Milligan, the four wrote a comedy radio script, and Those Crazy People was commissioned and first broadcast on 28 May 1951.
In 1955, whilst appearing on The Goon Show, Secombe was approached by the BBC to step in at short notice to take the lead in the radio comedy Hancock's Half Hour.
Trained under Italian maestro Manlio di Veroli, he emerged as a bel canto tenor (characteristically, he insisted that in his case this meant "can belto") and had a long list of best-selling record albums to his credit. In 1958 he appeared in the film Jet Storm, which starred Dame Sybil Thorndike and Richard Attenborough and in the same year Secombe starred in the title role in Davy, one of Ealing Studios' last films. The power of his voice allowed Secombe to appear in many stage musicals.
Secombe had been a subject of the show previously in March 1958 when Eamonn Andrews surprised him at the BBC Television Theatre. ==Honours== In 1963 he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was knighted in 1981, and jokingly referred to himself as Sir Cumference (in recognition of his rotund figure).
Produced by Dennis Main Wilson, this would soon become The Goon Show and the show remained on the air until 1960.
This included 1963's Pickwick, based on Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers, which gave him the number 18 hit single "If I Ruled the World" – his later signature tune.
Secombe had been a subject of the show previously in March 1958 when Eamonn Andrews surprised him at the BBC Television Theatre. ==Honours== In 1963 he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was knighted in 1981, and jokingly referred to himself as Sir Cumference (in recognition of his rotund figure).
In 1965 the show was produced on tour in the United States, where on Broadway he garnered a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
Secombe scored his biggest hit single in 1967 with his version of "This Is My Song", which peaked at no.
2 on the charts in April 1967 while a recording by Petula Clark, which had hit no.
Bumble in Carol Reed's film of Oliver! (1968), and in the Envy segment of The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971). He would go on to star in his own television show, The Harry Secombe Show, which debuted on Christmas Day 1968 on BBC 1 and ran for thirty-one episodes until 1973.
Secombe later starred in similar vehicles such as Sing a Song of Secombe and ITV's Secombe with Music during the 1970s. ==Later career== Later in life, Secombe (whose brother Fred Secombe was a priest in the Church in Wales, part of the Anglican Communion) attracted new audiences as a presenter of religious programmes, such as the BBC's Songs of Praise and ITV's Stars on Sunday and Highway.
He is also fondly remembered at the London Welsh Centre, where he opened the bar on St Patrick's Day (17 March) 1971. ==Family== Secombe met Myra Joan Atherton at the Mumbles Dance Hall in 1946.
Bumble in Carol Reed's film of Oliver! (1968), and in the Envy segment of The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971). He would go on to star in his own television show, The Harry Secombe Show, which debuted on Christmas Day 1968 on BBC 1 and ran for thirty-one episodes until 1973.
He was also a special programming consultant to Harlech Television and hosted a Thames Television programme in 1979 entitled Cross on the Donkey's Back.
In the latter half of the 1980s, Secombe personally sponsored a football team for boys aged 9–11 in the local West Sutton Little League, 'Secombes Knights'. In 1990, he was one of a few to be honoured by a second appearance on This Is Your Life, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at a book signing in a London branch of WH Smith.
The motto he chose for his coat of arms was "GO ON", a reference to goon. ==Later life and death== Secombe suffered from peritonitis in 1980.
Secombe had been a subject of the show previously in March 1958 when Eamonn Andrews surprised him at the BBC Television Theatre. ==Honours== In 1963 he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was knighted in 1981, and jokingly referred to himself as Sir Cumference (in recognition of his rotund figure).
In Sicily he joined a concert party and developed his own comedy routines to entertain the troops. When Secombe visited the Falkland Islands to entertain the troops after the 1982 Falklands War, his old regiment promoted him to the rank of sergeant – 37 years after he had been demobbed. ==As an entertainer== He made his first radio broadcast in May 1944 on a variety show aimed at the services.
In the latter half of the 1980s, Secombe personally sponsored a football team for boys aged 9–11 in the local West Sutton Little League, 'Secombes Knights'. In 1990, he was one of a few to be honoured by a second appearance on This Is Your Life, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at a book signing in a London branch of WH Smith.
He had a stroke in 1997, from which he made a slow recovery.
He was then diagnosed with prostate cancer in September 1998.
After suffering a second stroke in 1999, he was forced to abandon his television career, but made a documentary about his condition in the hope of giving encouragement to other sufferers.
Sir Harold Donald Secombe (8 September 1921 – 11 April 2001) was a Welsh comedian, actor, singer and television presenter.
Secombe had diabetes in the latter part of his life. Secombe died on 11 April 2001 at the age of 79, from prostate cancer, in hospital in Guildford, Surrey.
His ashes are interred at the parish church of Shamley Green, and a later memorial service to celebrate his life was held at Westminster Abbey on 26 October 2001.
All four episodes are lost, but following the discovery of the original scripts the episodes were rerecorded in 2017, with Andrew Secombe performing the role held by his then late father. With the success of The Goon Show, Secombe developed a dual career as both a comedy actor and a singer.
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