Today's Cheescake...

[puff4]

An oldie but goodie... Tuesday Weld and Terry Thomas... and of course, a Sunbeam...

"I say!"

 

[Nickodell]

She could weld for me any day of the week.

 

[phatt]

Treery Thomas was on of my favorite actors.

 

[Nickodell]

Terry Thomas (original name Thomas Terry!) used to be a meat porter in London's Smithfield market, hoisting sides of beef on his shoulder. He got his first break in repertory theater, and then the big break on BBC TV in his own show called How do you View. This became immensely popular throughout the country, and after that he had many film parts, almost always playing the cad. One of my very favorite was in those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines.

But he died alone, in poverty.

 

[puff4]

But he died alone, in poverty.

And even more sadly, he suffered with a horrible case of Parkinson's disease for 20 years before he ultimately died from it. It was this disease that broke him both financially and emotionally, and it took a terrible toll on his lovely wife as well. But he did not die alone - his wife was with him to the end. And indeed, his actor friends held a benefit for him near the end of his life, raising over £100,000, enough to cover all of their expenses and even with some left over to donate to Parkinson's research.

I always liked Terry-Thomas as an actor, particularly in his Ealing Studio's numbers like "I'm All Right Jack", and even when he was older, like "Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". And oh, did he like the ladies...

 

[skywords]

I loved him in "How to murder your wife" with Jack Lemon. The part where Jack Lemon gets acquitted for killing his wife and she shows up being very much alive Thomas tells him to shoot her, double jeopardy, "It will be like open season"

 

[thequick]

Guys, focus, cheesecake!

 

[puff4]

Guys, focus, cheesecake!

Indeed, Mike.... almost lost the train of thought re Tuesday Weld.... this should bring it back...

 

[sunbeamowner]

An oldie but goodie... Tuesday Weld and Terry Thomas... and of course, a Sunbeam...

"I say!"

I think the movie was "Batchelor Pad or Flat'.

 

[Nickodell]

But he did not die alone - his wife was with him to the end. And indeed, his actor friends held a benefit for him near the end of his life, raising over £100,000, enough to cover all of their expenses and even with some left over to donate to Parkinson's research.

You're right; I was confusing him with another comic beloved in Britain, and many other countries - Benny Hill. Friends hadn't seen him for days, and in the end someone got a ladder and climbed up to the window of his flat, to find him sitting, dead, in a chair.

That gap in his front teeth became Terry Thomas's most famous feature. Nobody, outside of politics, could quite equal that smarmy smile that he used so effectively in his portrayals of what the Brits call a "bounder." A good example is in Lucky Jim, and the original School for Scoundrels, both opposite Ian Carmichael. Other appearances with Carmichael were in I'm Alright, Jack and Private's Progress, the latter also featuring a young Richard Attenborough.