Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens (14 July 1911 – 8 January 1990) was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as “What an absolute shower!”, “Good show!”, “You dirty rotter” and “Hard cheese.”
He was born Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens at 53, Princes Avenue N3, Finchley, North London, England, and educated at Ardingly College. He began his working life as a clerk with Union Cold Storage Co, before drifting into show business. Terry-Thomas worked in cabaret and as a film extra before finding success as an entertainer during World War II. After the war, he worked in TV, radio and variety, but it was during the mid-1950s that he developed his famous persona, first in his television series, How Do You View?, and then in films. His performance as Major Hitchcock in John and Roy Boulting’s… read more
Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens (14 July 1911 – 8 January 1990) was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as “What an absolute shower!”, “Good show!”, “You dirty rotter” and “Hard cheese.”
He was born Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens at 53, Princes Avenue N3, Finchley, North London, England, and educated at Ardingly College. He began his working life as a clerk with Union Cold Storage Co, before drifting into show business. Terry-Thomas worked in cabaret and as a film extra before finding success as an entertainer during World War II. After the war, he worked in TV, radio and variety, but it was during the mid-1950s that he developed his famous persona, first in his television series, How Do You View?, and then in films. His performance as Major Hitchcock in John and Roy Boulting’s Private’s Progress (1956) gave birth to his catchphrase, “you’re an absolute shower”, and made him a favourite in British comedy films for the next decade. He reprised the role of Hitchcock in I’m All Right Jack (1959), and appeared in several of the Boultings’ other films, including Lucky Jim and Brothers in Law.
Although Terry-Thomas was renowned for his caddish persona, he was a gifted voice actor with a range of accents in his repertoire. It was reported that the voice actor Ivan Owen based his voice for Basil Brush on Terry-Thomas’s distinctive voice.
Initially billed as Thomas (or Thos) Stevens, he considered the stage name Thomas Terry, but fearing that this might be taken as an attempt to pass himself off as a relation of the actress Ellen Terry, he reversed this to Terry Thomas. In 1948, he affected a hyphen between the two names in order to be more distinctive, largely to stop people calling him “Mr. Thomas” (which he disliked) and, according to biographer Graham McCann, “because it felt right”.
He played a variety of exuberant, malevolent and silly characters during the 1960s, and became famous for his humorous portrayal of the archetypal English upper-class cad and bounder. (Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines; Monte Carlo or Bust; How Sweet It Is!; Jules Verne’s Rocket to the Moon). In the 1970s he reprised his character from the first two of the films above along with Eric Sykes to make high quality cinema and TV advertisements for Benson and Hedges cigarettes.
In 1966, he played a notable but very different role as an RAF airman travelling through occupied France – and nicknamed “Big Moustache” by his French helpers – in the French film La Grande Vadrouille, which for over forty years remained the most successful film in the history of cinema in France.
He was married twice. His first marriage was to Ida Patlansky, from 1938 to 1962, and he was married to Belinda Cunningham from 1963 until his death. He had two sons.
In 1971 Thomas was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and by 1977 he had retired. During the 1980s he spent periods on and off working with ghost writer Terry Baum on an autobiography, Terry-Thomas Tells Tales, which was published posthumously in 1992. In 1989, actor Jack Douglas and Richard Hope-Hawkins, organised a benefit concert for Thomas, after discovering he was living in virtual obscurity and ill health. The gala, held at London’s Theatre Royal, ran for five hours, Phil Collins topping the bill along with 120 artists. Michael Caine was the gala chairman. The show raised over £75,000 for Thomas and Parkinson’s UK. The actor Richard Briers was a second cousin of Terry-Thomas, and became President of Parkinson’s UK as a result of his disease.
Terry-Thomas died in 1990 at the age of 78 in Busbridge Hall nursing home, Godalming, Surrey. The funeral service was held in Busbridge’s St. John the Baptist Church. He was cremated at Guildford Crematorium. —Wikipedia
