A Portrait of the British Comic Actor Norman Wisdom
“ Good morning Norman.” “ Good morning Mr Churchill…”
With the death of Norman Wisdom on Monday 4th October, 2010, aged 95, the world lost one of its funniest, most able, and most generous of comic actors. It also lost a man who, for millions of film goers, was someone who — in his ill-fitting suit and askew cloth cap — represented their own struggles in life against the grim-faced, petty bureaucrats of the 1950s and 1960s; and he usually won the girl too.
To quote Norman, from his 2002 memoir “Norman Wisdom — My Turn”:
“ I was born in very sorry circumstances. Both my parents were very sorry! That’s an old music hall gag, but in fact it wasn’t very far from the truth.
“ When I talk about my childhood, friends inevitably compare me with Oliver Twist. And that wasn’t far from the truth, either…”
But unlike Oliver Twist Norman didn’t find a Fagin, but ended up — after his mother took off — pretty much looking after himself.
Norman Wisdom was born on the 4th of February, 1915, in Marylebone, London. His father, Frederick, was a chauffeur, and his mother, Maude, a dressmaker. Their home was, by all accounts, a shabby, small one bedroom flat, with a parlour, small kitchen and a toilet, but no bathroom. The whole family slept in that…
