Comedy
actor.
Born in Johannesburg, South
Africa, 8 May 1913.
Attended schools in
Johannesburg. Married: 1) Meg
Williams; one daughter; 2)
Valerie Ashton; one son and one
daughter. Died 26 April 1976.
Sid
James established himself as a
nationally recognised figure in British broadcasting in a
ground-breaking radio comedy,
Hancock's Half Hour in the
mid-1950s. But James was a
ubiquitous supporting role film
actor. Appearing in over 150
features during his career, he
was best known as a regular
character in the "Carry
On" comedies (1958-80). He
acted in numerous stage comedies
and starred in several
television series. With the
situation comedy, Bless This
House (ITV, 1971-76), James
secured his status as one of the
most enduring figures of
post-war British popular
culture. Clever exploitation of
a naturally heavy-lined face to
produce a variety of put upon
expressions endeared him to
"Carry On" and
television audiences alike. His
"dirty" cackle of a
laugh embodied a vein of
"kiss-me--quick"
bawdiness that runs deep in
English humour.
Christened Sidney Joel Cohen,
Sid James was a South
African-born Jew whose parents
worked in the music hall
business. James had joined a
South African regiment of the
British Army in 1939 and soon
became a producer in its
entertainment unit. As such he
was typical of a generation of
British performers and writers
who learned their trade while in
the Armed Forces. After the
service, James arrived in London
on Christmas Day 1946 looking to
make a start in acting. His
grizzled face meant that he
became typecast as minor
gangsters in his early film
appearances. His career success
came when he transformed himself
into a quintessential Londoner,
an ordinary bloke, who drew
sympathy from his audience
despite playing a rascal in many of his roles.
His television credits include
some dozen plays (including some
drama) and several series. He
made his television debut in
1948 in a two-part BBC drama Kid
Flanagan as Sharkey Morrison and
played the lead role of Billy
Johnson in The Front Page (BBC)
later the same year. In 1949 he
played an American film director
in a 30 minute play called
Family Affairs (BBC). After
significant supporting roles in
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and
The Ritchfield Thunderbolt
(1953), his persona began to
develop, from gangsters, into
characters who lived just this
side of the law in the austere
conditions of 1950s Britain.
Although he was best known for
his
comic roles, James rarely turned
down dramatic work. His next
television appearance was in
Another Part of the Forest (BBC,
1954) one of an acclaimed 20th
Century Theatre series.
Spotted by two script writers,
Ray Galton and Alan Simpson,
James was cast as Tony Hancock's
house mate in the radio comedy
Hancock's Half Hour. His ability
as an actor to play off a lead
was recognised by Hancock. When
the show switched to television,
Hancock insisted that all his
supporting actors from the radio
version be dropped except James.
The 30-minute television
(1956-60), represented a
defining moment in British
situation comedy. The show
developed huge audiences; BBC
audience research estimates that
28% of the population sat down
to watch it at its peak. During
this four-year period, James
appeared as a pirate (Shanty
Jack) in The Buccaneers (BBC,
1957) and played a character
from the shadier side of
London's Jewish community in a
six-part series for ITV called
East End, West End (1958).
James' dependency on the Hancock
connection was broken at the
start of the 1960s when he began
to appear in what became a
highly successful series of
Carry On films (Carry on
Constable was
his first in 1960). These
quickly-made film farces
provided regular,
almost annual income for its
troupe of actors. James became
one of the best-loved stars,
appearing in almost twenty
films, usually playing hen-pecked husbands
desperate for extramarital sex
with younger women.
He never worked with Hancock
again, but he was immediately contracted by the BBC to star in
a Galton and Simpson-scripted series called Citizen James,
(1960-62). In a series called
It's a Deal (BBC, 1961), he played a
working class property dealer
whose business partner was a
Mayfair playboy (Dennis Price).
Mismatched in class, the two
characters were essentially
similar rogues underneath who
found themselves reluctantly
dependent on one another.
Throughout the 1960s, James'
television work was based on
characters and plots that
employed variations on this
theme. In Taxi! (BBC,1963-64) he
played a London cabby who gets
involved in the day to day
problems of his fares and his
fellow drivers. The twelve,
50-minute episodes were an
uneven mix of drama and comedy
that did not prove successful in
the audience ratings. In George
and the Dragon, (ITV 1966-69),
James played a chauffeur
(George) to John Le Mesurier
(Colonel Maynard). Both men are
dominated by the over-bearing
housekeeper character (the
Dragon), played by Peggy Mount.
The comedy came from James'
challenge to her control of
their social superior and
employer. In Two in Clover (ITV,
1969-70) James played alongside
Victor Spinetti in a series
whose comic situation derived
from transplanting a mis-matched
pair from the city to the country.
With Bless this House (ITV,
1971-76) James secured his
position as a television sitcom
actor of national acclaim. It
also signaled a change in emphasis from his
early film and "Carry
On" types to one that
suited his maturing years. He
played Sid Abbott, a
long--suffering father/husband,
to his wife, Jean (Diana
Coupland) and their two children Mike and
Kate. The key to his success was
his ability to deliver lines for
comic effect and react to those
around him. His heavily lined face
testified to a lot of laughter.
While his characters typically gave in
to their fate, his distinctive dirty cackle erased any
lingering pathos. James died
suddenly in 1976 on stage in a comedy called
The Mating Game after the pre-recorded Bless this House
series having just completed its
run.
-Lance Pettit
