Ronnie Barker - Beginnings, Success, Personal life

Comic actor, born in Bedford, Bedfordshire, SC England, UK. An amateur performer, he made his professional debut at Aylesbury Repertory Theatre in Quality Street (1948). An affable figure, adept at precisely detailed characterizations, tongue-twisting comic lyrics, and saucy humour, his many radio and television appearances include The Frost Report (1966–7), the widely popular Porridge (1974–7), Open All Hours (1976, 1981–5) and, in partnership with Ronnie Corbett, the long-running The Two Ronnies (1971–87). His film roles include Wonderful Things (1958), Robin and Marian (1976), and Porridge (1979). He retired in 1987 and his autobiography, Dancing in the Moonlight, appeared in 1993. Occasional television appearances since retirement include the dramas The Gathering Storm (2002) and My House in Umbria (2003), and in 2005 he reunited with Corbett for a short series The Two Ronnies Sketchbook. His awards include the Royal Television Society's award for outstanding creative achievement (1975), and in 2004 he was honoured with a BAFTA tribute award for his contribution to comedy. In 2005, the British Comedy Awards renamed one of their annual prizes for writing as the Ronnie Barker Writer of the Year Award in his memory.

Ronnie Barker
Born
September 25, 1929 Bedford, Bedfordshire, England
Died
October 3, 2005 Dean (near Chipping Norton), Oxfordshire, England
Occupation
Actor, writer, comedian
Career milestones
The Frost Report (1966) The Two Ronnies (1971-1987, 2004) Porridge (1974-1977) Open All Hours (1976-1985)
Website
BBC comedy profile

Ronald William George Barker, OBE (September 25, 1929 – October 3, 2005), popularly known as Ronnie Barker and (as a writer) Gerald Wiley , was an English comic actor and writer. His best-known appearances were alongside his long-time comedy partner, Ronnie Corbett, in the very popular TV variety show The Two Ronnies;

Beginnings

Barker was born in Bedford in Bedfordshire. He had two sisters and the family moved to Oxford when his father, a clerk for Shell Oil, was relocated, when Barker was four years old. Barker attended Oxford High School and at 16, he left and took a job as a bank clerk - but the theatre called. Barker then went on to join the Playhouse Theatre, at the time under the actor-management of Frank Shelley, as an actor and stagehand, at £2 10s (£2.50) per week. In 1993, Barker dedicated his autobiography to Shelley, whom he called one of the "three wise men who directed my career;

Success

He then worked as an actor and assistant stage manager with the Manchester Repertory Company, but was soon spotted by Sir Peter Hall who gave him a West End role. On television, he wrote and performed many satirical skits in The Frost Report, notably a series of trios which he performed with Ronnie Corbett and John Cleese. Jason appeared in several episodes of Porridge, and co-starred as Granville, the errand boy and nephew of Barker's stuttering shopkeeper Arkwright in the sitcom Open All Hours, written by Roy Clarke (who also wrote Last of the Summer Wine and Keeping Up Appearances). Barker privately regarded the series as the finest work of his career. The first came at a time when Barker was grieving the early death of his co-star Richard Beckinsale, and Barker tearfully paid tribute to Beckinsale in his brief acceptance speech.

Barker was also an accomplished comedy writer. No one believed Barker at first, when he stood up and announced it was him, particularly as he himself had turned away scripts credited to Wiley. Barker admitted that he carried out this deception, because he was afraid that his ideas and scripts would not be judged on merit otherwise. His other credits include the (almost) silent films A Home of Your Own (1964), Futtock's End (1970), The Picnic (1975) and By the Sea (1982), the sit-coms His Lordship Entertains, The Magnificent Evans and Clarence, the plays Rub A Dub Dub and Mum, and the LP A Pint of Old and Filthy. Straight roles were few and far between, though he did put in a dramatic-comic turn as Cheshire in The Hidden Tiger episode of the 1960s classic series The Avengers and as Friar Tuck in Robin and Marian.

Barker made occasional TV appearances after his 1988 retirement, most notably as Winston Churchill's butler—a "straight" role, but with opportunities for comic asides—in the BBC drama The Gathering Storm in 2002. he reunited with Ronnie Corbett to record The Two Ronnies Sketchbook, a clip show of their sketches along with newly recorded introductions. On Wednesday 6th July 2005, another, final special - The Two Ronnies Christmas Sketchbook, was recorded with new introductions featuring clips from their previous Christmas special shows.

He was voted amongst the top 20 greatest comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders in a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian. He also commented that Barker was "pure gold in triplicate - as a comedian, writer and friend".

Personal life

Barker married Joy Tubb in 1957 and they had three children: two sons, the actors Adam (b. 1960) and one daughter, the actress Charlotte Barker (b. His catchphrase ending from The Two Ronnies provided the perfect epitaph: "Goodnight From Him".

He had a private humanist funeral in Banbury, followed by a public memorial service on 3rd March 2006 at Westminster Abbey, at which Richard Briers, David Jason and (from standing on a crate!) Ronnie Corbett read, a recording of Barker's rhyming slang sermon was played, and the choir processed in behind four candles, a reference to the Two Ronnies' most famous sketch. Barker, R. Ronnie Barker: The Authorised Biography.