Tony Hancock
Tony Hancock was born on 12 May 1924 in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, England, but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in Holdenhurst Road, worked as a comedian and entertainer.
After his father’s death in 1934, Tony and his brothers lived with their mother and stepfather at a small hotel then known as The Durlston Court (now renamed The Quality Hotel). He was educated at Durlston Court Preparatory School, a boarding school at Durlston in Swanage and Bradfield College in Reading, but left school at the age of fifteen.
In 1942, during World War II, Hancock joined the RAF Regiment. Following a failed audition for the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), he ended up on The Ralph Reader Gang Show. After the war, he returned to the stage and eventually worked as resident comedian at the Windmill, home to many comedians and actors of the period and worked on radio shows such as Workers’ Playtime and Variety Bandbox.
In 1951, Hancock joined the cast of Educating Archie, where he played the tutor and foil to the nominal star, a ventriloquist’s dummy. This brought him recognition and a catchphrase he used frequently in the show (”Flippin’ kids!”) became popular parlance. The same year, he made regular appearances on BBC Television’s popular light entertainment show Kaleidoscope.
In 1954, he was given his own BBC radio show, Hancock’s Half Hour.
In June 1950, Hancock married model Cicely Romanis, after a brief courtship.
The situation became more complicated as Freddie Ross (who worked as his publicist from 1954) became more involved in his life, eventually becoming his mistress. He divorced his first wife in 1965, and married Freddie in December of that year. This second marriage was short-lived. During these years Hancock was also involved with Joan Le Mesurier (née Malin), the new wife of actor John Le Mesurier, Hancock’s best friend and a regular supporting character-actor from his television series. Joan was later to describe the relationship in her book Lady Don’t Fall Backwards, including the claim that her husband readily forgave the affair. If it had been anyone else, he said, he wouldn’t have understood it, but with Tony Hancock, it made sense. In July 1966, Freddie took an overdose but was saved from dying. Arriving in Blackpool to record an edition of his variety series, Hancock was met by pressmen asking about his wife’s attempted suicide. The final dissolution of the marriage took place a few days ahead of Hancock’s suicide.
Hancock’s first wife died from her own problems with alcohol in 1969, the year after the death of her former husband. Freddie Hancock survived the tragedy of her broken marriage and resumed her career as a prominent publicist and agent in the film and television industry. She has been based in New York City for many years. She was the founder of – and is a prominent member of – the East Coast chapter of BAFTA, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
