Des O'Connor

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
(Redirected from Des O Connor)
Jump to: navigation, search

<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>

For other people named Des O'Connor, see Des O'Connor (disambiguation).
Des O'Connor
CBE, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Born Desmond Bernard O'Connor
(1932-01-12)12 January 1932
Stepney, London, England
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Buckinghamshire, England
Occupation Broadcaster, musician, comedian
Years active 1954–2020
Television The Des O'Connor Show (1963–1973)
Des O'Connor Entertains (1974–1976)
Des O'Connor Tonight (1977–2002)
Take Your Pick (1992–1999)
Today with Des and Mel (2002–2006)
Countdown (2007–2008)
Spouse(s) Phyllis Gill (m. 1953; div. 1959)
Gillian Vaughan (m. 1960; div. 1982)
Jay Rufer (m. 1985; div. 1990)
Jodie Brooke Wilson (m. 2007)
Children 5
Website desoconnornow.com

Desmond Bernard O'Connor, CBE, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , (12 January 1932 – 14 November 2020) was an English comedian, singer and television presenter.

He was a long-time TV chat-show host, beginning with The Des O'Connor Show in 1963, which ran for ten years. He also presented several U.K. television game shows, including Take Your Pick from 1992 to 1999, and the long-running Channel 4 game show Countdown for two years between 2007 and 2008.

O'Connor recorded 36 albums and had four top-ten UK singles, including a number-one hit with "I Pretend", with global sales of more than sixteen million records.[1] Well known for his friendship with comedians Morecambe and Wise, his singing ability was often light-heartedly mocked on their show, with O'Connor taking part in the sketches.[2]

Early life

O'Connor was born in Stepney, East London, to Maude (née Bassett), a Jewish cleaner, and Harry O'Connor, an Irish dustman. He was raised in his mother’s faith and often joked that he was the first O’Connor to have a bar mitzvah.[3] In his childhood, he had rickets and was later badly injured in a hit-and-run car accident which meant he had to be in an iron lung for six months.[4] He had a brother, William, and a sister, Patricia, one year his junior. He was evacuated to Northampton during the Second World War, where he worked in a shoe factory and was a schoolboy and reserves player with Northampton Town.[4][5]

After completing his national service in the Royal Air Force, he worked as a Redcoat at Butlin's holiday camp in Filey, where he met his first wife Phyllis, and as a shoe salesman at Church's in Northampton, and for United Counties, both on the road and in the office,[6] before entering show business. Prior to his break on television, his first fully professional stage appearance in variety, was in a Newcastle theatre. Later, while he was in Leeds, he invited the Welsh singer Shirley Bassey out on two dates.[3] In 1958, when Buddy Holly toured the UK, O'Connor was the show's compère for which he was paid £100 per week.[2]

Career

Stage

O'Connor appeared at the Glasgow Empire, MGM Grand, Las Vegas, the Opera House, Sydney, and the O'Keefe Centre, Toronto, and made more than one thousand solo appearances at the London Palladium.[4]

In late 2011, O'Connor starred in Dreamboats and Petticoats at the Playhouse Theatre.[citation needed]

In May 2012, O'Connor replaced Russell Grant in the West End musical, The Wizard of Oz, at the London Palladium, as Professor Marvel, Doorman at the Emerald City, Tour Guide, and The Wizard.[citation needed]

In October 2015, O'Connor and Jimmy Tarbuck starred in their own one-off show at the London Palladium to raise money for the new Royal Variety Charity. Due to the success of this show, they toured the country in 2016 from April to October. The venues they visited were (in chronological order), the Southampton Mayflower Theatre, Leeds Grand Theatre, Southend Cliffs Pavilion, Bristol Hippodrome, Bournemouth International Centre, and Milton Keynes Theatre.[citation needed]

In 2017, O'Connor and Tarbuck toured the UK again from May to December. The venues they visited included Theatre Royal, Norwich, Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, Blackpool Opera House, Princess Theatre, Torquay, The Hexagon, Reading, Theatre Royal, Newcastle and Grand Theatre, Swansea.[citation needed]

In 2017, O'Connor toured theatres around the UK with his one-man show.[citation needed]

Television

O'Connor starred in mainstream television shows in almost every year from 1963 until the 2000s, a feat that only one other television personality has achieved worldwide (U.S. game show host Bob Barker, who hosted mainstream television shows from 1956 until 2007, with 1966–1972 being in syndication).

  • Between 1963 and 1971 O'Connor hosted The Des O'Connor Show, a British variety show, for eight series on ITV. This was followed by Des O'Connor Entertains, a show which ran for two series between 1974 and 1976 and featured singing, dancing, and comedy sketches. In 1969, thirteen editions of the show were sold to NBC in the United States, as a summer replacement for the network's Kraft Music Hall. The series was broadcast in more than forty countries.[citation needed]

Guest appearances

Singing

O'Connor had a successful career as a singer, recording 36 albums,[12] five of which reached the Top 40 of the UK Albums Chart. O'Connor appeared with Morecambe and Wise on several of their Christmas Shows.[13] He worked with many pop stars, including Adam Faith, Shirley Bassey, Barbra Streisand, and Cilla Black.[citation needed] He toured with Buddy Holly (during Holly's 1958 stay in Britain)[14] and Jason Donovan.[citation needed]

He recorded four top 10 singles[15] – including "I Pretend", which topped the UK singles chart in 1968, and "The Skye Boat Song", a 1986 duet with Roger Whittaker.

His singing ability was often parodied on The Morecambe & Wise Show, with O'Connor taking part in the sketches.[2]

Awards and honours

O'Connor was the first subject of the second incarnation of the long-running television programme This Is Your Life, when the show returned to screens after a five-year absence, produced by Thames Television. He was surprised live on the stage of the London Palladium by Eamonn Andrews in November 1969.[4]

In 2001, O'Connor was presented with the Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards for his contribution to television.

In 2002, his autobiography, Bananas Can't Fly!, was published.[16]

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.[17]

Personal life and death

O'Connor married four times:

  1. Phyllis Gill (married 1953, divorced 1959; daughter Karen O'Connor)
  2. Gillian Vaughan (married 1960, divorced 1982; two daughters)
  3. Jay Rufer (married 1985, divorced 1990, one daughter)
  4. Jodie Brooke Wilson (married September 2007; one son)

On 14 November 2020, he died in hospital following a fall a week earlier at his home in Buckinghamshire, aged 88.[2]

Selected discography

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ [1]
  17. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 58729. p. . 14 June 2008.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Des_O%27Connor&oldid=726177272"