Norman Wisdom
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Sir Norman Wisdom (believed to have been born on 4 February, 1915, other dates reported) is an English comedian, singer and actor.
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Early life
Norman Wisdom was born in the London district of Marylebone to Frederick and Maude Wisdom. His father was a chauffeur and his mother a dressmaker. After a difficult and poverty-stricken childhood he joined the 10th Hussars and began to develop his talents as a musician and stage entertainer.
Early career
After he left the army he went into show-business, gradually becoming one of Britain's most successful stars. In 1954 he released the best-selling single that is still closely associated with his name, "Don't Laugh At Me (Cause I'm A Fool)".
Moving into film in the 1960s, he created an accident-prone, clownish character called Norman Pitkin, a lovable fool who appeared in several successful films, most notably The Early Bird (1965). His famous and widely imitated cry as Pitkin was "Mr Grimsdale! Mr Grimsdale!"
Later career
In 1967, he was widely praised for his performance as a serious actor in The Night They Raided Minsky's, but his career began to decline in the 1970s and he was out of favour with British tastes in comedy for many years. On 11 February 1987 Norman Wisdom was the subject of Thames Television's This Is Your Life.
He became widely popular again in the 1990s, helped by the young comedian Lee Evans, whose act was heavily influenced by Wisdom's work. The highpoint of this new popularity was the knighthood he received in 1999 from Queen Elizabeth II.
After he was knighted, true to his accident-prone persona, he couldn't resist pretending to trip on his way out off the platform.
A "Norman Wisdom moment"
On January 25 2006, Nick Flynn, a visitor at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England destroyed three Qing Dynasty Chinese porcelain vases worth approximately £500,000. He claimed to have tripped over his own shoelaces and called the accident a "Norman Wisdom moment" (that is, a moment of extreme clumsiness), although he was later arrested under suspicion of causing criminal damage.
Popularity in Albania
Norman Wisdom is a well-known and loved cult film icon in Albania and was the only Western actor whose films were allowed in the country during the Communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha.
The archetypal Wisdom plot where the common working man gets the better of his bosses was considered ideologically sound by Hoxha. In 1995, he visited the post-Stalinist country, where to his surprise he was greeted by many appreciative fans and the then president of Albania, Sali Berisha.
Retirement
He announced his retirement from the entertainment industry on 4 February, 2005, apparently his 90th birthday. He intends to spend his retirement spending more time with his family, playing golf and driving around the Isle of Man, where he now lives (and is a neighbour of John Rhys-Davies).
He was, however, tempted out of retirement in 2005 to play a zany chauffeur in the video for Twisted Angels' single LA. Twisted Angels are an all-girl rock/punk band from the Isle of Man. This will probably be his last ever screen appearance and can be viewed on their site www.twisted-angels.net
Trivia
- He is a supporter and a former board member of Brighton and Hove Albion F.C.
- In 1998, a newly discovered asteroid was named 17826 Normanwisdom (sic) in his honour.
- He claimed that his left leg is half an inch (1.25 cm) shorter than his right.
- Member of the Grand Order of Water Rats
- Communicates with his fans on his profile on imdb.com
Works
Films and Television
- 1948 A Date with a Dream
- 1948-1950 Wit and Wisdom
- 1953 Trouble in Store
- 1954 One Good Turn
- 1955 As Long as They're Happy
- 1955 Man of the Moment
- 1956 Up in the World
- 1957 Just My Luck
- 1958 The Square Peg
- 1959 Follow A Star
- 1960 There Was a Crooked Man
- 1960 The Bulldog Breed
- 1962 On The Beat
- 1962 The Girl on the Boat
- 1963 A Stitch in Time
- 1965 The Early Bird
- 1966 The Sandwich Man
- 1966 Press for Time
- 1967 Androcles and the Lion
- 1968 The Night They Raided Minsky's (also known as The Night They Invented Striptease)
- 1969 What's Good for the Goose (aka Girl Trouble)
- 1970 Norman
- 1970 Music Hall
- 1973 Nobody Is Norman Wisdom
- 1974 A Little Bit of Wisdom
- 1981 BBC PlayHouse : Going Gently
- 1988 The 1950's: Music, Memories & Milestones
- 1992 Double X: The Name of the Game (Double X, Run Rabbit Run)
- 1994 Last of the Summer Wine — "The Man Who Nearly Knew Pavarotti"
- 1998 Where On Earth Is ... Katy Manning
- 2000 Last of the Summer Wine — "The Coming of the Beast"
- 2002 Last of the Summer Wine — "A Musical Passing for a Miserable Muscroft"
- 2002 Dalziel and Pascoe — "Mens Sana"
- 2003 Between the Sheets
- 2004 Coronation Street (guest appearance)
- 2005 Twisted Angels - LA (guest appearance in music video)
CDs and Vinyl
- The Very Best of Norman Wisdom
- Wisdom of a Fool
- Nobody's Fool
- Follow A Star
- 1957 Original Chart Hits
- Follow A Star/Give Me A Night In June
- Happy Ending/The Wisdom Of A Fool
- Big in Albania - One Hit Wonderland
Books
- Lucky Little Devil: Norman Wisdom on the Island He's Made His Home (2004)
- My Turn: Autobiography (2002)
- Don't Laugh At Me / Cos I'm A Fool (1992) (two volumes of autobiography)
Norman also played a big part in the Tony Hawks book, One Hit Wonderland. Tony and Norman had a top twenty hit in Albania in 2002 with a song called "Big in Albania" written by Hawks and Oscar winning lyricist Tim Rice.