Terry Scott

Scott was born and brought up in Watford, Hertfordshire, and educated at Watford Field Junior School and Watford Grammar School for Boys. He was the youngest of three children, and the only surviving son after his brother Aubrey died when Scott was six.The Unforgettable, ITV1, 22 September 2010 After National Service in the Navy at the end of the Second World War, he briefly studied accounting.

Scott began his acting career with appearances on radio shows such as Workers Playtime, which were followed by appearances on television. He gained an opportunity to perform in farce when he joined the Whitehall Theatre Company. With Bill Maynard he appeared at Butlin's Holiday Camp in Skegness, Lincolnshire and partnered him in the TV series Great Scott - It's Maynard!.{{cite web | url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/1367370/index.html |title = BFI Screenonline: Scott, Terry (1927–1994) Biography}} During the 1960s he appeared alongside Hugh Lloyd in Hugh and I (1962–1967).{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jul/16/television.television|last=Lloyd|first=Hugh|title=Much-loved comedy actor, he went on to more serious roles |newspaper=The Guardian|date=16 July 2008|access-date=30 December 2018}} They both appeared as Ugly Sisters in pantomime at The London Palladium; Scott reappeared in later years in the same role alongside Julian Orchard. Scott and Lloyd later appeared in Hugh and I Spy (1968) and, as gnomes, in the sitcom The Gnomes of Dulwich (1969).

Scott's novelty record "My Brother" (written by Mitch Murray, and released in 1962 on Parlophone) was based on a schoolboy character (he dressed in school uniform to sing it on TV). In the 1970s he had a role in TV commercials for Curly Wurly caramel bars, in which he again appeared dressed as a schoolboy, with short trousers and cap. He repeated this performance several times on BBC TV's long-running variety show The Good Old Days. Scott had played a small role in the very first of the Carry On films series of films, Carry On Sergeant in 1958. In 1968 he returned to the series with a role in Carry On Up the Khyber (1968), playing main roles in six of the later films.

Scott starred alongside June Whitfield in several series of the comedy Happy Ever After and its successor Terry and June.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/dec/11/june-whitfield-interview|title=June Whitfield Interview|newspaper=The Guardian|date=11 December 2011|access-date=30 December 2018}} They had first worked together making a series of the sketch show Scott On (1968). They also featured in supporting roles together (as a couple) in the film version of Bless This House. Although both Scott and Whitfield made several Carry On appearances, they never appeared in the same film. From 1981 to 1992, Scott was the voice of Penfold the hamster in the animated series Danger Mouse.

Scott suffered from ill health for several years in the latter part of his life. In 1979, he had a life-saving operation after a brain haemorrhage.{{Cite web|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12735203.Terry_Scott__epitome_of_the_English_sit_com__dies_aged_67/|title=Terry Scott, epitome of the English sit-com, dies aged 67|website=HeraldScotland|date=27 July 1994 |language=en|access-date=2018-01-09}} He also suffered from creeping paralysis and had to wear a neck brace.

Scott was also diagnosed with cancer in 1987 and besides voicing Penfold, gradually wound down his performing career. He died from its effects at his family home in Witley, Surrey, on 26 July 1994, at the age of 67.{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-terry-scott-1416495.html|title=Obituary: Terry Scott|website=Independent.co.uk|access-date=24 October 2018|date=27 July 1994}} He said of his last illness: "I know it would be better to give up the booze, fags and birds, but life would be so boring, wouldn't it?"{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/stars-carry-happened-next/terry-scott/|title=Barbara Windsor, Kenneth Williams, and the cast of Carry On: what happened next?|date=6 May 2017|newspaper=The Telegraph}}

When Terry and June ended in 1987, Scott suffered a nervous breakdown. The breakdown was in part brought on by his public confession that he had indulged in a series of affairs since his marriage to dancer Margaret Peden in 1957. The couple had four daughters.

• "Don't Light The Fire 'Til After Santa's Gone" / "My Brother", Parlophone R 4967 (December 1962){{Cite web|url=https://www.windmill-records.co.uk/terry-scott---my-brotherdont-light-the-fire-til-after-santas--gone-r-4967-ex-121402-p.asp|title=Terry Scott - My Brother/Don't Light The Fire 'Til After Santa's Gone (R 4967) Ex|website=Windmill-records.co.uk|access-date=26 August 2023}}

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Category:1927 births

Category:1994 deaths

Category:Butlins Redcoats

Category:Deaths from cancer in England

Category:English male film actors

Category:English male comedians

Category:English male television actors

Category:English male voice actors

Category:People educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys

Category:Male actors from Watford

Category:20th-century English male actors

Category:20th-century English comedians

Category:British novelty song performers

Category:Royal Navy personnel of World War II

Category:Comedians from Hertfordshire

Category:Royal Navy sailors

Category:Military personnel from Hertfordshire