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Hattie Jacques

Biography

Hattie Jacques was born in Sandgate, Kent, on February 7, 1924.

Hattie's first exposure to the world of show business came when she would follow her brother to work; he was a lift-operator at London's Little Players Theatre. Before long, she was appearing on stage in a variety of roles, normally singing Victorian songs and performing in the Players' pantomimes. Hattie's' famous outsize fairy act was developed and fostered in these early days. She regularly appeared as the Christmas fairy in the theatre's pantomimes, a role which she often nominated her favourite. Hattie remained faithful to Little Players Theatre, returning to it regularly as a performer, producer and writer.

As her early career developed, Hattie became famous as a music hall act. Her first major role was as Sophie Tuckshop, the greedy schoolgirl, in ITMA - Tommy Handley's immortal radio comedy. A tenure in Educating Archie followed soon after, and it was there that she first met her long time sparring partner, Eric Sykes. Hattie and Sykes continued to work together for 30 years, in a succession of TV series that became incredibly popular, in particular the serie “Carry On”.

Hattie first worked with Hancock in the second radio series of "Educating Archie" (August 1951 - January 1952) and made a guest appearance (28-4-52) whilst he was compere of "Calling All Forces". She made her mark in the "Hancock's Half Hour" radio shows as "Miss Pugh" (Series 4 and 5) and appeared occasionally in the BBC-TV series. She also made a brief appearance in Hancock's film, "The Punch and Judy Man".

Hattie died to London - England on October 6, 1980 after suffering a heart attack. She was just 56.

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Filmography

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