It was hours before the birthday of Jesus at 15:03:26 when a "Simon! Sack
Mandy" post clicked to the list and news of a comedy king whose chuckling
reign had ended came through at 15:09:40 - 374 seconds apart.
Charlie - partner of 6ft 4in Jack Edwardes and half of their Mick and
Montmorency act, was a five foot knockabout in slapstick.
Diminutive Drake was a giant on stage and small-screen
and critically peaked with a Chaplin Award for Best Comedy at the '68
Montreux, but success in the filmic medium eluded him and he went straight
in Shakespeare and Pinter from '78, concentrating on theatrically serious
performance. Smallweed" in "Bleak House" - '85 - a wife-hunting Welshman -
'91 "Filipina Dreamgirls" and a not really credible crime boss in "99-1" -
94 to 5 when he semi retired after his serious stroke.
An obituary by a man called John Oliver is already published
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/1039164/index.html
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