page_title: Terry-Thomas
section_title: Dealing with Parkinson's: 1971–1983
hierarchical_section_title: Terry-Thomas / Biography / Dealing with Parkinson's: 1971–1983
caption_attribution_description: Photo of Red Skelton as boxer Cauliflower McPugg with guest star Terry-Thomas on The Red Skelton Show.
context_page_description: Terry-Thomas was an English comedian and character actor who became known to a worldwide audience through his films during the 1950s and 1960s. He often portrayed disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads, toffs and bounders, using his distinctive voice; his costume and props tended to include a monocle, waistcoat and cigarette holder. His striking dress sense was set off by a ¹⁄₃-inch gap between his two upper front teeth.
  Born in London, Terry-Thomas made his film debut, uncredited, in The Private Life of Henry VIII. He spent several years appearing in smaller roles, before wartime service with Entertainments National Service Association and Stars in Battledress. The experience helped sharpen his cabaret and revue act, increased his public profile and proved instrumental in the development of his successful comic stage routine. Upon his demobilisation, he starred in Piccadilly Hayride on the London stage and was the star of the first comedy series on British television, How Do You View?. He appeared on various BBC Radio shows, and made a successful transition into British films.
context_section_description: While appearing in Don't Just Lie There, Say Something! at the Metro Theatre, Sydney in 1971, Terry-Thomas felt unwell and visited a doctor, who noticed his patient's left hand was shaking slightly. The doctor suggested he visit a specialist on his return to the UK, who diagnosed the actor with Parkinson's disease. Fearing the condition would affect offers of work, Terry-Thomas did not make the news public, but as the symptoms began to manifest themselves in tremors, a shuffling gait, stooped posture and affected speech, he made the news known—partly to stop rumours of on-set drunkenness.
  He continued to work as much as possible, although—as the film historian Geoff Mayer pointed out—the situation "reduced his film career to supporting roles and cameos". The lucrative voice-over role of Sir Hiss in the 1973 Walt Disney film Robin Hood was one notable part, while others were less well-known, such as The Vault of Horror, a film described by Richard Ross as a "cornball terror", in which he starred with Curd Jürgens, Tom Baker and Denholm Elliott. He also continued to appear on television shows in both the US and UK, as well as advertisements, including appearing with June Whitfield for Birds Eye fish fingers, a series of vermouth advertisements filmed in Italy, and an award-winning series for Benson & Hedges along with Eric Sykes.
  During the 1970s he starred in a series of low-budget British films, including two in 1975, Spanish Fly—called a "gruesome smutfest" by the writer Christopher Fowler—and The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones, described by the Film Review Digest as a "cheap, crude, sexed-up rehash" of the other film adaptations of Henry Fielding's source novel.
  In 1977 he starred in The Last Remake of Beau Geste and The Hound of the Baskervilles, the latter starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore as Holmes and Watson; Terry-Thomas thought "it was the most outrageous film I ever appeared in ... there was no magic ... it was bad!" By then he had exhibited a decrease in bodily movement, a sign of how serious his condition had become. His distinctive voice had developed a softer tone and his posture was contorted. Between 1978 and 1980, he spent much time with medical consultants. Despite this he was offered a few engagements and had been voted the most recognisable Englishman among Americans in a poll which also featured Laurence Olivier, Robert Morley and Wilfrid Hyde-White. As a result, he secured a lucrative advertising contract with the Ford Motor Company. Derek Jarman offered Terry-Thomas a role in his 1979 film The Tempest, but the actor was forced to pull out because of his deteriorating health.
  Terry-Thomas undertook his final film role in 1980 in Febbre a 40!, a German–Italian co-production that was "nondescript and barely screened", according to Robert Ross, and did not even have a theatrical release in its two domestic markets. He continued his involvement in the film industry, where he funded three films during the early 1980s (noted by Ross to be "destined from the outset for B-picture status or straight-to-video exposure"); he commented that "I have made a loss of one hundred per cent". In 1982, with his condition worsening, Terry-Thomas featured in two episodes of the BBC series The Human Brain, which examined his condition; his frank interview brought much public awareness of the disease and raised £32,000 for the Parkinson's Disease Society. Privately, he was becoming more depressed; his London flat had been sold to provide badly needed funds, and his work offers were decreasing.
caption: Terry-Thomas (right) and Red Skelton in The Red Skelton Show (1968)
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