Ronnie Barker

Ronald William George "Ronnie" Barker, OBE was an English actor, comedian and writer. He was known for roles in British comedy television series such as Porridge, The Two Ronnies and Open All Hours.
Barker began acting in repertory theatre and decided he was best suited to comic roles. He had his first success at the Oxford Playhouse and in roles in the West End including Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound. During this period, he was in the cast of BBC radio and television comedies such as The Navy Lark. He got his television break with the satirical sketch series The Frost Report in 1966, where he met future collaborator,Ronnie Corbett. He joined David Frost's production company and starred in ITV shows including a short film.
After rejoining the BBC, Barker found fame with the sketch show The Two Ronnies  (1971–1987), with Ronnie Corbett. He starred in the sitcoms Porridge, its sequel  Going Straight and Open All Hours. He wrote comedy under his own name and the pseudonym Gerald Wiley, which Barker adopted to avoid pre-judgements of his talent. He won a BAFTA for best light entertainment performance four times, among other awards, and received an OBE in 1978.
Later television sitcoms such as The Magnificent Evans and Clarence were less successful and he retired in 1987. He opened an antiques shop with his wife, Joy. After 1999, he appeared in smaller, non-comic roles in films. He died of heart failure on 3 October 2005, aged 76.
== Early Life ==
thumb|220x220px|Plaque marking Barker's birthplace
Barker was born Ronald William George Barker on 25 September 1929 in Bedford, Bedfordshire, to Leonard (known as "Tim") and Edith (known as "Cis") Barker. Barker's elder sister Vera was born in 1926 and his younger sister Eileen was born in 1933. His father was a clerk for Shell-Mex, and this job saw the family move to Church Cowley Road in Temple Cowley, Oxford when Barker was four. Barker's biographer Bob McCabe described his childhood as "a happy time, marred by no ructions or family tensions, apart from the occasional wet sock." As a child, Barker enjoyed dressing up, particularly in his father's pierrot outfit, as well as films, comics and animals. He developed a love of the theatre, often attending plays with his family. The first play he saw was Cottage to Let and he once skipped school to see Laurence Olivier in Henry V. He frequently stood outside stage-doors to collect autographs, his first being the actress Celia Johnson.
Barker grew up in the Florence Park area of Temple Cowley, Oxford, and went to Donnington Junior School, Florence Park, Oxford and then the City of Oxford High School for Boys. Barker's chemistry textbook at Oxford was previously owned by T.E. Lawrence. He found his talent for humour at school and developed his musical ability by singing in the choir at St James's, his local church. He got in to the sixth form a year early after gaining the School Certificate but he felt what he was learning would be of no use to him in later life and so left as soon as he could. After leaving school he trained as an architect but gave it up after six months, feeling he was not skilled enough. Barker took his sister Vera's job as a bank clerk at the Westminster Bank (after she had left to become a nurse). Barker harboured dreams of becoming an actor, and took up amateur dramatics, although initially he just saw the pastime as a chance to meet girls. For 18 months while at the bank he worked as an actor and stage manager, making his first appearance in A Murder Has Been Arranged as the musical director of the play-within-a-play. Eventually he gave up his job to become a professional actor. His father did not support his acting ambition.
== The Two Ronnies ==
Barker appeared in The Two Ronnies, a sketch show which aired for twelve series and eight specials between 1971 and
1987, and rose to immediate success. Barker wrote much of the show's material, roughly three-quarters, again under the name Gerald Wiley. He was heavily involved with the show's production, especially the serial. Corbett (who starred in the show with him) explained that Barker was a "perfectionist" and "as he wrote it Ronnie knew how he wanted every shot to look."
The show was considered a "national institution" with audiences of between 15 and 20 million regularly tuning in to its 93 episodes. Barker won the BAFTA for Best Light Entertainment Performance in 1971 and 1977 for the show. The Two Ronnies ended with the 1987 Christmas special.
== Other work ==
Following the success of The Two Ronnies, the BBC let Barker decide what he wanted to do. The Two Ronnies took up one third of a year to produce, allowing time for Barker and Corbett to each do a solo project. Barker's opted to produce some sitcom pilots shown as part of 1973's Seven of One. Two of these pilots, Open All Hours (written by Roy Clarke) and Prisoner and Escort (written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais) became series. 
Barker opted to end Porridge after two series and instead focused on Open All Hours, alongside David Jason, before working on spin-off sitcom Going Straight.
== Personal Life ==
Barker met Joy Tubb in Cambridge while she was a stage manager for two plays he was in. They married nine months later in July 1957 and they had three children: two sons, Larry (born 1959) and Adam (born 1968), who became an actor, and one daughter,Charlotte (born 1962), who became an actress. Larry was named after Barker's idol Laurence Olivier. The family lived in Pinner for many years; and subsequently in a converted mill in Dean, Oxfordshire. According to Corbett, Barker was "first and foremost a family man." Joy died in January 2011, aged 78.
Barker received an OBE in 1978. He was an avid collector of antiques, books and posters and amassed a collection of over 53,000 postcards; he produced several compilation books of them including Ronnie Barker's Book of Bathing Beauties, A Pennyworth of Art and Sauce. Barker rarely appeared in public, and when he did it was almost always in character. He once said "I've always known I haven't a personality of my own, I have to be someone else to be happy. That's why I became an actor, I suppose."
== Death ==
Barker's health rapidly declined after the filming of The Two Ronnies Sketchbook (2005). He died of heart failure at the Katherine House hospice in Adderbury, Oxfordshire, on 3 October 2005, aged 76, with Joy by his side. 
Barker was cremated at a private humanist funeral at Banbury Crematorium, which was attended only by family and close friends. A public memorial service for Barker was held on 3 March 2006 at Westminster Abbey, with some 2,000 people in attendance. Corbett, Richard Briers, Josephine Tewson, Michael Grade and Peter Kay all read at the service, while others in attendance included David Jason, Stephen Fry, Michael Palin, Leslie Phillips, Lenny Henry, Dawn French and June Whitfield. 
== Filmography ==
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Films
Year	Film 	Role 	Notes
1958	Wonderful Things! 	Head waiter[101] 	Uncredited
1962	Kill or Cure 	Burton 	
1963	The Cracksman 	Yossle 	
1963	Doctor in Distress 	Man at railway station ticket counter	Uncredited
1963	Father Came Too! 	Josh 	
1964	A Home of Your Own 	Cement mixer 	
1964	The Bargee 	Ronnie 	
1965	Runaway Railway 	Mr. Galore 	
1967	The Man Outside 	George Venaxas 	
1968	A Ghost of a Chance 	Mr. Prendergast 	
1969	Two Off the Cuff 	 	
1971	The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins	Unnamed character 	In "Sloth" segment
1976	Robin and Marian 	Friar Tuck 	
1979	Porridge 	Norman Stanley Fletcher 	
Television
Year 	Show 	Role 	Notes
1956 	I'm Not Bothered 	"Bit Part" 	Two episodes
1960 	The Terrible Choice 	2nd Murderer 	Episode 1.7: "Macbeth: Part 2"
1960–1964 	It's a Square World 	Various characters 	Two Episodes
1961 	Citizen James 	Unknown 	Episode 2.7
1961–1963 	Faces of Jim 	Various characters 	Series 1 named The Seven Faces of Jim
Series 2 named Six More Faces of Jim
Series 3 named More Faces of Jim
Barker appeared in several episodes in Series 1 and 2 and all six of Series 3
1962 	Benny Hill 	Chef 	Episode 1.2: "A Pair of Socks"
1962 	The Rag Trade 	Mr Goodwin 	Episode 2.13: The Bank Manager
1962 	ITV Play of the Week 	Bundles 	Episode 8.5: "The Second Chef"
 	Drama 61–67 	Harrison 	Episode 2.17: "The Frightened Sky"
1962 	ITV Television Playhouse 	Pickle's O'Toole 	The Pinkness of It All
1962, 1972 	Christmas Night with the Stars 	Various Characters 	Two Episodes
1963 	BBC Sunday-Night Play 	Henry Wallace 	The Holly Road Rig
1964 	How to be an Alien 	Various voice roles 	Six episodes
1964 	Sykes and A... 	Tramp 	Episode 7.6: "Sykes and a Log Cabin"
1964 	Bold as Brass 	Mr. Oakroyd 	Four episodes
1965 	Armchair Theatre 	Unknown 	Episode 5.15: "The Keys of the Cafe"
1965 	The Walrus and the Carpenter 	Unknown 	Episode 1.4: "Luther and the Golden Fleece"
1965 	A Tale of Two Cities 	Jerry Cruncher 	Seven episodes
1965 	Gaslight Theatre 	Various characters 	Six episodes
1965 	Theatre 625 	Crowther Rimington 	Episode 3.13: "Portraits from the North: Bruno"
 	Barney Is My Darling 	 	The 2000 Year Old Man
1966 	Foreign Affairs 	Grischa Petrovich 	
1966 	The Saint 	Alphonse 	Episode 5.9: "The Better Mousetrap"
1966–1967 	The Frost Report 	Various characters 	28 episodes
1967 	The Gamblers 	Unknown 	Episode 1.10: "The Glory of Llewellyn Smiley"
1967 	The Avengers 	Edwin Cheshire 	Episode 5.8: "The Hidden Tiger"
1967 	Before the Fringe 	Various characters 	Six episodes[101]
1968 	The Ronnie Barker Playhouse 	Various characters 	Six episodes
1969 	The Coward Revue 	 	TV Movie
1969–1970 	Frost on Sunday 	Various characters 	
1969–1970 	Hark at Barker 	Lord Rustless 	15 episodes
1969, 1971, 1975	Play of the Month 	Stephen Spettigue
Bottom
Henry Ormonroyd	Episode 5.2: "Charley's Aunt"
Episode 7.1: "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Episode 11.4: "When We Are Married"
1970 	Futtocks End 	General Futtock 	TV film
1970 	Not Only... But Also 	Poets Cornered segment 	Episode 3.5
1970 	'Wiltons' – The Handsomest Hall in Town 	Music Hall Performer 	
1971 	Six Dates with Barker 	Various characters 	Six episodes
1971 	The Ronnie Barker Yearbook 	Various characters 	
1971 	Ronnie Corbett in Bed 	Various characters 	
1971–1987 	The Two Ronnies 	Various characters 	93 episodes
1972 	His Lordship Entertains 	Lord Rustless 	Seven episodes
1972 	Comedy Playhouse 	George Idle
Johnnie Wetherby	Episode 12.1: "Idle at Work"
Episode 14.2: "Franklyn and Johnnie"
1973 	Seven of One 	Various characters 	Seven separate pilots
1974–1977 	Porridge 	Norman Stanley Fletcher	20 episodes
1976 	The Picnic 	The General 	TV film
1976–1985 	Open All Hours 	Albert Arkwright 	25 episodes
1978 	Going Straight 	Norman Stanley Fletcher	Six Episodes
1979, 1988 	The Two Ronnies in Australia 	Various characters 	
1980 	Rubbish Tips 	Director of Rubbish 	Short
1982 	By the Sea 	The General 	TV film
1984 	The Magnificent Evans 	Plantagenet Evans 	Six episodes
1988 	Clarence 	Clarence Sale 	Six episodes
1999 	The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything	Renaissance Man 	
2002 	The Gathering Storm 	David Inches 	TV film
2003 	My House in Umbria 	The General 	TV film
2003 	Life Beyond the Box: Norman Stanley Fletcher 	Norman Stanley Fletcher	Mockumentary
2005 	The Two Ronnies Sketchbook 	Various characters 	Seven episodes
Category:Cast and Crew