"Goodbye My Darlings"

[cgksheff]

Slapstick star Charlie Drake dies

 

Comedian Charlie Drake has died at the age of 81 following a long illness caused by two strokes.

 

Drake worked into his seventies before a stroke forced him to retire

Laurie Mansfield, his manager for 37 years, said he was the "last of the great slapstick comedians".

 

Drake starred in a string of hit TV shows and films during the 1960s and 1970s and had a pop hit with the comic song My Boomerang Won't Come Back.

 

He died in his sleep yesterday at Brindsworth House, Twickenham, the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Home where he had lived for about two years.

 

Twice-married Drake leaves three sons, Christopher, Stephen and Paul.

 

Mr Mansfield, 62, said: "It is the end of an era, of those comics and comedians that dominated our lives through the 60s and 70s.

 

"Charlie Drake perhaps was the last of the great slapstick comedians, who combined both verbal humour with knockabout comedy.

 

"His timing was acknowledged by everybody as being the very very best and his passing is a great personal loss for me. He was a great great comic talent."

 

Asked about his personal qualities, he said: "He was probably the most stubborn man I ever met. He knew what he wanted and would not accept compromise on getting what he wanted."

 

Mr Mansfield told how Drake once walked out of America's Ed Sullivan Show and never worked in the country again, because producers would not allow him to do a routine the way he wanted,

 

"He was really on the way to making himself a name in America. They wouldn't let him do the slapstick scene in the way he wanted to do it."

 

He said of Drake, who he managed from 1969, that "like a great many great artists, he wasn't the easiest person to live with".

 

The comedian carried on working into his 70s before a stroke in the late 1990s forced him to stop, Mr Mansfield said.

 

He said without his brand of slapstick humour, in which he did his own stunts, there would have been "no Michael Crawford, no Frank Spencer".

 

Drake was born on June 19, 1925 in Elephant and Castle, south London, the son of a newspaper seller.

 

 

Daily Telegraph

[Jabberwocky]

I have tons of fond memories of Drake From my childhood.

[SheShe]

He always used to make me laugh when I was a youngster many moons ago.

Rest in peace

[Ann*]

I just heard this on the news.

 

How sad, just before Christmas. I remember as a child Charlie being part of Sunday lunchtimes, when we were all sitting round the table eating our roast, and we'd be listening to him on the radio.

 

RIP Charlie!

[AJ sheffield]

Poor old Charlie

Rest in peace

[Longcol]

"My boomerang won't come back" and "Please Mr Custer, I don't want to go" were two things I used to listen out for on "Family Favourites" as a nipper.

 

RIP Charlie.

[Kretschmer]

All I can remember is of him falling into a square tank of black water at the end of every programme.

[KJ_VENOM]

i dont remember his radio shows but i have seen some of the old tv shows the most recent thing i saw charlie in was Sinderella with jim davidson, i was in stiches everytime he came on and though i've seen it many many times i cant decide if he was actually drunk or just acting but either way he made the show

 

another great has left us to play in god's comedy club

 

RIP Charlie Drake you will be missed, thank you for the laughter you gave us

[saxon51]

Charlie Drake dies ...... but Jim Davidson lives on. Where's the justice in that?