Jimmy Edwards was a British radio
and television comedy actor, best known as Pa Glum
in Take It From Here and as the headmaster 'Professor'
James Edwards in Whack-O.
Born James Keith O'Neill in Barnes, London, Edwards
served in the Royal Air Force during World War II,
winning the Distinguished Flying Cross. His Dakota
was shot down at Arnhem in 1944, resulting in plastic
surgery — he disguised it with the huge handlebar
moustache that later became his trademark.
A feature of London theatre in the immediate post-War
years, having previously performed in the Cambridge
Footlights review, Edwards gained wider exposure as
a radio performer, appearing in the long-running Take
It From Here, where he developed the Glums alongside
June Whitfield.
Graduatating to television, his appeared
in shows such as the panel game Does the Team Think?,
The Seven Faces of Jim, as well as guest slots in Make
Room for Daddy and Sykes. Edwards also worked with
Eric Sykes when he acted in the Sykes-penned short
films The Plank (1967) (alongside Tommy
Cooper) and
Rhubarb (1969) (which also featured Harry Secombe).
He published his autobiography, Six of the Best,
in 1984, as a follow up to the earlier Take it From
Me. Amongst his outside interests were brass bands
and the handlebar Club, in which all the members had
such moustaches. During the 1970s he also came out
as a homosexual. |