Harry Fowler
Interview date(s): 7 October 2011
Interviewer(s): David McGillivray
Production Media: audio
Duration (mins): 269
HP0629 Harry Fowler
Synopsis of Harry Fowler BECTU interview with David McGillivray. Notes by David Sharp 2011 [Interview is roughly chronological but jumps back and forth as things occur to HF. Also tends to be non-critical: lots of “he was a splendid fellow”]. CD1 Born Henry James Fowler 1926, brought up in Lambeth Walk by “Granny”. Talks about growing up in a poor but happy family. Anecdote about Wendell Wilkie, US presidential candidate visiting pub and being pick-pocketed. Talks about the “tallyman” (door-to-door instalment payment salesmen). Leaves school gets job on newspaper as a vendor, but wants to be a crime reporter Cinema-going; war; air-raids. Broadcasting House, interview on Radio, also refers to Edward Rigby, Formby (at Islington) Bevan Boy down mines; airforce, (typing) based at Bush House Harry Alan Towers; Diana Dors; George Brent CD2 She Shall Have Murder (Riverside) Estimates he has been in 200+ films Peter Noble and Marianne Stone Love of Hollywood and character actors.- Oliver Twist. Stork Club; Amateur Night intro’d Ronnie Corbett Fire Maidens from Outer Space/Sydney Tafler/ Anthony Dexter (Valentino) Blue Peter (Kieron Moore/Don Sharp)-Singapore/ Run Run Shaw Lawrence of Arabia – Peter O’Toole/David Lean/ Flight to Seville via Madrid (plane caught fire) Spielberg’s favourite scene is the one HF is in. Young Indiana Jones (for TV) John Huston TV Prog: “April the 8th Show, Seven Days Early”. Goons/Sellers.TV Prog “The Melting Pot” “Start the Revolution Without me” Queen’s Elm pub, Chelsea. Love of Tennis.Talks about wife Kay, a designer, married in 1961.-Claude Raines, Brian Blessed, “Little World of Don Camillo”-Peter Hammond CD3 Army Game/Mario Fabrizi- Ken Annakin Crooks Anonymous – Julie Christie Jackanory/MBE/ Kenny Lynch “Get This”/ James Villiers Sir Henry at Rawlinson’s End Brief discussion about possibly moving from Chelsea CD4 Patrick Magee Elkan Allen “Don’t Say a Word” (4 years) Dr Who/ Simon Williams/Hugh Lloyd Stand-ins: Frank Howard; Robert Shaw and Sean Lynch’s father. More or less retired since 2004 apart from celebrity auctions and nostalgia shows as interviewee. Witzend Productions; “Dead Ernest” Views on “Dad’s Army” Edward Judd, Gerald Campion Voiceover work. PG Tips adverts. His collecting passion: film books Picturegoer, Picture Show.
Henry James Fowler, actor: born London 10 December 1926; MBE, 1970; married 1951 Joan Dowling (died 1954), 1960 Catherine Palmer; died 4 January 2012.A popular British character actor, Harry came to prominence in the Ealing Studios’ Hue & Cry (1947), with subsequent films including The Pickwick Papers (1952), Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) and Doctor In Clover (1966). He became a household name as ‘Flogger’ Hoskins in the ITV television hit The Army Game (1959-61).After nearly 12 film roles in his teens, he made his breakthrough in 1947 in "Hue and Cry," as the leader of a gang of East End children taking on thieves who are using their favourite comic to communicate their crime plans. Directed by Charles Crichton and featuring Alastair Sim in the adult cast, "Hue and Cry" has gone down in film history as the first of the Ealing Studios post-war comedies.Fowler was firmly at its centre, set on his road to a long and successful career on screen. He was not an A-list star, but had guaranteed permanent employment as a character actor.
In addition to more than 80 film roles, he was memorable on television after joining The Army Game as the Cockney wide-boy Corporal "Flogger" Hoskins (1959-60). Later, in the sitcom Our Man at St Mark's, whose stories revolved around a country vicar, he was the sexton and gravedigger Harry Danvers (1964-66), known as "Harry the Yo-Yo" because he had spent most of his life in and out of prison.
Born in Lambeth, south London, in 1926, Fowler left school with little education and was working as a paper boy for eight shillings a week by his early teens. After hearing his Cockney accent in a radio interview about his wartime experiences, British National Films cast the 15-year-old as an evacuee leaving London for an earl's country home in the 1942 picture Those Kids from Town, which also featured a young George Cole.
He then found himself on film sets as the stock Cockney and swiftly moved from one production to another, appearing in up to 11 a year, both main features and B-movies. Towards the end of the Second World War, he was called up for service in the RAF (1945-47) but was allowed leave to act in Hue and Cry.
Later, Fowler stood out on screen as Sam Weller, the Cockney boot cleaner at the White Hart Inn, in The Pickwick Papers (1952) and had roles of varying importance and screen time in Lucky Jim (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (directed by David Lean), The Longest Day (both 1962), Doctor in Clover (1966) and The Prince and the Pauper (1977). For I Believe in You (1952), he spent two nights in a Borstal to prepare for the film about delinquents and probation officers, which provided him with both a leading role and Joan Collins as a love interest.
His prolific list of credits included those such as "amorous youth", "first novice biker", "street photographer", "airman", "barrow boy" and "Covent Garden porter". But Fowler had the chance to work with directors such as Basil Dearden, Lewis Gilbert, Ken Annakin, Val Guest, John Paddy Carstairs and the Boulting brothers, who provided a flow of British films for cinemas.
After his final appearance on film in " Chicago Joe and the Showgirl "(1990),he continued to be seen on television for two decades. He appeared on and off as the milkman Harry, alongside Warren Mitchell, in "Till Death Us Do Part "sequel, In Sickness and in Health (1985-92). His last acting role was in the sketch show The Impressionable Jon Culshaw, in 2004.His voice was also heard in commercials and narrating the 1975 cartoon Great: Isambard Kingdom Brunel, which won an Oscar as Best Short Film (Animated) and a Bafta award for Best Animated Film.
In 1951, Fowler married Joan Dowling, an actress who made her screen debut alongside him in "Hue and Cry." Fowler later married Catherine Palmer.
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