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Charlie Drake

Charlie Drake

Acting

Biography

Charlie Drake, was an English comedian, actor, writer and singer best known for his catchphrase "Hello. My darlings!". With his small stature (5 ft 1 in or 155 cm tall), curly red hair and liking for slapstick, he was a popular comedian with children in his early years, performing with Jack Edwardes in the double act Mick and Montmorency on children's TV. He subsequently made the break into primetime TV and critical and commercial acclaim with his solo show Drake's Progress (1955-1957). He was best known for his series The Worker (1965–70) in which he played a perpetually unemployed labourer who, in every episode, was dispatched to a new job by the ever-frustrated clerk at the local labour exchange. In the sixties, Drake made the transition to cinema, making several comedy films. By the 1980s, Drake reinvented himself as a straight actor, including a memorable performance as Smallweed in the 1985 BBC adaptation of Bleak House and playing Nagg in Samuel Beckett's Endgame in 1989. He suffered a series of strokes in 1995 and retired, passing away in 2006 at the age of 81.

Known For

Endgame
9.0

A performance of Samuel Beckett's 'Endgame', a play in which nothing happens, once - unlike Beckett's first play 'Waiting for Godot' in which nothing happens twice. It is not a play about chess, in any explicit sense, but it does feature a lovable if curmudgeonly old man in a dustbin. Generally accepted to be Beckett's bleakest play - indeed after it's 1957 English debut at the Royal Court, the TLS's Olivier Todd quipped that it made Waiting for Godot look like "a cheerful operetta". However, Beckett himself described it as "the favourite of my plays." Although the programme was not broadcast until 1991 it was recorded in 1989 prior to Beckett's death and had his blessing. This production is particularly notable as it is first full-length television performance of the play.

Endgame

1989Movie