Dick Emery
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(book cover)
Richard Gilbert Emery (Bloomsbury February 19, 1917 – Denmark Hill January 2, 1983) was an English comedian and actor, particularly popular during the 1960s and 1970s.
He began his career as a sidekick to comedians such as Tony Hancock, and had a regular role in the sitcom, The Army Game on ITV.
Emery's weekly BBC show, which ran irregularly from 1963 to 1979, consisted of sketches which mostly involved his dressing up as various characters. His characters included a vicar with large teeth, spinster Hettie, Clarence and a bovver boy (Roy Kinnear played his father but is 19 years younger than Dick Emery). The best-known were hapless pensioner "James Maynard Kitchener Lampwick" and "Mandy", a voracious blonde whose catchphrase was "Ooh, you are awful ... but I like you!" - which became the title of Emery's own British Lion theatrical release (in which Emery displayed the same penchant for characterisation, both male and female).
Emery also appeared in several films, such as The Fast Lady (1962), Ooh… You Are Awful (1972), and was a voice actor on the animated Beatles movie Yellow Submarine.
In a difficult private life, he was married five times. He enjoyed aviation and motorcycling amongst his hobbies, as well as model-making, and had his own review page in Meccano Magazine during 1971. He was a perfectionist at every undertaking, so he could be found to be of a demanding nature. He died in Denmark Hill, from heart failure aged 65.
Emery's broad humour is still admired by similar comic actors such as Harry Enfield.
