Gary Wilmot
Encyclopedia
Gary Wilmot is an English
actor
, writer
, comedian
, impressionist and singer. He rose to fame in the 80s through a number of television
appearances, and subsequently moved into theatre
.
and died in 1961, when Gary was six years old – his father was the bass voice that sang the famous line “I Am A Mole And I Live In A Hole”. Despite these show business roots, his upbringing was outside of the limelight, and his first jobs were relatively low-key occupations; he was employed as a scaffolder, forklift truck driver and messenger before entering show business.
Following a successful TV career, Wilmot made a move into musical theatre debuting in the West End
in Me And My Girl
in 1989 playing the role of Bill Snibson in the award winning musical at the Adelphi Theatre
. He played the role to critical acclaim for two years, the late Jack Tinker describing him as a “Musical Talent of the Highest Order”.
A successful No.1 theatre tour of a new comedy, Teething Troubles followed. Joe in the award winning Carmen Jones
at the Old Vic
and then Wilmot went on to star in the world premier of the Barry Manilow
musical Copacabana
at London's Prince of Wales Theatre
. That same year he recorded a one-hour TV special for the BBC
–Showstoppers
and due to the public response, was invited to record a further series of six TV spectaculars with the BBC Concert Orchestra
and many national and international guest stars. In 1997 Wilmot created the role of Elliot Garfield in The Goodbye Girl
by Neil Simon
, Marvin Hamlisch
, David Zippell and Don Black. In 1998 Wilmot starred as Fagin
in the Cameron Mackintosh
production of Oliver!
, touring in the spring and summer of 1999.
Then, Wilmot spent a highly successful period at the Bristol Old Vic
(and touring) in Willy Russell's play One for the Road
and a No 1 Tour of Alan Ayckbourn
's Confusions
.
In 2001 Wilmot joined The New Shakespeare Company to play the role of Bottom
in A Midsummer Night's Dream
at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
and the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance
. The national tour of Giles Havergal
's brilliant adaptation of the Graham Greene
novel Travels With My Aunt
followed and 2003/4 occupied the number one dressing room at The London Palladium, where he was starring in the record breaking Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
and ended his year with his own national concert tour 'My Kind Of Music' taking him to many major concert venues throughout the country.
In 2005 he was invited back to The Open Air Theatre to play Dick Deadeye in H.M.S Pinafore and the Christmas season saw him starring in Santa Claus the Musical at The Mayflower, Southampton.
In 2007 he finished a critically successful national tour of Half a Sixpence
and the Christmas season saw him starring in The Wizard of Oz
as the Scarecrow. In the summer of 2008, Wilmot played the Lion in The Festival Theatre's The Wizard of Oz and is starred in the national touring company of Chicago
playing the role of Billy Flynn, the lawyer. From January to April 2010 Wilmot co-starred with Lee Mead in the touring production of Lord Arthur Saville's Crime playing the psychic Podgers.
Wilmot's solo albums include Love Situation, The Album (recorded at the historic Abbey Road Studio with the London Symphony Orchestra
) and Double Standards.
1985:
1986:
1987:
Cue Gary! sketch series ITV
1988:
1992:
1994:
1996:
1997:
2001:
2003:
2004:
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
, impressionist and singer. He rose to fame in the 80s through a number of television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
appearances, and subsequently moved into theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
.
Career
Wilmot's father Harry was a member of The SouthlandersThe Southlanders
The Southlanders are a Jamaican / British vocal group formed in 1950 by Edrick Connor and Vernon Nesbeth. The group went through a variety of names, including The Caribbeans, South Londoners, and Southerners, before settling on The Southlanders...
and died in 1961, when Gary was six years old – his father was the bass voice that sang the famous line “I Am A Mole And I Live In A Hole”. Despite these show business roots, his upbringing was outside of the limelight, and his first jobs were relatively low-key occupations; he was employed as a scaffolder, forklift truck driver and messenger before entering show business.
Following a successful TV career, Wilmot made a move into musical theatre debuting in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
in Me And My Girl
Me and My Girl
Me and My Girl is a musical with book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose and music by Noel Gay. It takes place in the late 1930s in Hampshire, Mayfair, and Lambeth....
in 1989 playing the role of Bill Snibson in the award winning musical at the Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
. He played the role to critical acclaim for two years, the late Jack Tinker describing him as a “Musical Talent of the Highest Order”.
A successful No.1 theatre tour of a new comedy, Teething Troubles followed. Joe in the award winning Carmen Jones
Carmen Jones
Carmen Jones is a 1943 Broadway musical starring Muriel Smith in the title role, later made into a 1954 musical film; the play also ran for a season in 1991 at London's Old Vic and most recently in London's Royal Festival Hall in the Southbank Centre in 2007. It is an updating of the Georges Bizet...
at the Old Vic
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
and then Wilmot went on to star in the world premier of the Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...
musical Copacabana
Copacabana (musical)
Copacabana is a TV-musical, stage musical, and nightclub show written by Barry Manilow, based on the song of the same name. The show toured the United States and, as of 2006, became available to license to performing companies and schools for the first time....
at London's Prince of Wales Theatre
Prince of Wales Theatre
The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre on Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in the City of Westminster. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner...
. That same year he recorded a one-hour TV special for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
–Showstoppers
Showstoppers
Showstoppers is an album by singer-songwriter Barry Manilow, released in 1991. It was his first album to not feature any original music.-Track listing:#"Give My Regards To Broadway" - 1:08#"Overture of Overtures" - 4:11...
and due to the public response, was invited to record a further series of six TV spectaculars with the BBC Concert Orchestra
BBC Concert Orchestra
The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five which is not a full-scale symphony orchestra....
and many national and international guest stars. In 1997 Wilmot created the role of Elliot Garfield in The Goodbye Girl
The Goodbye Girl
The Goodbye Girl is a 1977 American romantic comedy-drama film. Directed by Herbert Ross, the film stars Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, Quinn Cummings, and Paul Benedict...
by Neil Simon
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
, Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Frederick Hamlisch is an American composer. He is one of only thirteen people to have been awarded Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and a Tony . He is also one of only two people to EGOT and also win a Pulitzer Prize...
, David Zippell and Don Black. In 1998 Wilmot starred as Fagin
Fagin
Fagin is a fictional character who appears as an antagonist of the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, referred to in the preface of the novel as a "receiver of stolen goods", but referred to more frequently within the actual story as the "merry old gentleman" or simply the "Jew".-Character:Born...
in the Cameron Mackintosh
Cameron Mackintosh
Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh is a British theatrical producer notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was described as being "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York...
production of Oliver!
Oliver!
Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....
, touring in the spring and summer of 1999.
Then, Wilmot spent a highly successful period at the Bristol Old Vic
Bristol Old Vic
The Bristol Old Vic is a theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, King Street, in Bristol, England. The theatre complex includes the 1766 Theatre Royal, which claims to be the oldest continually-operating theatre in England, along with a 1970s studio theatre , offices and backstage facilities...
(and touring) in Willy Russell's play One for the Road
One for the Road (Willy Russell play)
One For The Road is a comedic play by Willy Russell, written in 1976 and published in 1980. The script was revised and updated by Russell in 1985 and the rights are held by Samuel French Ltd. It is not to be confused with the Harold Pinter play of the same name...
and a No 1 Tour of Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...
's Confusions
Confusions
Confusions is a play by Alan Ayckbourn consisting of a series of five interconnected one-act plays. It was first staged in 1974 and played by just five actors...
.
In 2001 Wilmot joined The New Shakespeare Company to play the role of Bottom
Nick Bottom
Nick Bottom is a character in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream who provides comic relief throughout the play, and is famously known for getting his head transformed into that of an ass by the elusive Puck within the play.- Overview :...
in A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, in the City of Westminster, London, is a permanent venue with an annual sixteen-week summer season. It was founded in 1932 by Sydney Carroll and Robert Atkins.-The theatre:...
and the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
. The national tour of Giles Havergal
Giles Havergal
Giles Pollock Havergal CBE is a Scottish theatre director, actor, and playwright. He was artistic director of Glasgow's Citizens Theatre from 1969 until he stepped down in 2003, one of the triumvirate of directors at the theatre, alongside Philip Prowse and Robert David MacDonald.-Early...
's brilliant adaptation of the Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
novel Travels With My Aunt
Travels with My Aunt
Travels with My Aunt is a novel written by English author Graham Greene.The novel follows the travels of Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, and his eccentric Aunt Augusta as they find their way across Europe, and eventually even further afield...
followed and 2003/4 occupied the number one dressing room at The London Palladium, where he was starring in the record breaking Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (musical)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, also known as Chitty the Musical, is a stage musical based on the 1968 film produced by Cubby Broccoli. The music and lyrics were written by Richard and Robert Sherman with book by Jeremy Sams.-Productions:...
and ended his year with his own national concert tour 'My Kind Of Music' taking him to many major concert venues throughout the country.
In 2005 he was invited back to The Open Air Theatre to play Dick Deadeye in H.M.S Pinafore and the Christmas season saw him starring in Santa Claus the Musical at The Mayflower, Southampton.
In 2007 he finished a critically successful national tour of Half a Sixpence
Half a Sixpence
Half a Sixpence is a musical comedy written as a vehicle for British pop star Tommy Steele.It is based on H.G. Wells's novel Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul...
and the Christmas season saw him starring in The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (adaptations)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1900 novel by L. Frank Baum, which has been adapted into several different works, the most famous being the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland...
as the Scarecrow. In the summer of 2008, Wilmot played the Lion in The Festival Theatre's The Wizard of Oz and is starred in the national touring company of Chicago
Chicago (musical)
Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...
playing the role of Billy Flynn, the lawyer. From January to April 2010 Wilmot co-starred with Lee Mead in the touring production of Lord Arthur Saville's Crime playing the psychic Podgers.
Wilmot's solo albums include Love Situation, The Album (recorded at the historic Abbey Road Studio with the London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
) and Double Standards.
Filmography
Before 1985:- So You Want To Be Top? Wilmot hosted this kids TV quiz show on UK BBC1 between 1983 and 1985.
- New FacesNew FacesNew Faces was a British television talent show popular in the 1970s and 1980s, presented originally by Derek Hobson. It was produced by ATV Network Limited for the ITV Network. The first run of the show was from 29 September 1973 to 2 April 1978 and was recorded at the ATV Centre, Birmingham...
. Wilmot was a finalist in the competition, appearing with Judy McPhee. - 25 June 1983 - Chas & Dave's Knees-Up, episode 5.
- 1984 - Mike ReidMike Reid (entertainer)Michael Reid was an English comedian, actor, author and occasional television presenter from Hackney in east London, who is best remembered for playing the role of Frank Butcher in EastEnders and hosting the popular children's TV show Runaround...
's Mates and Music
1985:
- The Bob MonkhouseBob MonkhouseRobert Alan "Bob" Monkhouse, OBE was an English entertainer. He was a successful comedy writer, comedian and actor and was also well known on British television as a presenter and game show host...
Show Series 2, episode 3. - Copy Cats
- The Keith Harris Show Series 2, episode 1.
1986:
- Saturday Gang
- This Is Your LifeThis Is Your LifeThis Is Your Life is an American television documentary series broadcast on NBC, originally hosted by its producer, Ralph Edwards from 1952 to 1961. In the show, the host surprises a guest, and proceeds to take them through their life in front of an audience including friends and family.Edwards...
- The Magic Loolipop Adventure
1987:
- AspelMichael AspelMichael Terence Aspel, OBE is an English television presenter, known for his reserved demeanour and rich speaking voice. He has been a high-profile TV personality in the United Kingdom since the 1960s, presenting programmes such as Crackerjack, Aspel and Company, This is Your Life, Strange But...
& Company
Cue Gary! sketch series ITV
1988:
- The Book Tower
1992:
- JungliesJungliesThe Junglies was a short-lived British animated series by Terry Ward, lasting from 1992 to 1993 on ITV on TV-am, but was repeated on Tiny Living between 2005 and 2006.-Overview:...
(voice)
1994:
- Showstoppers
- Lazarus
1996:
- Hosted The Laurence OlivierLaurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
Awards
1997:
- The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon
- Wetty Hainthropp Investigates
2001:
- An audience with Des O'ConnorDes O'ConnorDes O'Connor, CBE is an English comedian and singer. A former talkshow host, he was the presenter of the long-running Channel 4 gameshow Countdown for two years...
2003:
- Loose Women (25 July)
- Never Mind The BuzzcocksNever Mind the BuzzcocksNever Mind the Buzzcocks is a comedy panel game television show with a pop music theme, currently without a permanent presenter. It stars Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding as team captains. The show is produced by Talkback Thames for the BBC, and is usually aired on BBC Two...
series 13, episode 8 - Today with Des and MelToday with Des and MelToday with Des and Mel was a British television series hosted by Des O'Connor and Melanie Sykes. The show featured celebrity guests, phone-in competitions and chat between the hosts. It was produced by Carlton Television, at The London Studios...
(18 November)
2004:
- An Evening With Chas and Dave