Nat Jackley
Encyclopedia
Nat Jackley was an English
comic actor
starring in variety, film and pantomime from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s whose trademark rubber-neck dance, skeletal frame and peculiar speech impediment made him a formidable and funny pantomime dame.
His later years were spent as a character actor in films and television.
His father George Jackley (1885–1950) was a comic actor who specialised in theatrical dames and was the leading comedian for the Melville Brothers at the Lyceum Theatre during the interwar years.
George, himself, was the son of Nathan Jackley who, with his own troupe, The Jackley Wonders, performed in circuses in the United States.
His brother David was an actor and his first wife, Marianne Lincoln, was scriptwriter and Nat's comedy foil.
Nat Jackley was also a member of the Free Masons
.
He succumbed to cancer
two months past his 79th birthday and his place of death appears in one source as Coventry
, Warwickshire
and in other references as London.
.
He teamed up as the 'straight man' to comedian Jack Clifford, but they later swapped roles.
In addition to his first wife, he worked with several other feeds, but ultimately made his career as a headlining solo comedian.
Like many artists of the time he entertained troops during World War II
.
Nat Jackley appeared in three Royal Variety shows
and topped the bill in summer shows throughout the seaside resorts and in London. In the final decades of his career, he became a character actor in such films as 1956's Stars in Your Eyes
and 1984's The Ploughman's Lunch
.
In 1950 Nat appeared on television in the programme The Symbol of Entertainment Supreme made from extracts of shows running in Blackpool
at the time, including the revue Out of this World at the Opera House with Nat.
Although he made many appearances on radio and television, the only time Nat Jackley had his own show on television was with the pair of specials Nat's In The Belfry on BBC TV in 1956.
In 1957 he appeared in a film for television Revels of 1957 composed of sections of Blackpool shows of the time.
Nat appeared on television in The Beatles
Magical Mystery Tour
film in 1967 as Happy Nat the Rubber Man, Jingle Bells a Play for Today
(1973), the one-off Thames special Bentine (1975), Angels
(1976), Talent
(1979), The Spoils of War (1980), Tales of the Unexpected
, A Midsummer Night's Dream
as Snout
, The Old Boy Network as himself, and Dancing Country a BBC2 Playhouse presentation in 1981, the series The Chinese Detective
(1982), the series Juliet Bravo
in 1983, Threads
(1984), the series Dramarama
and Minder
in 1985, and Lizzie's Pictures in 1987.
Nat Jackley appeared in some fifty pantomimes—the last was in 1980 in Newcastle upon Tyne
.
He was subsequently the subject of TV's This Is Your Life
on 10 April 1980.
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...
comic actor
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...
starring in variety, film and pantomime from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s whose trademark rubber-neck dance, skeletal frame and peculiar speech impediment made him a formidable and funny pantomime dame.
His later years were spent as a character actor in films and television.
Biographical details
A native of Sunderland, Nathaniel Tristram Jackley Hirsch was born into a theatrical family.His father George Jackley (1885–1950) was a comic actor who specialised in theatrical dames and was the leading comedian for the Melville Brothers at the Lyceum Theatre during the interwar years.
George, himself, was the son of Nathan Jackley who, with his own troupe, The Jackley Wonders, performed in circuses in the United States.
His brother David was an actor and his first wife, Marianne Lincoln, was scriptwriter and Nat's comedy foil.
Nat Jackley was also a member of the Free Masons
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
.
He succumbed to cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
two months past his 79th birthday and his place of death appears in one source as Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
and in other references as London.
Stage, film and television career
Nat Jackley began his career in the 1920s as a double act with his sister Joy and later joined The Eight Lancashire LadsThe Eight Lancashire Lads
The Eight Lancashire Lads was a troupe of young male dancers who toured the music halls of Great Britain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.They were founded by Bill Cawley and J.W. Jackson of Wigan, Lancashire...
.
He teamed up as the 'straight man' to comedian Jack Clifford, but they later swapped roles.
In addition to his first wife, he worked with several other feeds, but ultimately made his career as a headlining solo comedian.
Like many artists of the time he entertained troops during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Nat Jackley appeared in three Royal Variety shows
Royal Variety Performance
The Royal Variety Performance is a gala evening held annually in the United Kingdom, which is attended by senior members of the British Royal Family, usually the reigning monarch. In more recent years Queen Elizabeth II and The Prince of Wales have alternately attended the performance...
and topped the bill in summer shows throughout the seaside resorts and in London. In the final decades of his career, he became a character actor in such films as 1956's Stars in Your Eyes
Stars in Your Eyes
Stars in Your Eyes is a 1956 British musical film directed by Maurice Elvey.-Plot:As the world of vaudeville gradually loses its attraction, more and more entertainers are losing their jobs. In hopes of fixing their financial problems, a group of entertainers band together and buy a run-down...
and 1984's The Ploughman's Lunch
The Ploughman's Lunch
The Ploughman's Lunch is a 1983 film written by Ian McEwan and directed by Richard Eyre which featuring Jonathan Pryce, Tim Curry and Rosemary Harris.The film looks at the media world in Margaret Thatcher's Britain during the time of the Falklands War...
.
In 1950 Nat appeared on television in the programme The Symbol of Entertainment Supreme made from extracts of shows running in Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
at the time, including the revue Out of this World at the Opera House with Nat.
Although he made many appearances on radio and television, the only time Nat Jackley had his own show on television was with the pair of specials Nat's In The Belfry on BBC TV in 1956.
In 1957 he appeared in a film for television Revels of 1957 composed of sections of Blackpool shows of the time.
Nat appeared on television in The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
Magical Mystery Tour
Magical Mystery Tour (film)
Magical Mystery Tour is an hour-long British television film starring The Beatles that originally aired on BBC1 on 26 December 1967...
film in 1967 as Happy Nat the Rubber Man, Jingle Bells a Play for Today
Play for Today
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted...
(1973), the one-off Thames special Bentine (1975), Angels
Angels (TV series)
Angels was originally a British television seasonal drama series dealing with the subject of student nurses and was broadcast by the BBC between 1975 and 1978. The show's format then switched to a twice weekly soap opera format from 1979 to 1983. The show's title derived from the name of the...
(1976), Talent
Talent (1978 play)
Talent is a play written by Victoria Wood, first performed in 1978. It centres around two friends, one of whom is about to enter a talent contest in a run down nightclub. Commissioned for the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, it received much acclaim and transferred to a London run in 1979. That same...
(1979), The Spoils of War (1980), Tales of the Unexpected
Tales of the Unexpected (TV series)
Tales of the Unexpected is a British television series originally aired between 1979 and 1988, made by Anglia Television for ITV. Filming began in 1978.The series was an anthology of different tales...
, 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...
as Snout
Tom Snout
Tom Snout is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. He is a tinker, and one of the "mechanicals", amateur players in Pyramus and Thisbe, a play within the play....
, The Old Boy Network as himself, and Dancing Country a BBC2 Playhouse presentation in 1981, the series The Chinese Detective
The Chinese Detective
The Chinese Detective is a British television series, transmitted by the BBC between 1981 and 1982 and created by Ian Kennedy Martin, who had previously devised The Sweeney and Juliet Bravo....
(1982), the series Juliet Bravo
Juliet Bravo
Juliet Bravo is a British television series, which ran on BBC1 between 1980 and 1985. The theme of the series concerned a female police inspector who took over control of a police station in the fictional town of Hartley in Lancashire.-Programme name:...
in 1983, Threads
Threads
Threads is a British television drama produced by the BBC in 1984. Written by Barry Hines and directed by Mick Jackson, it is a documentary-style account of a nuclear war and its effects on the city of Sheffield in northern England....
(1984), the series Dramarama
Dramarama (TV series)
Dramarama is the name of a British children's' anthology series broadcast on ITV between 1983 and 1989. It tended to feature drama of a science fiction or supernatural bent. The programme was administered by Tyne Tees Television in Newcastle, who had a track-record for organising cross-franchise...
and Minder
Minder (TV series)
Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
in 1985, and Lizzie's Pictures in 1987.
Nat Jackley appeared in some fifty pantomimes—the last was in 1980 in Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
.
He was subsequently the subject of TV's This Is Your Life
This Is Your Life (UK TV series)
This Is Your Life is a British biographical television documentary, based on the 1952 American show of the same name. It was hosted by Eamonn Andrews from 1955 until 1964, and then from 1969 until his death in 1987 aged 64...
on 10 April 1980.
Stage
- Jack and the BeanstalkJack and the BeanstalkJack and the Beanstalk is a folktale said by English historian Francis Palgrave to be an oral legend that arrived in England with the Vikings. The tale is closely associated with the tale of Jack the Giant-killer. It is known under a number of versions...
(1975) a pantomime at the Bradford AlhambraBradford AlhambraThe Bradford Alhambra is a theatre in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It was built in 1913 at a cost of £20,000 for theatre impresario Francis Laidler, and opened on Wednesday 18 March 1914. In 1964 Bradford City Council bought the Alhambra for £78,900. In 1974 it was designated a Grade II...
with Charlie DrakeCharlie DrakeCharlie Drake was an English comedian, actor, writer and singer.With his small stature , curly red hair and liking for slapstick he was a popular comedian with children in his early years, becoming nationally-known for his "Hello, my darlings" catchphrase...
and Jack SmethurstJack SmethurstJack Smethurst is an English TV and film comic actor whose career dates back to the 1950s.-Career:Smethurst made his film debut in 1958's Carry On Sergeant... - Babes in the WoodBabes in the WoodBabes in the Wood is a traditional children's tale, as well as a popular pantomime subject. It has also been the name of some other unrelated works. The expression has passed into common language, referring to inexperienced innocents entering unawares into any potentially dangerous or hostile...
(1960) a pantomime at the Empire Palace, Leeds - This'll Make You Laugh (1956) a revue with Tessie O'SheaTessie O'SheaTeresa Mary "Tessie" O'Shea was a Welsh entertainer and actress.Born in Cardiff to Nellie Theresa and James Peter O'Shea, a soldier who was the son of Irish emigrants, Tessie was reared in the British music hall tradition, appearing on stage as "The Wonder of Wales" as early as the age of six...
, SabrinaSabrina (actress)Norma Ann Sykes , better known as Sabrina, was a 1950s English glamour model who progressed to a minor movie career. Her main claim to fame was her hourglass figure of prodigious breasts coupled with a tiny 17" waist...
and Arthur WorsleyArthur WorsleyArthur Wilkinson Worsley was a ventriloquist who appeared regularly on British television from the 1950s to the 1970s.-Early years:He was born at Failsworth, Manchester... - Singing in the Reign (1952) a summer revue at the Queen's Theatre, BlackpoolBlackpoolBlackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
with Josef LockeJosef LockeJosef Locke was the stage name of Joseph McLaughlin , a tenor singer who was successful in the United Kingdom and Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s.... - AladdinAladdinAladdin is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland ....
(1951) a pantomime at the London Casino with Jean Carson and Julie AndrewsJulie AndrewsDame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors... - The Third Annual 'Latin Quarter' Revue (1951) a revue at the London Casino with Jean Carson
- Off The Record (1950) a revue at the Victoria Palace TheatreVictoria Palace TheatreVictoria Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in Victoria Street, in the City of Westminster, opposite Victoria Station.-Origins:The theatre began life as a small concert room above the stables of the Royal Standard Hotel, a small hotel and tavern built in 1832 at what was then 522 Stockbridge...
, London with Eddie CalvertEddie CalvertEddie Calvert was an English trumpeter, who enjoyed his greatest successes in the 1950s. Calvert had his first United Kingdom, number one instrumental single in 1954, with "Oh Mein Papa".-Biography:...
and Arthur Worsley - Out of this World (1948) a revue at the London PalladiumLondon PalladiumThe London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...
with Frankie HowerdFrankie HowerdFrancis Alick "Frankie" Howerd OBE was an English comedian and comic actor whose career, described by fellow comedian Barry Cryer as "a series of comebacks", spanned six decades.-Early career:...
and Binnie HaleBinnie HaleBinnie Hale was an English actress and musician. Both her father, Robert Hale and younger brother, Sonnie Hale were actors. She married West End actor Jack Raine, with whom she had one daughter....
later at the Opera House, Blackpool - High Time (1946) a revue at the London Palladium.
Filmography
- Return to WaterlooReturn to Waterloo (film)Return to Waterloo is a 1984 British musical film written and directed by Ray Davies and starring Tim Roth, Kenneth Colley and Claire Parker. The film shows the journey of a commuter from Guilford to Waterloo in London. The soundtrack was provided by The Kinks who released an album Return to...
(1985) as Old Soldier - YanksYanksYanks is a 1979 John Schlesinger film, set in World War II in the village of Dobcross, in Greater Manchester, England. Starring Richard Gere, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane, Lisa Eichhorn, Rachel Roberts and Tony Melody....
(1979) as Postman - Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely DaughterMrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter (film)Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter is a 1968 British comedy film starring Peter Noone. The film showcases the British rock band, Herman's Hermits.-Cast:*Peter Noone – Herman Tulley*Keith Hopwood – Keith*Derek Leckenby – Derek*Karl Green – Karl...
(1968) as Pub Singer, starring Herman's HermitsHerman's HermitsHerman's Hermits are an English beat band, formed in Manchester in 1963 as Herman & The Hermits. The group's record producer, Mickie Most , emphasized a simple, non-threatening, clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers... - Stars in Your EyesStars in Your EyesStars in Your Eyes is a 1956 British musical film directed by Maurice Elvey.-Plot:As the world of vaudeville gradually loses its attraction, more and more entertainers are losing their jobs. In hopes of fixing their financial problems, a group of entertainers band together and buy a run-down...
(1956) starring as Jimmy Knowles, with Patricia KirkwoodPatricia KirkwoodPatricia Kirkwood was a British stage actress who appeared in numerous performances of dramas, cabaret, revues, music hall, variety, and pantomimes. She also performed on radio, television, and movies... - Under New ManagementUnder New ManagementUnder New Management is a 1946 British comedy film directed by John E. Blakeley and starring Nat Jackley, Norman Evans and Dan Young. A chimney sweep inherits a hotel and calls on a number of ex-army friends to staff it. It was one of a number of films at the time dealing with the contemporary...
(1946) (aka Honeymoon HotelHoneymoon Hotel (film)* Honeymoon Hotel is a 1964 MGM comedy film.* Honeymoon Hotel is a 1946 Mancunian Film Corporation comedy musical film....
) as Nat, with Norman EvansNorman EvansNorman Evans , was a variety and radio artiste, born in Rochdale, Lancashire, England.Evans was discovered by fellow Rochdale entertainer Gracie Fields...
, Dan YoungDan YoungDan Young was a British comedian and film actor. He featured in a number of Mancunian Films productions often appearing with Frank Randle.-Selected filmography:* Calling All Crooks * Somewhere in England...
and Betty JumelBetty JumelBetty Jumel was a British variety hall entertainer and actress.Betty Jumel was born in Fairhaven, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire in 1901. She was aged only 10 years-old when she made her first stage appearance, alongside her father Harold Jumel, who toured an act round the music halls entitled The... - DemobbedDemobbed (1946 film)Demobbed is a 1946 British comedy film directed by John E. Blakeley and starring Norman Evans, Nat Jackley, Gus McNaughton and Dan Young. Its plot concerns a group of ex-soldiers who attempt to gain employment after being discharged from the army.-Cast:...
(1944) as Nat, with Norman Evans, Dan Young and Betty Jumel.
External links
- Biographies: Allmovie, British Film Institute, It's a Hot'un, Swalwell
- Photographs: It's Behind You, Swalwell
- Film and television databases: AllMovie, Blockbuster, Fandango, IMDB, MSN Movies, VH1
- Film clips: YouTube