Jerry Desmonde
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Jerry Desmonde (July 20, 1908 – February 11, 1967 suicide[1]) was a British actor best known as a straight man to Sid Field and Norman Wisdom - Jerry is sometimes credited as Jerry Desmond.[2]
Born James Robert Sadler in Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, Jerry Desmonde was a stage, film, and television actor principally in comedies, drama and crime. He first appeared on stage at the age of eleven and later became part of his family's act "The Four Sadlers", building a career as a song and dance man in musical theatre and later touring the USA in review in the 20s.[3] By 1934 he had married Peggy Duncan and they toured as a double act, largely in Scotland and in the 1940s Jerry as he was then known, was briefly a straight man for Scottish comedian Dave Willis.[4] Jerry then became straight man for stage comedian Sid Field appearing in two films together.[5] Jerry appeared regularly as a panellist on the UK version of the television panel game 'What's My Line' (1951-1962)[6], appeared on the Bob Hope Radio Show (1951), appeared in several TV comedies,[7] hosted ATV's 'Hit The Limit'[8] (1956) and 'The 64,000 Question' (1956) television gameshows, and presented 'Housewives' Choice' radio programme on the BBC's Light Programme. Jerry was also on the London stage in Where's Charley?(1958), a theatre musical production of the play Charley's Aunt, and in Belle (1961) alternatively titled The Ballad of Dr Crippen - a music hall musical. Jerry appeared in numerous movies from 1946 to 1965 often with Norman Wisdom, and starring in some seven of them.[9][10]
[edit] External Links
- Biography: North East History article by Keith Proud, Alan Myers' British Library pages
- Photograph: Stuart Cann's website
- Film: IMDb, AllMovie and also A King in New York
- See also Jerry Desmonde on: UKGameShows, BBC Comedy Guide
