Veteran Wisdom joins Hollywood exit parade

What with the recent passing of such luminaries as Claude Chabrol, Tony Curtis and Arthur Penn, The Ticketlooks set to merge with the obituary pages.

Mention should, however, be made of Norman Wisdom’s passing at the mighty age of 95. The English comic’s golden years were the 1950s and 1960s, but for several decades after that his films played continuously on TV.

Born in London, the son of a chauffeur and a dressmaker, Wisdom endured poverty before approaching show business at the relatively advanced age of 31.

Initially a straight man for David Nixon, a conjuror whose fame lasted into the 1970s, he finally made it into movies with 1953's hugely successful Trouble in Store. The picture broke the box-office records in 51 out of the 67 London cinemas in which it played. "The most astonishing phenomenon in post-war British entertainment," the Picture Post raved.

Wisdom's superstar status did not survive the 1960s, but, a touching presence, he continued to make the odd performance in straight productions, such as the 1981 play Going Gently. Happily, always careful with money, Norman did not slip into poverty in later years. Quite the reverse. His last few decades were spent living in comfortable, tax-free bliss on the Isle of Man.

We haven’t mentioned Albania yet. There will, indeed, be mourning in the Adriatic nation, where Wisdom was practically worshipped as a deity.

Read more at irishtimes.com/ blogs/screenwriter