In the UK, during the 60's to the 80's, this was one one the most watched men on TV. His seaside postcard type of humour, with the famous 'Hill's Angels' that he used to chase around the show every time, was famous, and I for one thought he was brilliant. His show was stopped in 1989 by Thames TV, and perhaps at the time, it was all getting a bit 'samey' and the gags were getting stale.
The biography has been taken from ‘Findadeath.com’
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Alfred Hawthorn "Benny" Hill was born in the small southern British coastal town of Southampton on January 21, 1924. As a boy, Hill liked performing in school productions, and credited his favourite childhood actor, Charlie Chaplin, for inspiring him to be a star. After leaving school, Hill held several jobs: milkman, bridge operator, driver, then as a drummer, and his yearning to perform eventually led him to take a job as an assistant stage manager.
During World War II, Hill worked in working men’s clubs, revues, and end of the pier shows all over Britain. After the war, and before television, Hill worked as a radio performer. An early believer in television, Hill first appeared over the airwaves in 1949 on a show called Hi There. He chose to change use the first name "Benny", after the comedian Jack Benny. Continuing to work on and off, Hill’s own television career was officially launched in 1955 on BBC Television, and his show ran on and off there until 1969. It was in 1969 that Hill moved over to Thames Television, and began making those titty comedy sketches that he is most remembered for to this day. It is said that one of the most influential people that helped to form Hill’s comedy persona was the American comedian Red Skelton (figures), and there are distinct similarities between the work of the comedians.
No thanks to syndication, 111 half hour episodes of The Benny Hill Show made its
American debut on television in 1979, edited from earlier produced television programs.
Hill continued to appear on British television until 1989, when his show was finally
cancelled, because of political correctness. Although Hill was primarily known as
a television personality, he made occasional appearances in film, beginning around
1956 in a motion picture called Who Done It? Hill also performed in the 1965 movie
Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines as Fire Chief Perkins, in the 1968
movie Chitty-
There were always rumors that Benny was gay, but he denied them, saying "I am very set in my ways. Anyway, I have a mental age of about 17, far too young for marriage." Benny was also a momma's boy, and when his mother did die, he inherited her home, and kept it as a shrine for her.
At the end of his life, he lived in a modest apartment in Twickenham Road, Teddington, a western suburb of London. He lived in a complex called Fairwater House. He had been hospitalized twice in recent months for heart problems. Doctors told him that he needed to lose 30 pounds off his 240 pound body.
On Monday, April 24th, 1992, neighbours worried that they hadn't seen Benny in a while, and called the police. They responded, knocked his door in, and found the 4 day dead corpse of Hill, sitting in his armchair in front of the television. Supposedly he was surrounded with cash and checks that he hadn't cashed.
He was 67 years old.
The famous Hills angels