Ronnie Corbett (1930-2016)

Ronald Balfour Corbett, CBE  was a Scottish actor and comedian who had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the television comedy series The Two Ronnies.

He achieved prominence in Sir David Frost’s 1960s satirical comedy programme The Frost Report and later starred in the sitcoms Sorry! and No – That’s Me Over Here!.

Ronnie Corbett was born in Edinburgh, a son of masterbaker William Balfour Corbett and his London-born wife Annie Elizabeth (née Main)

Corbett was educated at the Royal High School in the city, but did not attend university. After leaving school, he decided he wanted to be an actor while performing in amateur theatricals at a church youth club.

His first job, however, was with the Ministry of Agriculture.

He then did national service with the Royal Air Force, during which he was the shortest in height commissioned officer in the British Forces.

He went through officer cadet training at RAF Spitalgate. He was a regular at Ellis’s Café, Butchers Row, where he says he enJoyed breakfast.

A former Aircraftman 2nd class, he was commissioned into the secretarial branch of the RAF as a pilot officer (national service) in 1950. He was promoted to flying officer in 1952.

On demob, he moved to London and Gravesend to act, and started his career by playing schoolboy roles in films. At 5 ft 1 in (1.55 m) tall, Corbett was suited to playing younger than his years.

References to his height frequently crop up in his self-deprecating humour.

In his first stage co-starring appearance he was billed as Ronald Corbett at Cromer, Norfolk, in Take it Easy in 1956, co-starring with Graham Stark.

He appeared in Crackerjack as a regular in its early days, one episode with Winifred Atwell.

He also appeared in films including Rockets Galore! (1957), Casino Royale (1967), Some Will, Some Won’t (1970) and the film version of the farce No Sex Please, We’re British (1973).[citation needed]

Corbett starred in the first London production of the musical The Boys from Syracuse (as Dromio of Syracuse) in 1963 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, alongside Bob Monkhouse.

In 1965 he was in cabaret at Winston’s, Danny La Rue’s Mayfair nightclub. David Frost saw him and asked him to appear in The Frost Report. At the time Corbett was in the West End, playing Will Scarlett in Lionel Bart’s Robin Hood ill-fated musical Twang!.

Corbett first worked with Ronnie Barker in The Frost Report (1966–67). The writers and cast were mostly Oxbridge graduates from the Footlights tradition. Corbett said he and Barker were drawn together as two grammar school boys who had not gone to university.

They appeared with John Cleese in one of the most repeated comedy sketches in British television, the Class sketch, in which Corbett got the pay-off line: “I get a pain in the back of my neck.”

His BBC television comedy show with Ronnie Barker, The Two Ronnies, lasted from 1971 to 1987.

His best-known role away from The Two Ronnies is as the 40-something Timothy Lumsden, dominated by his mother, in the sitcom Sorry! (1981–88).

In 2005, Corbett teamed up again with Ronnie Barker for The Two Ronnies Sketchbook, comedy sketches from their original series with newly recorded linking material.

Also in 2005, Corbett appeared with comedian Peter Kay in the spoof music video for the number 1 single “Is This the Way to Amarillo?”, in which the song—originally by Tony Christie—was mimed.

From 2010, he starred in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom When The Dog Dies. The series reunited Corbett with Ian Davidson and Peter Vincent, the writers of Sorry!

Already Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to entertainment and charity.

Corbett married actress and dancer Anne Hart in 1965; they had two daughters, actresses Emma and Sophie Corbett.

He lived in Shirley, Croydon, for many years. He also had a home in Gullane, East Lothian, in Scotland. He was a beekeeper and kept hives at his East Lothian home.

Corbett was a golfer and appeared in celebrity and pro–am events. A keen cricket fan, Corbett was also a past president of the cricketing charity the Lord’s Taverners (1982 and 1987).

He also supported his local football club, Crystal Palace, as well as his hometown club, Heart of Midlothian.