Reg Varney:REG VARNEY, who has died aged 92, endeared himself to a wide television audience in Britain and Ireland in the 1970s through the role of the cheeky chappie bus driver in the ITV series On the Buses, and the two spin-off films which followed.
In 76 television episodes, appearing from February 1969 to May 1973, the bachelor boy Stan Butler who lived with his mother (Doris Hare) was always pitting his wits against Blakey, the twitchily neurotic bus inspector played by Stephen Lewis - and usually coming off bruised but not beaten.
Short in stature and with the face of a naughty, broad-grinned cherub, Varney had a hard time of it in the 1950s and '60s when the music halls were closing down in Britain and his comedy routines were decreasingly in demand.
At that time he could not interest up-and-coming television in his comedy potential. After having employed Benny Hill as his straight man in a music-hall double act, he was driving back from a lone appearance in Scotland only to see his former straight man's name on a show placard in huge letters. He did not begrudge Hill his success, but felt if things did not get better he would leave show business and run a pub.
But ultimately he found his feet internationally and nationally through television in a number of roles, most successfully with the On the Buses series, which was exported to many countries - though not to the US east coast, where his cockney accent was said to mystify viewers. Varney was of the old school of comedians, who disliked much contemporary television and prided himself on never using swear words to get a laugh.
On the Buses made him so popular that when he and his family set off by air for a holiday in Fiji, a steward who was welcoming him on board said: "We're not going to the cemetery gate." Varney looked nonplussed until his wife pointed out that that was the name of the terminus on the indicator board in front of his bus.
Varney was born in Canning Town, London, to a working-class family, his father a semi-skilled tyre-factory worker, who encouraged his son's ambitions but once told the boy's uncle not to applaud any more when Varney was doing a music-hall routine at home, or the boy might "start to behave silly". This background served Varney well: he was rarely silly, except for professional purposes.
Despite his cheeky chappie persona, he later confessed to having to psych himself up before going on stage.
While he was serving in the first World War, Varney's father had sent him a celluloid clown, which did nothing but allow the movement of its arms and legs. Varney tried to make it do more entertaining things and was so successful that his mother applauded and stood him on the table so he could be seen better. This was the start of his love of show business, and he called his 1990 autobiography The Little Clown.
His first job was for the Imperial Wireless and Cable Company as a messenger boy. But on his 15th birthday his parents bought him an accordion, and he became a favourite in working-men's clubs.
In 1939 he went to the Boley Club in Denman Street as a pianist cum vocalist, to the El Gaucho Club and thence to the Windmill Theatre, where comedians had to compete with the nudes but where one comedian went out of his way to tell him that he was a natural comic.
His later efforts to broaden the range of his acting were not always successful. In 1953 he played Touchstone the clown in a London production of As You Like It staged by Bernard Miles to general praise, but his appearance in the 1968 TV play The Best Pair of Legs in the Business puzzled his fans. He played a drag artist desperately past his prime, a part in which pathos exceeded the comedy. It was praised by Harold Pinter and John Osborne, but when remade in 1972 as a cinema film it was marketed half-heartedly by the distributors and died the death.
Varney met his wife, Lily, at a family party. They had one daughter. His wife was also his adviser, usually able to convince him that his situation was not as dire as he often thought it was. They lived in Middlesex for many years before moving to Devon. In later years he divided his time between Dartmouth and Malta. He painted to a professional standard, and at one point exhibited pictures in London.
In 1995 he appeared in Paul Merton's Life of Comedy as a bingo caller. Latterly he had lost the desire to appear on TV, but, for a while, continued to work in radio.
Lily died in 2002. His daughter, two grandchildren, and a great-grandchild survive him.
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Reginald Alfred Varney: born July 11th, 1916; died November 16th, 2008