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Sir Bruce Forsyth, 89, UK TV host (Come Dancing; game shows); descendent of forsythia guy
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That Derek
Aug 18, 2017, 8:32:43 PM8/18/17
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http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40978576
Entertainment & Arts
Sir Bruce Forsyth: TV legend dies aged 89
3 hours ago
From the section Entertainment & Arts
Sir Bruce Forsyth, the veteran entertainer and presenter of many successful TV shows, has died aged 89.
The former Strictly Come Dancing host had been unwell for some time and was in hospital earlier this year after a severe chest infection.
His long career in showbusiness began when he was aged just 14.
He became Britain's best-paid TV star, famous for hosting game shows like The Generation Game, Play Your Cards Right and The Price is Right.
He also presented BBC One's Strictly with Tess Daly from 2004 to 2014.
A statement from his manager Ian Wilson said he died "peacefully at his home surrounded by his wife Wilnelia and all his children".
"A couple of weeks ago, a friend visited him and asked him what he had been doing these last 18 months. With a twinkle in his eye, he responded, 'I've been very, very busy... being ill!'" he added.
Sir Bruce's family thanked "the many people who have sent cards and letters to Bruce wishing him well over his long illness", adding there would be no further comment at the moment.
Tributes have been paid by his friends and admirers in the showbusiness world. Sir Bruce's Strictly co-host Tess Daly said she was "heartbroken".
"From the moment we met, Bruce and I did nothing but laugh our way through a decade of working together on Strictly Come Dancing and I will never forget his generosity, his brilliant sense of humour and his drive to entertain the audiences he so loved," she said.
Former Strictly judge Len Goodman also paid tribute, saying: "As long as I can remember there has always been Bruce on our TV.
"His work ethic, professionalism and charm will be with me forever. Bruce it was nice to see you to see you nice."
Strictly presenter Claudia Winkleman, who replaced Sir Bruce after he left the show, tweeted that he was "the King of TV, the Prince of performers and the most generous of people... all toe-tapping twinkle, all kindness, all love....
"The Bruce you saw really was the man he was. We'll miss him so much."
Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood added: "Extremely sad to hear the news of Bruce's passing. A true legend and national treasure. He will be deeply missed but always remembered."
Former judge Arlene Phillips said the entertainer was an "indestructible titan, tap dancing his way through life".
She added: "Working with him on Strictly was personally a joy. His endless teasing of my judging style, particularly with strong sportsmen, was an ongoing joke.
Sir Bruce Forsyth 1928-2017
Longest TV career of any male entertainer
1939:First TV performance, Come and Be Televised
2015: Last TV performance, Strictly Children in Need Special
5 years The Bruce Forsyth Show
10 years The Generation Game
14 years Play your cards right
2 catchphrases Didn't he do well? Nice to see you, to see you nice.
BBC Research
In a tweet, Prime Minister Theresa May said the country had "lost a national treasure", adding: "Like millions of others, for years I watched Sir Bruce dance, sing, joke & laugh. He will be sorely missed."
BBC director general Lord Hall described Sir Bruce as "one of the greatest entertainers our country has ever known".
Comedian Jimmy Tarbuck added: "He could do it all. He was magnificent and he was a great entertainer. He could dance, he was a very nice pianist, he was good at sketches, he was the greatest moaner in the world on the golf course, and he was a unique friend to me."
Former chat show host Sir Michael Parkinson described the entertainer as "funny" and "irrepressible".
Sir Michael also praised Sir Bruce's ability to manage his career, saying: "He was very canny - we only know about the shows he said yes to, what we don't know are the hundreds of ideas he said, 'That's not for me.' He had the smartness - that's the sign of a great star."
BBC Radio 4 presenter Nicholas Parsons added that he was "devoted" to Sir Bruce.
"He had great charm, great humour - he was an all-round performer. He was one of the country's most talented players - a great dancer, great singer and a comedian and also very good actor. The way he ran a game show was exceptional - a unique talent. He was a lovely man."
The Beano tweeted a picture of Sir Bruce which appeared in the comic in 2008, describing him as an "entertainment legend".
Sir Bruce had not been seen in public recently, due to ill health. He was too frail to attend the funerals of close friends Ronnie Corbett and Sir Terry Wogan last year.
In 2015, the presenter underwent keyhole surgery after suffering two aneurysms, which were discovered following a fall at his Surrey home.
"His enormous support after I was let go from the Strictly panel meant so much."
Veteran entertainer Sir Bruce Forsyth had a career spanning eight decades, in which he went from struggling variety performer to Saturday night TV stardom.
On the way, he became one of the most recognisable entertainers in the business, driven by what appeared to be inexhaustible energy.
He became synonymous with the plethora of game shows that seemed to dominate television light entertainment in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, although he often felt he had become typecast as the genial quizmaster.
And at an age when most performers would have put their feet up, his career enjoyed a huge revival with the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing.
Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson was born in Edmonton, north London, on 22 February 1928.
His father owned a local garage and both his parents were Salvation Army members who sang and played music at home.
The young Bruce was a direct descendant of William Forsyth, a founder of the Royal Horticultural Society, whose name was given to the plant forsythia.
His interest in showbusiness was kindled at the age of eight and he was reportedly found tap-dancing on the flat roof after watching his first Fred Astaire film.
"As soon as I got home from school," he recalled, "I'd take up the carpet, because there was lino underneath, and start tapping away."
He made his stage debut at the age of 14 as Boy Bruce, the Mighty Atom, appearing bottom of the bill at the Theatre Royal, Bilston.
Live entertainment was a way of escaping the pressures and dangers of wartime Britain, and there was a huge demand for acts, no matter how bad they were.
Many years later he explained his motivation on a BBC chat show. "I wanted to be famous and buy my mum a fur coat."
Famous Forsyth catchphrases
◾"I'm in charge."
◾"All right, my loves?"
◾"Good game, good game!"
◾"Nice to see you, to see you nice."
◾"Give us a twirl!"
◾"Cuddly toy, cuddly toy!"
◾"OK, dollies do your dealing."
◾"You get nothing for a pair!"
◾"What do points make?"
◾"Didn't he/she do well?"
◾"You're my favourite."
◾"Keeeeep dancing!"
But there was to be no fast track to success. For the next 16 years he performed in church halls and theatres across the country, sleeping in train luggage racks and waiting for the big break.
It came in 1958, at a time when he had been unemployed for more than three months and was seriously considering giving up on showbusiness.
He was asked to present Sunday Night at the London Palladium, a televised variety show, made by Lord Grade's ATV company for the ITV network.
He'd finally found the fame he had always craved, appearing not in front of a couple of hundred people in a theatre, but the more than 10 million who regularly tuned in to the show.
"The pubs would empty when it came on," he told an interviewer. "We would get calls saying: 'Can't you start it later?'"
Originally booked for two weeks, he stayed five years, by which time he was Britain's highest-paid entertainer, earning £1,000 a week (£18,700 in today's money).
But he continued touring with his variety show and the strain of combining this with his Palladium appearances took a toll on his private life.
He divorced his first wife, Penny Calvert, a dancer he'd met in the theatre, and she wrote an account of her husband's perpetual absence, called Darling, Your Dinner's in the Dustbin.
A popular element in his Palladium show was a feature called Beat the Clock, in which contestants, egged on by Forsyth, had to complete quirky tasks as a huge clock ticked down.
The segment gave a hint of his future television role and he went on to host some of the most popular television game shows of the 1970s and 80s.
With his catchphrases of "Nice to see you, to see you nice" and "Didn't he do well?" he reigned supreme at the helm of the BBC's Generation Game for six years from 1971, and again at the beginning of the 1990s.
At its peak, the programme attracted 20 million viewers, who tuned in to watch Forsyth seemingly having more fun than the competitors, enthusing over the mundane prizes on the conveyor belt.
The presenter argued with his BBC managers about the show's early evening timeslot but he eventually accepted his role as the "warm-up man" for Saturday night television.
His co-host on the show, Anthea Redfern, was each week encouraged to "give us a twirl". The couple married in 1973 but divorced six years later.
It was on the Generation Game that he introduced his famous "thinker" pose, appearing in silhouette at the beginning of each show.
The idea came from the classic circus strongman pose, something he'd perfected during his days in variety.
He repeated his success on ITV's Play Your Cards Right, where the audience joined in the cries of "higher" or "lower" as the contestants tried to guess the value of a series of playing cards.
Changing tastes
Michael Grade said of him: "He knows how to get laughs out of people but it's never cruel and he leaves their dignity intact."
In 1995, a year after his final Generation Game appearance, he received a lifetime achievement award for variety at the British Comedy Awards and began hosting ITV's The Price is Right.
The entertainer was, by this time, a Rolls-Royce-driving multimillionaire and married since 1983 to Wilnelia Merced, a former Miss World.
He later claimed that he regretted becoming so associated with game shows and wished he'd done more variety work on TV.
Play Your Cards Right was axed in 1999 and, with changing tastes in entertainment, his TV career began to slide.
He returned to the theatre - but experienced an unexpected revival after his wife watched an edition of the satirical quiz, Have I Got News For You, and suggested he could present the programme.
After calling show regular Paul Merton, he landed the gig and offered to be "a little bit deadpan".
"But the team said, 'No, be Bruce Forsyth,'" he said.
He used the occasion to parody some of his old game shows, much to the ill-disguised disgust of team captain Ian Hislop.
But the appearance led to Forsyth, an accomplished tap dancer, being offered the job of hosting Strictly Come Dancing, which began a year later.
Viewed with scepticism when it launched, the celebrity dance show became one of the most-watched programmes on TV by the time it reached its fifth series in 2007.
He brought his own brand of avuncular good humour to the proceedings - reassuring many of the contestants with the phrase "you're my favourites".
"His particular character and personality went a long way to making the show what it is," said former contestant Ann Widdecombe.
But the presenter once revealed that Strictly "was never the show that I thought it would be".
"I thought it'd be a comedy show - me getting among the contestants and showing them how to dance, and them all falling over," he told ITV's This Morning. "It was a different show."
After missing a handful of episodes because of illness, he decided to "step down from the rigours" of presenting Strictly in 2014.
Golfing passion
"But I'm not retiring," he insisted. "That's the last thing in the world I want to do. This isn't Brucie walking into the sunset."
He continued to host the Christmas and charity editions of Strictly until 2014 - all of which were taped, as opposed to live broadcasts.
Away from entertainment, Forsyth's biggest passion was golf and he took part in many pro-celebrity tournaments.
His house was next to the course at Wentworth, where he played with many of the world's best players, practising in the bunker in his own back garden.
During his career, Forsyth's multiple talents and years of application sparked an enduring appeal.
In 2011 he was knighted after years of campaigning by his fans and a parliamentary Early Day Motion signed by 73 MPs.
But he suffered from ill health towards the end of his life, and in 2016 his wife revealed he still had "a bit of a problem moving", following major surgery a year earlier.
Sir Bruce was one of the last entertainers from the tradition of music hall to be working on British television.
In many ways his act barely changed. The same corny gags, the same toothy smile and, above all, the same manic enthusiasm.
"On stage I think I'm 35," he once said. "Working takes over my whole body and I become a younger man - that's why I won't stop."
He will be particularly remembered for his ability to transform run-of-the-mill party games into glorious moments of mayhem that enthralled contestants and audiences alike.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram at bbcnewsents, or if you have a story suggestion email entertain...@bbc.co.uk.
Entertainment & Arts
Sir Bruce Forsyth: TV legend dies aged 89
3 hours ago
From the section Entertainment & Arts
Sir Bruce Forsyth, the veteran entertainer and presenter of many successful TV shows, has died aged 89.
The former Strictly Come Dancing host had been unwell for some time and was in hospital earlier this year after a severe chest infection.
His long career in showbusiness began when he was aged just 14.
He became Britain's best-paid TV star, famous for hosting game shows like The Generation Game, Play Your Cards Right and The Price is Right.
He also presented BBC One's Strictly with Tess Daly from 2004 to 2014.
A statement from his manager Ian Wilson said he died "peacefully at his home surrounded by his wife Wilnelia and all his children".
"A couple of weeks ago, a friend visited him and asked him what he had been doing these last 18 months. With a twinkle in his eye, he responded, 'I've been very, very busy... being ill!'" he added.
Sir Bruce's family thanked "the many people who have sent cards and letters to Bruce wishing him well over his long illness", adding there would be no further comment at the moment.
Tributes have been paid by his friends and admirers in the showbusiness world. Sir Bruce's Strictly co-host Tess Daly said she was "heartbroken".
"From the moment we met, Bruce and I did nothing but laugh our way through a decade of working together on Strictly Come Dancing and I will never forget his generosity, his brilliant sense of humour and his drive to entertain the audiences he so loved," she said.
Former Strictly judge Len Goodman also paid tribute, saying: "As long as I can remember there has always been Bruce on our TV.
"His work ethic, professionalism and charm will be with me forever. Bruce it was nice to see you to see you nice."
Strictly presenter Claudia Winkleman, who replaced Sir Bruce after he left the show, tweeted that he was "the King of TV, the Prince of performers and the most generous of people... all toe-tapping twinkle, all kindness, all love....
"The Bruce you saw really was the man he was. We'll miss him so much."
Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood added: "Extremely sad to hear the news of Bruce's passing. A true legend and national treasure. He will be deeply missed but always remembered."
Former judge Arlene Phillips said the entertainer was an "indestructible titan, tap dancing his way through life".
She added: "Working with him on Strictly was personally a joy. His endless teasing of my judging style, particularly with strong sportsmen, was an ongoing joke.
Sir Bruce Forsyth 1928-2017
Longest TV career of any male entertainer
1939:First TV performance, Come and Be Televised
2015: Last TV performance, Strictly Children in Need Special
5 years The Bruce Forsyth Show
10 years The Generation Game
14 years Play your cards right
2 catchphrases Didn't he do well? Nice to see you, to see you nice.
BBC Research
In a tweet, Prime Minister Theresa May said the country had "lost a national treasure", adding: "Like millions of others, for years I watched Sir Bruce dance, sing, joke & laugh. He will be sorely missed."
BBC director general Lord Hall described Sir Bruce as "one of the greatest entertainers our country has ever known".
Comedian Jimmy Tarbuck added: "He could do it all. He was magnificent and he was a great entertainer. He could dance, he was a very nice pianist, he was good at sketches, he was the greatest moaner in the world on the golf course, and he was a unique friend to me."
Former chat show host Sir Michael Parkinson described the entertainer as "funny" and "irrepressible".
Sir Michael also praised Sir Bruce's ability to manage his career, saying: "He was very canny - we only know about the shows he said yes to, what we don't know are the hundreds of ideas he said, 'That's not for me.' He had the smartness - that's the sign of a great star."
BBC Radio 4 presenter Nicholas Parsons added that he was "devoted" to Sir Bruce.
"He had great charm, great humour - he was an all-round performer. He was one of the country's most talented players - a great dancer, great singer and a comedian and also very good actor. The way he ran a game show was exceptional - a unique talent. He was a lovely man."
The Beano tweeted a picture of Sir Bruce which appeared in the comic in 2008, describing him as an "entertainment legend".
Sir Bruce had not been seen in public recently, due to ill health. He was too frail to attend the funerals of close friends Ronnie Corbett and Sir Terry Wogan last year.
In 2015, the presenter underwent keyhole surgery after suffering two aneurysms, which were discovered following a fall at his Surrey home.
"His enormous support after I was let go from the Strictly panel meant so much."
Veteran entertainer Sir Bruce Forsyth had a career spanning eight decades, in which he went from struggling variety performer to Saturday night TV stardom.
On the way, he became one of the most recognisable entertainers in the business, driven by what appeared to be inexhaustible energy.
He became synonymous with the plethora of game shows that seemed to dominate television light entertainment in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, although he often felt he had become typecast as the genial quizmaster.
And at an age when most performers would have put their feet up, his career enjoyed a huge revival with the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing.
Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson was born in Edmonton, north London, on 22 February 1928.
His father owned a local garage and both his parents were Salvation Army members who sang and played music at home.
The young Bruce was a direct descendant of William Forsyth, a founder of the Royal Horticultural Society, whose name was given to the plant forsythia.
His interest in showbusiness was kindled at the age of eight and he was reportedly found tap-dancing on the flat roof after watching his first Fred Astaire film.
"As soon as I got home from school," he recalled, "I'd take up the carpet, because there was lino underneath, and start tapping away."
He made his stage debut at the age of 14 as Boy Bruce, the Mighty Atom, appearing bottom of the bill at the Theatre Royal, Bilston.
Live entertainment was a way of escaping the pressures and dangers of wartime Britain, and there was a huge demand for acts, no matter how bad they were.
Many years later he explained his motivation on a BBC chat show. "I wanted to be famous and buy my mum a fur coat."
Famous Forsyth catchphrases
◾"I'm in charge."
◾"All right, my loves?"
◾"Good game, good game!"
◾"Nice to see you, to see you nice."
◾"Give us a twirl!"
◾"Cuddly toy, cuddly toy!"
◾"OK, dollies do your dealing."
◾"You get nothing for a pair!"
◾"What do points make?"
◾"Didn't he/she do well?"
◾"You're my favourite."
◾"Keeeeep dancing!"
But there was to be no fast track to success. For the next 16 years he performed in church halls and theatres across the country, sleeping in train luggage racks and waiting for the big break.
It came in 1958, at a time when he had been unemployed for more than three months and was seriously considering giving up on showbusiness.
He was asked to present Sunday Night at the London Palladium, a televised variety show, made by Lord Grade's ATV company for the ITV network.
He'd finally found the fame he had always craved, appearing not in front of a couple of hundred people in a theatre, but the more than 10 million who regularly tuned in to the show.
"The pubs would empty when it came on," he told an interviewer. "We would get calls saying: 'Can't you start it later?'"
Originally booked for two weeks, he stayed five years, by which time he was Britain's highest-paid entertainer, earning £1,000 a week (£18,700 in today's money).
But he continued touring with his variety show and the strain of combining this with his Palladium appearances took a toll on his private life.
He divorced his first wife, Penny Calvert, a dancer he'd met in the theatre, and she wrote an account of her husband's perpetual absence, called Darling, Your Dinner's in the Dustbin.
A popular element in his Palladium show was a feature called Beat the Clock, in which contestants, egged on by Forsyth, had to complete quirky tasks as a huge clock ticked down.
The segment gave a hint of his future television role and he went on to host some of the most popular television game shows of the 1970s and 80s.
With his catchphrases of "Nice to see you, to see you nice" and "Didn't he do well?" he reigned supreme at the helm of the BBC's Generation Game for six years from 1971, and again at the beginning of the 1990s.
At its peak, the programme attracted 20 million viewers, who tuned in to watch Forsyth seemingly having more fun than the competitors, enthusing over the mundane prizes on the conveyor belt.
The presenter argued with his BBC managers about the show's early evening timeslot but he eventually accepted his role as the "warm-up man" for Saturday night television.
His co-host on the show, Anthea Redfern, was each week encouraged to "give us a twirl". The couple married in 1973 but divorced six years later.
It was on the Generation Game that he introduced his famous "thinker" pose, appearing in silhouette at the beginning of each show.
The idea came from the classic circus strongman pose, something he'd perfected during his days in variety.
He repeated his success on ITV's Play Your Cards Right, where the audience joined in the cries of "higher" or "lower" as the contestants tried to guess the value of a series of playing cards.
Changing tastes
Michael Grade said of him: "He knows how to get laughs out of people but it's never cruel and he leaves their dignity intact."
In 1995, a year after his final Generation Game appearance, he received a lifetime achievement award for variety at the British Comedy Awards and began hosting ITV's The Price is Right.
The entertainer was, by this time, a Rolls-Royce-driving multimillionaire and married since 1983 to Wilnelia Merced, a former Miss World.
He later claimed that he regretted becoming so associated with game shows and wished he'd done more variety work on TV.
Play Your Cards Right was axed in 1999 and, with changing tastes in entertainment, his TV career began to slide.
He returned to the theatre - but experienced an unexpected revival after his wife watched an edition of the satirical quiz, Have I Got News For You, and suggested he could present the programme.
After calling show regular Paul Merton, he landed the gig and offered to be "a little bit deadpan".
"But the team said, 'No, be Bruce Forsyth,'" he said.
He used the occasion to parody some of his old game shows, much to the ill-disguised disgust of team captain Ian Hislop.
But the appearance led to Forsyth, an accomplished tap dancer, being offered the job of hosting Strictly Come Dancing, which began a year later.
Viewed with scepticism when it launched, the celebrity dance show became one of the most-watched programmes on TV by the time it reached its fifth series in 2007.
He brought his own brand of avuncular good humour to the proceedings - reassuring many of the contestants with the phrase "you're my favourites".
"His particular character and personality went a long way to making the show what it is," said former contestant Ann Widdecombe.
But the presenter once revealed that Strictly "was never the show that I thought it would be".
"I thought it'd be a comedy show - me getting among the contestants and showing them how to dance, and them all falling over," he told ITV's This Morning. "It was a different show."
After missing a handful of episodes because of illness, he decided to "step down from the rigours" of presenting Strictly in 2014.
Golfing passion
"But I'm not retiring," he insisted. "That's the last thing in the world I want to do. This isn't Brucie walking into the sunset."
He continued to host the Christmas and charity editions of Strictly until 2014 - all of which were taped, as opposed to live broadcasts.
Away from entertainment, Forsyth's biggest passion was golf and he took part in many pro-celebrity tournaments.
His house was next to the course at Wentworth, where he played with many of the world's best players, practising in the bunker in his own back garden.
During his career, Forsyth's multiple talents and years of application sparked an enduring appeal.
In 2011 he was knighted after years of campaigning by his fans and a parliamentary Early Day Motion signed by 73 MPs.
But he suffered from ill health towards the end of his life, and in 2016 his wife revealed he still had "a bit of a problem moving", following major surgery a year earlier.
Sir Bruce was one of the last entertainers from the tradition of music hall to be working on British television.
In many ways his act barely changed. The same corny gags, the same toothy smile and, above all, the same manic enthusiasm.
"On stage I think I'm 35," he once said. "Working takes over my whole body and I become a younger man - that's why I won't stop."
He will be particularly remembered for his ability to transform run-of-the-mill party games into glorious moments of mayhem that enthralled contestants and audiences alike.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram at bbcnewsents, or if you have a story suggestion email entertain...@bbc.co.uk.
Diner
Aug 18, 2017, 8:49:43 PM8/18/17
to
On Friday, August 18, 2017 at 8:32:43 PM UTC-4, That Derek wrote:
> http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40978576
>
> Entertainment & Arts
>
> Sir Bruce Forsyth: TV legend dies aged 89
>
As someone on a mailing list just wrote, "To put this in perspective" for Americans, "this is the equivalent of Johnny Carson dying."
> http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40978576
>
> Entertainment & Arts
>
> Sir Bruce Forsyth: TV legend dies aged 89
>
He was one of those uniquely English performers whose Vaudeville-infused comedy style always seemed too corny for most American audiences. I never quite "got" him myself, though I could see why British audiences loved him.
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