Michael Darvell pays tribute to Lionel Blair (1928-2021), the actor, dancer and choreographer who became a popular television performer for over 70 years.
I suppose I was first aware of Lionel Blair when he appeared in and choreographed some of Val Parnell’s Saturday Spectaculars on ITV in the late 1950s. He was, in effect, created by television, and indeed began in 1950 in Hold That Camera, an American game show that eventually became a variety show.
Since then he never looked back, becoming a noted dancer and choreographer as well as a guest celebrity on multiple television shows. He also accumulated a body of acting work on his road to fame. Blair was born in 1928 in Montreal in Canada with the name of Henry Lionel Blair Ogus. His Jewish parents, Myer and Debora, were from Russia and Poland but they had emigrated to Canada. The family then moved to Britain in 1930 and lived in Stamford Hill in north London where Lionel’s father was a barber and his mother a tailor.
Blair first started dancing with his sister Joyce during the Second World War bombing raids on London. They would entertain passengers on the Piccadilly line and the families sheltering in the Underground station at Manor House. During the Blitz the two children were evacuated to Oxford with their mother. But, back in London after the war Blair soon became an actor and toured in Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine and then joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. In 1953 he played a dancer in The Limping Man, a film with Lloyd Bridges, and began appearing in more films and on television as an actor.
In his time Blair was in several stage productions including Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Ray Cooney’s farce It Runs in the Family, the Gershwins’ musical Lady Be Good and the intimate revue And Another Thing, with his sister Joyce. He has also played the Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show.
However, at one time he gave up acting to concentrate on his dancing and to work with a number of Scots comedians, from whom he claimed to have learned much about acting. He formed his own dance company and they appeared regularly in television light entertainment programmes including Jack Hylton’s Monday Show (1958), ATV’s Saturday Spectacular, Spotlight with his own dancers, and in other series with Bruce Forsyth, Mike and Bernie Winters, Eamonn Andrews and David Frost.
He went on to make several films including The World of Suzie Wong, The Main Attraction, The Cool Mikado and worked with The Beatles on A Hard Day’s Night in which he played a choreographer. He continued acting in TV series including The Sooty Show, The Dickie Henderson Show, The Persuaders!, Bless This House, The Plank, The Kenny Everett Show and Emu’s Wide World. He was often being sent up for his rather camp demeanour but he was always the first to not take himself too seriously. He was a positive performer and obviously hellbent on cheering up his audiences. In that respect he was an all-round entertainer.
Blair graced the likes of Crossroads and Emmerdale, Last of the Summer Wine, Ricky Gervais’ Extras and Footballers’ Wives (as himself). He appeared on New Faces as a judge, hosted Name That Tune and was on several Royal Variety Performances. He was a guest on 13 editions of This Is Your Life including his own in 1974. He did a stint in Dictionary Corner on the Countdown series and was even on Never Mind the Buzzcocks. He seems to have been everybody’s favourite guest, giving advice on Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two and making the grade in Celebrity Big Brother in 2014.
One TV programme that Blair will always be remembered for is Give Us a Clue (1979-1991) because his part in the miming charades show has never been forgotten by the makers of BBC Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue as they continue to this day to perpetuate references to Blair and his signature appearances. But then who could forget Lionel Blair, an entertainer who brought fun and happiness to countless audiences for some 70 years? He was named Oldie of the Year in 2019 by The Oldie magazine. He died on 4 November 2021. His sister Joyce Blair died in 2006.
From 1967 until his death Lionel Blair was married to Susan Davis and they have three children, Daniel, Lucy and Matthew.
Henry Lionel Blair Ogus: 12 December 1928-4 November 2021. R.I.P.
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.