Barry Cryer

English writer,  comedian, and actor Barry Cryer was born 23 March 1935. In Leeds, Yorkshire. England. Educated at Leeds Grammar School, he studied English literature at the University of Leeds Cryer was a writer for Leeds-based Proscenium Players, the first Jewish amateur stage group, which was founded in 1948. After appearing in University revue, Cryer was offered a week’s work at the Leeds City Varieties theatre, home of The Good Old Days, which became the longest-running television entertainment show in the world. Cryer left university after learning his first-year results and travelled to London. After impressing impresario Vivian Van Damm, Cryer began as the bottom billing act at the Windmill Theatre in London, a theatre which showed comedy acts in between nude tableau shows. However, Cryer suffered severely from eczema and, after several periods in hospital, was released from his contract by Van Damm. Concluding that a performing career was untenable because of his skin condition, so Cryer chose to focus mainly on writing for the next eight years

Cryer joined the cast of Expresso Bongo (1957) with Susan Hampshire, Millicent Martin and Paul Scofield, during which he recorded the song “The Purple People Eater”, Which reached number one in Finland. Cryer’s first writing credits were four sketches for The Jimmy Logan Show, co-written with Douglas Camfield. Cryer became head writer with an occasional stage role for Danny La Rue’s London nightclub, where he was spotted by David Frost. This led to a writing role on the variety special A Degree of Frost, which led to Cryer joining the writing team, which also included John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman, on The Frost Report from 1966–67. Frost used Cryer on a number of subsequent shows, which established Cryer as a star writer in the 1970s. Cryer is seen serving the wine in the original performance of the Four Yorkshiremen sketch on At Last the 1948 Show, first broadcast in 1967

Cryer always preferred to write in partnership, so that should he dry up he was never left to deliver material. His regular partner during the 1970s was John Junkin, and with Junkin performing as Eric Morecambe and Cryer most often the role of Ernie Wise, the pair wrote some of The Morecambe and Wise Show in its BBC period (the 1972 and 1976 Christmas shows) when regular writer Eddie Braben was unavailable. Cryer still enjoyed performing, appearing with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Junkin in the BBC radio series Hello, Cheeky!, in which the three performers bounced jokes off each other. He also appeared in the comedy television series The Steam Video Company and provided the voice of the judge in the 1975 animated comedy musical Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done. He hosted the ITV comedy panel game Jokers Wild (1969–74) and had a role in All You Need Is Cash, a 1978 spoof documentary about the Beatles parody band the Rutles, as well as a cameo as a police inspector in Kenny Everett’s 1984 horror spoof Bloodbath at the House of Death.

With new comedians coming forward who wrote their own material, Cryer refocused his career to include more performance, touring with Willie Rushton in Two Old Farts in the Nightand, after Rushton’s death, That Reminds Me. After a brief early stint as chairman, Cryer was one of the panellists on the BBC radio comedy programme I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, which began in 1972. He also wrote and starred in You’ll Have Had Your Tea with Graeme Garden.

He wrote an autobiography, You Won’t Believe This But…, as well as a book of miscellaneous anecdotes, Pigs Can Fly. In 2005 he toured the UK “Barry Cryer: The First Farewell Tour,” and in 2008 he toured with “Barry Cryer: Still Alive”. He remained a popular after-dinner speaker. He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1995 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel.

As well as performing on stage, radio and television, Cryer wrote for many performers including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie Howerd, Richard Pryor, Spike Milligan, Mike Yarwood, The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise. Cryer also wrote episodes for the television comedy series Doctor in the House.

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2001. Cryer was a member of the entertainment charity the Grand Order of Water Rats. In 2013, Leeds Metropolitan University made Cryer an honorary Doctor of Arts. Four years later, in July 2017, Cryer received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Leeds. Since 2018, his clip show Comedy Legends with Barry Cryer has been broadcast by Sky Arts, a programme paying tribute to a number of comedians such as Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howerd and Bob Hope with ‘comedy experts’ Tony Hawks, Steve Punt and critic Stephen Armstrong giving their opinions. Barry Cryer tragically died at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow on 25 January 2022, at the age of 86 however the many comedy programs he contributed to are still often broadcast on Television.