Benny Hill

Benny Hill
Birth name	Alfred Hawthorne Hill
Born	(1924-01-21)21 January 1924 Southampton, Hampshire, England, UK
Died	20 April 1992(1992-04-20) (aged 68) Teddington, London, England, UK
Resting place	Hollybrook Cemetery, Southampton, Hampshire, England, UK
Medium	Film recording television
Years active	1947–1991
Genres	Burlesque double entendre slapstick

Alfred Hawthorne "Benny" Hill (21 January 1924 – 20 April 1992) was an English comedian. He is remembered for his television programme, The Benny Hill Show, an amalgam of slapstick, burlesque and double entendre in a format that included live comedy and filmed segments, with Hill at the focus of almost every segment.

Hill was a prominent figure in British television for several decades. His show was among the most-watched programmes in the UK, and his audience was more than 21 million in 1971.^[1] The Benny Hill Show was also exported to many countries around the world.^[2] He received a BAFTA Television Award for Best Writer and a Rose d'Or, and was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance and for two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Variety. In 2006, Hill was voted by the British public number 17 in ITV's poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars.^[3]

Outside television, Hill starred in films including the Ealing comedy Who Done It? (1956), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and The Italian Job (1969). His comedy song, "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)", was 1971's number one Christmas song on the UK Singles Chart, and earned Hill an Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in 1972.