- Don Estelle
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Don Estelle Born Donald Edwards
22 May 1933
Crumpsall, Manchester, UKDied 2 August 2003 (aged 70)
Rochdale, Greater Manchester, UKResidence New Zealand Nationality British Ethnicity White British Years active 1954 - 2001 Television It Ain't Half Hot Mum Spouse Elizabeth (m. ?-2003) Don Estelle (22 May 1933 - 2 August 2003) was a British actor and singer.
Born Donald Edwards in Crumpsall, Manchester, he was brought up in a house on Russell Street, Crumpsall.[1] During World War II, at the age of eight, he was evacuated to Darwen, Lancashire, twenty miles away from his home town, to escape the German bombing of the city. It was here that he found his voice as a treble at the local Holy Trinity Parish Church (now called St Peter's) and, on returning home after the war, carried on singing at St Mary's Church, Crumpsall. He later joined a charity group, the Manchester Kentucky Minstrels, and with them, performed the Mario Lanza hit "Granada" in the talent show What Makes a Star? in 1954 at BBC Radio's northern studios in Manchester.
He gained theatre experience by singing one song 12 times a week in the show The Backyard Kids at the Hulme Hippodrome in Manchester. He later toured the Northern club circuit where he met the comedy actor Windsor Davies with whom he teamed up and toured the UK for four years. In the 1960s he had some cameo roles in Coronation Street and Dad's Army and eventually landed the perfect role for his talents playing the part of Gunner 'Lofty' Sugden in the 1970s British sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum. The character was dubbed with the ironic nickname of "Lofty" on account of Don Estelle's small stature (4 feet, 9 inches). He had a powerful tenor voice and as a spin-off from the series Estelle, and his co-star Windsor Davies, had a number one hit in the UK in 1975 with a semi-comic version of Whispering Grass. He also acted in the films Not Now Comrade, A Private Function (1984) and Santa Claus: The Movie (1984).
In the first series of The League of Gentlemen he made brief appearances in two episodes as Little Don, keeper of the Roundabout Zoo (a zoo on the island of a roundabout intersection).
In 2001, he appeared in one episode of Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting as "Little Don" of the "East End Art Mafia".[2]
In his privately-published autobiography Sing Lofty: Thoughts Of A Gemini, Estelle was extremely bitter about the state of modern-day entertainment, attacking those who refused to repeat It Ain't Half Hot Mum as "tight-crutched, white-trousered morons". And, in the words of his obituary in The Independent, "in recent years Estelle cut a slightly sorry figure, dressed in his 'Lofty' outfit, setting out a stall of his tapes and singing to passers-by in shopping centres. Similarly, he played a dirty old man in the promotional video for The Sun Page Three Girl Jo Hicks' single "Yakety Sax" (2001), The Benny Hill Show theme."[3] One of the stalls he performed at was to be found for a time in the Boston, Lincolnshire branch of Woolworths. He could also be seen performing in Cwmbran town centre in South Wales.
Estelle spent his last years in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he spent countless hours working with the founder of 10 piece blues band, Blutopia. (Malcolm Bishop) "Lofty was looking for someone to believe in and bless in their own career and he picked me! He was extremely generous with time and resources." Malcolm recalls sitting with Estelle until 4am the night before he returned to the UK, during which Don passionately imparted unforgettable wisdom before returning home. Estelle returned to the UK only weeks before his death. He died in Rochdale Infirmary, on 2 August 2003 and was buried in his adopted home town of Rochdale, with the oversized pith helmet in which he found fame as Gunner "Lofty" Sugden.[4] He was survived by his wife Elizabeth.[5]
References
External links
Categories:- 1933 births
- 2003 deaths
- 20th-century actors
- British expatriates in New Zealand
- Disease-related deaths in England
- English male singers
- English television actors
- People from Crumpsall
- People from Rochdale
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