George Frederick Joffre Hartree (30 November 1914 – 27 October 1988), known as Charles Hawtrey, was an English actor, comedian, singer, pianist and theatre director.

His London stage debut followed a few years later when, at the age of 18, he appeared in another "fairy extravaganza", this time at the Scala Theatre singing the role of the White Cat and Bootblack in the juvenile opera Bluebell in Fairyland.

The music for this popular show had been written by Walter Slaughter in 1901, with a book by Seymour Hicks (providing part of the inspiration for J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan).

In Peter Pan at the London Palladium in 1931, Hawtrey played the First Twin, with leading parts taken by Jean Forbes-Robertson and George Curzon.

Hawtrey played in Bats in the Belfry, a farce written by Diana Morgan and Robert MacDermott, which opened at the Ambassadors Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, on 11 March 1937.

Hawtrey had another success on stage when he was cast in the role of Gremio in Tyrone Guthrie's production of The Taming of the Shrew in 1939 at the Old Vic, in which Roger Livesey starred as Petruchio and his wife, Ursula Jeans, as Katherine.

[2] Hawtrey continued in music revue, starring in Eric Maschwitz's New Faces (1940) at the Comedy Theatre in London, and was praised for his "chic and finished study of an alluring woman spy".

During and after the Second World War, Hawtrey also appeared in the West End in such shows as Scoop, Old Chelsea, Merrie England, Frou-Frou and Husbands Don't Count.

Hawtrey also directed 19 plays, including Dumb Dora Discovers Tobacco at the Q Theatre in Richmond and, in 1945, Oflag 3, a war drama co-written with Douglas Bader.

By the 1940s, Hawtrey was appearing on radio during Children's Hour in the series Norman and Henry Bones, the Boy Detectives (first broadcast in 1943) alongside the actress Patricia Hayes.

In 1957, Hawtrey appeared in a one-off episode of Laughter in Store (BBC), this time working with Charlie Drake and Irene Handl.

Loosely based on the film Private's Progress (1956), the series followed the fortunes of a mixed bag of army National Service conscripts in residence at Hut 29 of the Surplus Ordnance Depot at Nether Hopping in remote Staffordshire.

The series initially ran for 13 episodes from September to December 1960, returning the following year with Bernard Bresslaw and Hylda Baker added to the cast.

[11] While filming Carry On Spying (1964), in which they played secret agents, Windsor thought that Hawtrey had fainted with fright over a dramatic scene on a conveyor belt.

[12] Gerald Thomas, the director of the Carry On films, explained in 1966 that "In the beginning Charles's shock entrance was an accident, but realising the potential I set out deliberately to shock and now his first appearance is carefully planned.... Apart from the comedy value of the unlikely role he plays, I'm careful to arrange the right timing for his actual appearance, so that the two factors combined surprise the audience into instant risibility.

"[13] In the mid-1960s, Hawtrey performed in the British regional tour of the stage musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which also included his Carry On co-star Kenneth Connor.

Hawtrey cut an eccentric figure in the small town, becoming well known for promenading along the seafront in extravagant attire, waving cheerfully to the fishermen and for frequenting establishments patronised by students of the Royal Marines School of Music.

He made an appearance in Grasshopper Island (ITV 1971), a children's programme, alongside Patricia Hayes, Julian Orchard, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Frank Muir.

Filmed in Wales and Corsica, this adventure series featured three small brothers nicknamed Toughy, Smarty and Mouse, who run away to find an uninhabited island.

Hoping to gain higher billing, Hawtrey withdrew from a television programme, Carry On Christmas, in which he was scheduled to appear, giving just a few days' notice.

He guarded his relationships very carefully as male homosexual sex was illegal and punishable by a prison sentence, until decriminalised by the Sexual Offences Act 1967.

[18] His outrageous drunken promiscuity did not attract sympathy, nor did his general peevish demeanour and increasing eccentricity earn him many close friends.

Another anecdote recounted by Williams[19] describes how during the filming of Carry On Teacher, Joan Sims cried out to Hawtrey that his mother's handbag had caught fire after her cigarette ash fell into it.

Without batting an eyelid, Hawtrey poured a cup of tea into the bag to put out the flames, snapped the handbag shut and continued with his conversation.

Newspaper photographs from the time show a fireman leading an ill-looking, emotional, partially clothed and toupeeless Hawtrey to safety.

He is also the subject of a one-man biographical stage play, Oh, Hello!, by Dave Ainsworth, premiered in 2001 at The Torch Theatre, which was revived in 2014/2015 for the actor's centenary, with Jamie Rees in the role.