Don Estelle (22 May 1933 – 2 August 2003) was an English actor and singer, best known as Gunner "Lofty" Sugden in It Ain't Half Hot Mum.
Estelle had a powerful tenor voice, and achieved a number-one hit in the UK Singles Chart in 1975 with a semi-comic version of "Whispering Grass",[5] followed by a cover of "Paper Doll" which reached number 41, and a top ten LP, Sing Lofty (1976), all three recorded with Windsor Davies.
Estelle also acted in the films Not Now, Comrade (1976) and A Private Function (1984), in addition to Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) alongside Melvyn Hayes, who also appeared in It Ain't Half Hot Mum.
[6] In his autobiography, Sing, Lofty: Thoughts Of A Gemini (1999), Estelle was extremely bitter about modern-day entertainment producers, describing them as being "tight-crutched, white-trousered morons".
[3] According to 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."
He appeared as a "dirty old man" in the promotional video for The Sun Page Three Girl Jo Hicks's single "Yakety Sax" in 2001 (based on the theme from The Benny Hill Show).