Harold Owen "Gary" Wilmot, MBE (born 8 May 1954) is a British actor who rose to fame as a contestant on New Faces.
[2] Wilmot was born in Lambeth, London, into a mixed-race household; his mother was English, and his father, Harry, was Jamaican and arrived in Britain on the Empire Windrush in 1948.
[5] Wilmot started his career in entertainment after a friend informed an agent of his talent, and soon began to perform as part of the variety circuit.
This would lead to numerous television appearances on Copy Cats, Knees Ups, Cue Gary!, and The Keith Harris Show.
He was also cast as Joe in Carmen Jones at the Old Vic before starring in the world premiere of the Barry Manilow musical Copacabana at London's Prince of Wales Theatre.
Pinafore, Santa Claus the Musical,[11] Oliver!,[12] Half a Sixpence, The Wizard of Oz,[citation needed] The Goodbye Girl, One for the Road, Confusions, Lord Arthur Saville's Crime, and a national tour of the successful Watermill Newbury Theatre production of Radio Times.
Most recently he has appeared as the dame in the London Palladium pantomimes for Qdos Entertainment such as Dick Whittington (2017), Snow White (2018) and Goldilocks and the Three Bears (2019) co-starring Julian Clary, Paul Zerdin and Nigel Havers.