Mike Sarne born 6 August 1940

 

Mike Sarne (born 6 August 1940) is a British actor, director and former pop singer.

Sarne was born Michael Scheuer in Paddington, London. Took his professional name from his mother's maiden name, De Sarne.He moved back to the family home in Czechoslovakia soon after the war to retrieve some of their property. During the following years he learnt to speak fluent Czech, German and French and then returned to England at the age of 18 to enter London University. Being a brillant linguist, Mike was soon speaking fluent Russian, Italian and Spanish. His multilingual skills would not only serve him later as an actor but also brought him into the music industry. Sarne was responsible for providing the phonetic transcriptions that were used to guide such singers as Adam Faith, Billy Fury and John Leyton in cutting German versions of their hits for that market.

 

       

                                  

Sarne, who also played guitar and sang, was signed by Leyton's manager, Robert Stigwood. His first record, for Parlophone in 1962, was an immediate # 1 in the UK. Few people on hearing 'Come Outside' would have believed that the 'cockney lad' singing it was an expert in Russian. This first disc featured the voice - though not the singing - of 15-year old Wendy Richard, who would later become a familiar TV actress (Are You Being Served?, Eastenders). Mike's second disc 'Will I What' (which peaked at # 18) featured another girl, Billie Davis. She was on her way to become a pop star in her own right when she was involved in a serious car accident with her then-boyfriend, Jet Harris, in September 1963.

Mike's attempts to repeat his success using the same cockney novelty formula gradually grew less successful, but he squeezed four chart appearances from it, staying in the public eye for just about one year. Even a change of accent and the addition of another girl - this time (Liverpudlian Vernons Girl) Margo't Quantrell - on the supposedly Beatles sounding 'Hello Lover Boy' didn't help. In the mid 1960s Sarne introduced the ITV children's quiz series, Junior Criss Cross Quiz. Although he would appear on records again, he turned his career towards the stage and films.

Films he has directed include: Joanna (1968) and most notably Myra Breckinridge (1970), an adaptation of Gore Vidal's book of the same name, starring Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, Mae West and Farrah Fawcett in her first big screen role. A more recent film is The Punk And The Princess (1994) an adaptation of Gideon Sams' young adult novel The Punk, about the romance between a teenage punk rocker and an upper-class Sloane Ranger girl. He also directed a documentary about the Glastonbury Music Festival in 1995.

As an actor, he has appeared mainly on television, in British series including The Avengers, Man in a Suitcase, Jonathan Creek, and The Bill. Fluent speaker of several Eastern European languages - hence, is often cast as Russians or Germans in TV episodes.He also spent some years as a director of commercials. His brother, David Scheuer, had a brief acting career in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 2007 Mike appeared as Valery in the crime thriller, "Eastern Promises". In 2011 Sarne was the voice of "Karla" in the spy film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and in 2012 he played Father Mabeuf in the film of Les Miserables.

Mike Sarne has five children, two of whom born from the first marriage with Tanya Sarne (1969-1978) founder of the designer label Ghost (Claudia and William) His other three (Emma, Abigail and Sarah) were born of his second marriage with Anne Musso. Sarne and Musso married in 2004 in Kensington and Chelsea, London.
(Info edited from Wikipedia & Rockabilly.nl)

Here's Mike Sarne, John Leyton, Michael Ripper & Ron Moody plus Liz Fraser and Nicholas Parsons in "Every Day's A Holiday" (1964). Great chemistry between Ron and Michael. Holiday camps aren't like this anymore - but they used to be. 

Songs are "Cor Blimey" with Ron & Michael, "Say You Do" with Mike, John and company.