Reginald
Alfred Varney (11 July 1916 – 16 November 2008) was an English actor, most notable for his role as Stan
Butler in the 1970s TV sitcom On the Buses.
Varney
was born in Canning Town, which was then part of Essex but is now part of East
London. His father worked in a rubber factory in Silvertown and he was one of
five children who grew up in Addington Road, Canning Town. Varney was educated
at the nearby Star Lane Primary School in West Ham and after leaving school at 14, he worked as
a messenger boy and a page boy at the Regent Palace Hotel. He took piano
lessons as a child and was good enough to find employment as a part-time piano
player. His first paid engagement was at Plumstead Radical Club in Woolwich,
for which he was paid eight shillings
and sixpence (42½p).
He also played in working men's clubs, pubs and ABC
cinemas, and later sang with big bands of the time. He and his mother decided
that show business was the career for him, and he gave up his day jobs.During
World War II, he joined the Royal Engineers, but continued performing as an
army entertainer, touring the Far
East for a time. After being demobbed, he
starred on stage in the late 1940s in a comic revue entitled Gaytime. His
partner in the double act was Benny Hill. He then went on to become an
all-round entertainer, working his way around the music halls.
In 1961, Varney was given the role of a foreman in the popular television sitcom, The Rag Trade, which made him a household name. Also around this time he starred in a show for BBC TV called The Seven Faces of Reg Varney where he performed seven different characters in front of an audience at the Shepherd's Bush Theatre in London. Varney rushed about at a frantic pace on stage as he changed clothes between characters. After that followed another comedy role in Beggar My Neighbour; this also starred Pat Coombs, June Whitfield, and Peter Jones. Pat Coombs played the wife of Varney's character and she would later appear in the On the Buses movie. The series ran from March 1967 to March 1968 (24 episodes of 30 minute duration) and a short special was shown as part of Christmas Night with the Stars on 25 December 1967. In 1966 he starred in The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery as Gilbert.
On 27 June 1967, the world's first voucher based cash dispensing machine was installed at the Enfield Town branch of Barclays Bank. Varney lived in Enfield at the time and for publicity purposes he was photographed making the first withdrawal from the machine.
Here's "Come On
and Tickle My Fancy" by Reg Varney from the album On the 88s at Abbey Road
In 1961, Varney was given the role of a foreman in the popular television sitcom, The Rag Trade, which made him a household name. Also around this time he starred in a show for BBC TV called The Seven Faces of Reg Varney where he performed seven different characters in front of an audience at the Shepherd's Bush Theatre in London. Varney rushed about at a frantic pace on stage as he changed clothes between characters. After that followed another comedy role in Beggar My Neighbour; this also starred Pat Coombs, June Whitfield, and Peter Jones. Pat Coombs played the wife of Varney's character and she would later appear in the On the Buses movie. The series ran from March 1967 to March 1968 (24 episodes of 30 minute duration) and a short special was shown as part of Christmas Night with the Stars on 25 December 1967. In 1966 he starred in The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery as Gilbert.
On 27 June 1967, the world's first voucher based cash dispensing machine was installed at the Enfield Town branch of Barclays Bank. Varney lived in Enfield at the time and for publicity purposes he was photographed making the first withdrawal from the machine.
Varney's
greatest success was in the sitcom On the Buses which was written by Ronald
Chesney and Ronald Wolfe, who had also written The Rag Trade. Varney played the
lead role of bus driver Stan Butler, a long-suffering but loyal man who never
has much luck where romance is concerned. There were also three spin-off movies
made, On the Buses (1971), Mutiny on the Buses (1972), and Holiday on the Buses
(1973). Varney was 53 when the series started, although his character, who
lived at home and was often trying to attract women, seemed to be in his
mid-thirties. Stephen Lewis, who played Inspector Cyril "Blakey"
Blake in the series, was actually 20 years younger than Varney, who, by the
time On the Buses ended, was nearly 60.
The show
was a great success and Varney started to take on more film roles. These
included Go for a Take and The Best Pair of Legs in the Business. In the
latter, Varney played a drag artist-cum-compère at a caravan holiday site. Down
the Gate, in which he played a Billingsgate fish porter, followed, but was not
a great success. He was also in the remake of the film The Plank.
In April
to June 1969 Varney co-starred with Scottish entertainer Billy Raymond in 13
episodes of Australia's Channel O TV entertainment series "Rose and
Crown" before returning to the UK for another "On The Buses" TV
series.
He also
made six hour-long spectaculars called The Other Reg Varney, and later his
cabaret act toured Australia, New Zealand and Canada. In 1988, On the Buses
went on to the stage and again Varney went to Australia to play Stan.
During
the 1990s, Varney was forced to retire because of health problems. He had a
heart attack in 1965 and in 1981 he suffered a more severe one. Subsequently he divided his time between his
home in a small village near Dartmouth and a villa in Malta. By the nineties he
was virtually retired and spent most of his time painting landscapes in oils at
his home in the West Country and there were several exhibitions of his work
locally. He also wrote a touching autobiography, The Little Crown.
Varney
moved to Devon in the late 1980s and lived alone after his wife, Lilian Emma
Varney, died in East Devon in 2002, aged 92. Varney himself died on 16 November
2008, in a nursing home in Budleigh Salterton, Devon. He had been admitted only
a few weeks earlier after suffering from a chest infection. (Info from
Wikipedia)
1 comment:
2 comments from original Multiply post: Oz Rob said... I remember "The Rag Trade" well. I concede that "On The Buses" was his most popular series, but I think "The Rag Trade" was his best one. 11 July 2010 06:11
Roger Kokken said... A good pianoplayer and a good actor. I'll remember him as Stan from "on the buses". 12 July 2010 10:44
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