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Andy Secombe | |
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 Secombe in 2012 | |
| Born | Andrew James Secombe 26 April 1953 Mumbles, Wales |
| Alma mater | Central School of Speech and Drama |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1975-present |
| Spouse | |
| Parent |
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| Relatives | Fred Secombe (uncle) |
Andrew James Secombe (born 26 April 1953) [1] is a Welsh actor and author.
Born in Mumbles, in south Wales, Secombe is son of comedian/singer Harry Secombe (whom he later impersonated in a Goon Show special). He attended the City of London Freemen's School in Ashtead, Surrey.
Andy Secombe is an award-nominated stage, screen and radio actor. He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama after which he spent several years criss-crossing the country both touring and in rep. His early career included seasons at both the Old Vic ( King Lear, The Rivals ) and the Young Vic ( Hamlet, Stags and Hens, Coriolanus and What a Way to Run a Revolution). Other theatrical performances includes Godspell , Guys and Dolls , Around the World in Eighty Days , Long Days' Journey into Night , Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream , The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Live! tour and The Invisible Man in the West End. He was recently Offie-nominated for playing Mr Gillie in the play of the same name at the Finborough Theatre.
On television he was a regular on both Playschool and Playaway and also appeared in the BBC TV children's sketch show Fast Forward and played Rover the Dog in Chips' Comic. He was one of the five in Five Alive and a regular on The Brian Conley Show . Other television appearances include Star Cops , Amnesty Beausire, Executive Stress , The Legend of Robin Hood , The Bill , Casualty , The Detectives, Unreported Incident, Britannia and Killing Eve .
In film, he is best known for providing the voice of Watto in the Star Wars prequels and in tie-in media relating to the Star Wars franchise. He also voiced Quello, another Toydarian, in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords .
He has contributed vocals to a number of video games, including Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet and two entries in the Broken Sword series of games. For Penguin Audiobooks, he has recorded four novels by Mexican author Oscar de Muriel: The Strings of Murder, A Fever of the Blood, A Mask of Shadows and Loch of the Dead. He also regularly reads books for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and has also performed in radio productions, recently playing Reverend Wavering in the internet radio series Wooden Overcoats .
In March 2017, he starred in four episodes of the third series of The Missing Hancocks for BBC Radio 4; episodes that were originally aired in 1955 in the second series of Hancock's Half Hour starring his father Harry, after Tony Hancock had disappeared. [2] [3]
In the 2000s, Secombe focused on writing. He has penned five fantasy novels, including Limbo, Limbo Two: The Final Chapter and The Last House in the Galaxy. Looking for Mr Piggy-Wig (2008), about a post-nuclear Britain after the 'New Battle of Britain' is described by The Guardian as "best taken as a spoof on the genre". [4] Endgame (2009) was criticised by Publishers Weekly for its "two-dimensional, clichéd characters and the tiresomely predictable story line". [5]
In 2010 he published the book Growing Up with the Goons which is a memoir about growing up in the shadow of his father.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | I Don't Want to Be Born | Delivery Boy | |
| 1976 | Adventures of a Taxi Driver | Third Kidnapper | |
| 1999 | Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace | Watto (voice) | |
| 2002 | Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones | ||
| 2016 | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show Live | Max Quordlepleen / Benjy Mouse (voice) | |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | The Legend of Robin Hood | Brett | Part 3 |
| 1980 | Fox | Don | Episode: "The Perfect Scapegoat Syndrome" |
| 1981 | Prisoners of Conscience | DINA man | Episode: "William Beausire" |
| 1983 | Chips' Comic | ||
| 1984 | Aladdin and the Forty Thieves | Thief | TV film |
| 1984–1986 | Fast Forward | Himself / Various characters | |
| 1986 | What a Way to Run a Revolution | TV film | |
| Five Alive | Various characters | 13 episodes | |
| 1987 | Star Cops | Brian Lincoln | Episode: "An Instinct for Murder" |
| 1988 | The Play on One | Simon | Episode: "Unreported Incident" |
| The Bill | D.S. Dougan | Episode: "Light Duties" | |
| Executive Stress | Pierre de Savarin | Series 3 Episode 3 | |
| 1989-1990 | This Way Up | 13 episodes | |
| 1994–1995 | Insektors | Godfrey / Bentley / Fugg / Queen Katheter (voices) | |
| 1996 | Casualty | Ray Hyams | Episode: "Relative Valueso" |
| 1997 | Peak Practice | Alan Stark | |
| 2010 | The Unforgettable Harry Secombe | Himself | TV movie documentary |
| 2014 | Spike Milligan: Love, Light and Peace | TV movie documentary | |
| 2015 | Supreme Tweeter | Gerald | Episode: "#TheRedScare" |
| 2019 | Killing Eve | Eric | Episode: "Smell Ya Later" |
| Britannia | Tribal Elder | Season 2 Episode 1 | |
| 2020 | Coronation Street | Judge | Episodes: 9970, 9971 |
| 2022 | Kate & Koji | Twitcher 4 | Episode: "Memories" |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Twenty Times More Likely | ||
| 2012 | Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out | Watto (voice) | TV Short |
| 2015 | The Roaring | Frank | |
| 2017 | Captain Baylety's Heir | Himself / John Tall | |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Star Wars: Episode I - Racer | Watto (voice) | |
| Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace | |||
| 2002 | Star Wars: Racer Revenge | ||
| 2003 | Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon | Flap / Alphonse (voices) | |
| 2004 | Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords | Quello (voice) | |
| 2005 | Lego Star Wars: The Video Game | Watto (voice) | Uncredited, archival audio |
| 2006 | Broken Sword: The Angel of Death | (voice) | |
| 2007 | Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga | Watto (voice) | Uncredited, archival audio |
| 2012 | Kinect Star Wars | ||
| 2016 | Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet | Dr Periwig (voice) | |
| 2022 | Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga | Watto (voice) | [6] |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | The Three Friends... and Jerry | Episode: "Dirty Älgers/Överlevnadslägret" (storyline) |
| 2000–2002 | Bob the Builder | 2 episodes: "Spud and Squawk" & "Bob and the Bandstand" |
Sir Harry Donald Secombe was a Welsh actor, comedian, singer and television presenter. Secombe was a member of the British radio comedy programme The Goon Show (1951–1960), playing many characters, most notably Neddie Seagoon. An accomplished tenor, he also appeared in musicals and films – notably as Mr Bumble in Oliver! (1968) – and, in his later years, was a presenter of television shows incorporating hymns and other devotional songs.
Michael Bentine, was a British comedian, comic actor and founding member of the Goons. His father was a Peruvian Briton.
Peter Sellers was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show. Sellers featured on a number of hit comic songs, and became known to a worldwide audience through his many film roles, among them Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther series.
The Goon Show is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 1951, was titled Crazy People; subsequent series had the title The Goon Show.
Eric Sykes was an English radio, stage, television and film writer, comedian, actor and director whose performing career spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Tommy Cooper, Peter Sellers, John Antrobus and Johnny Speight. Sykes first came to prominence through his many radio credits as a writer and actor in the 1950s, which include collaboration on some scripts for The Goon Show. He became a TV star in his own right in the early 1960s when he appeared with Hattie Jacques in several popular BBC comedy television series.
Throughout film, television, and radio, British comedy has become known for its consistently peculiar characters, plots, and settings, and has produced some of the most renowned comedians and characters in the world.
Frank Oz is an American puppeteer, filmmaker and actor. He is best known for his involvement with Jim Henson and George Lucas through the Muppets, Sesame Street, and Star Wars, as well as his directorial work in feature films and theater.
Hancock's Half Hour was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series, broadcast from 1954 to 1961 and written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock, with Sidney James; the radio version also co-starred, at various times, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. The final television series, renamed simply Hancock, starred Hancock alone.
William Henry Kerr was a British and Australian actor, comedian, and vaudevillian.
Richard Gilbert Emery was an English comedian and comic actor. His broadcasting career began on radio in the 1950s, and his self-titled television series ran from 1963 to 1981.
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Kenneth Connor, was a British stage, film and broadcasting actor, who rose to national prominence with his appearances in the Carry On films.
David George Dirk Maggs is a British freelance writer and director. During his career as a Senior Producer in BBC Radio he made radio drama adopting a cinematic-sounding approach, combining filmic story construction, layered sound effects, orchestral music and digital recording technology. Maggs introduced productions in Dolby Surround in BBC Radio and termed the result, "Audio Movies".
Peter Dickson is a Northern Irish voice-over artist. He is best known as the brand voice of The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent and also as the voice of television channel E4. His other work includes Ireland's Got Talent, The Price Is Right, Family Fortunes and All Star Mr & Mrs.
Down Among the Z Men is a 1952 black-and-white British comedy film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring the Goons: Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Michael Bentine and Harry Secombe.
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The Last Goon Show of All is a special edition of the BBC Radio comedy programme The Goon Show commissioned as part of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the BBC. Simulcast on radio and television on 5 October 1972, the performance reunited Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe as well as other contributors to the programme's original run. It was later released as a long-playing record and on compact disc. The video recording of the television broadcast was also released on VHS and later on DVD, although with some omissions. In early October 2007, 35 years after the original broadcast, a full unedited version was broadcast on BBC 7, the digital radio channel dedicated to re-runs of classic shows.
Laurie O'Brien is an American actress who started her career in Los Angeles in 1982 with her role in Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann. She is best known for voicing Baby Piggy on the 1980s Saturday morning cartoon Jim Henson's Muppet Babies from 1984-1991 & the CTW animated series Cro as Ivana the mammoth. As an on-camera actress, O'Brien has guest starred on the soap opera Santa Barbara as a hooker as well as other numerous TV series including Trapper John, M.D., NYPD Blue, Matlock, Chicago Hope, ER, CSI, CSI Miami, 7th Heaven, Reasonable Doubts, Shark, Three Rivers, Detroit 1-8-7, and L.A. Law on which she played a woman on trial for killing her rapist. TV movies include The Defiant Ones, Too Young to Die?, Infidelity, Children of the Night, Convicted, and One More Mountain. Movies include Bottle Shock in which she played Christopher Pine's mother. Laurie has an extensive background in theater winning three major awards for her lead roles in Mary Barnes, Savage in Limbo and Times Like These.
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Patrick "Pat" Kenneth Macneile Dixon was an English radio producer for BBC Radio.
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