Melvyn Hayes (néHyams; born 11 January 1935) is an English actor and voice-over performer with a career spanning more than seven and a half decades. Performing in films, television shows and on stage, Hayes frequently portrayed camp-styled characters.
Hayes' appeared as the camp character Gunner (later Bombardier) "Gloria" Beaumont in the television comedy It Ain't Half Hot Mum, from 1974 to 1981. After the show ended, he moved to voice acting, and had a role in the children's animated show SuperTed as the villain Skeleton from 1983 to 1986, and in its short reboot show, The Further Adventures of SuperTed in 1989.
He is the father to actress Charlie Hayes, who was born while Hayes was married to actress Wendy Padbury.
Early life and education
Born on 11 January 1935[1][2] in Wandsworth, South London as Melvyn Hyams,[3] he was the third of four children to parents of Jewish ancestry.[4] When he was four, the family evacuated to Dawlish, Devon during the Second World War.[5] His father worked at a fairground before opening a suit shop in Wandsworth, which the family lived above.[6] His mother was a housewife who sang in working men's clubs.[7] They lived in Devon until 1944, when they moved to Clapham, where they remained until the war ended.[citation needed]
His first experience with acting came in primary school when he played the Gingerbread Man in a school play.[8] After passing his 11 plus exam, Hayes attended Sir Walter St John's Grammar School For Boys, in Battersea,[citation needed] where he was bullied because of his height and his Jewish background.[3] While there, he was in the schools Chess and Boxing clubs.[citation needed]
His inspiration to work in show business came in 1946, when at age 11 he saw The Jolson Story. He sent a letter to Columbia Pictures asking for an autograph from Al Jolson, which he received after a few weeks; Hayes kept the autograph and regarded it as his "most prized possession".[6]
He left Sir Walter St John's Grammar School in 1949 and was unsure on what to do with his life. Because of his short stature,[9] some suggested he be a jockey. Hayes sent a letter to Princess Elizabeth asking if he could be an apprentice at the royal stables; Elizabeth was on holiday in Malta but wished him the best on his journey.[6][7] Hayes got a job at a local stables, but quit the job after a fortnight because he did not like the experience. He got a job at News Chronicle in Fleet Street, carrying advertising print blocks between newspapers.[6]
In 1950, Hayes saw an advertisement seeking an assistant for the conjurer The Great Massoni.[4] He got the job and was soon "disappearing twice daily for £4 per week" performing the Indian rope trick in Maskelyne's Mysteries at The Comedy Theatre in London.[10] He was also in a theatrical troupe called Terry's Juveniles and later appeared in repertory theatres in Surrey, Derbyshire and the Midlands. Hayes revealed many years later that on the day of his audition, when he met the troupe leader Theresa Freedman, aka Miss Terry, she said to him: "'Can you sing?' No. 'Can you dance?' No. 'Are you Jewish?' Yes. 'You got the part.' "[11]
He played Tommy at the Westminster Theatre between 15 May and 14 June 1952.[10] He returned to the Comedy Theatre in October 1952, playing Tommie, opposite Florence Desmond, Anthony Ireland and Geoffrey Kerr, in The Apples of Eve. In 1955, he was in three theatre productions: The Desperate Hours, South, and Edward's Son, as Jimmy. His last stage role of the 1950s was in Telescope, performed at the Salisbury Playhouse, as Joe Palmer.
Throughout a seven-year span (1958—1965) Hayes reappeared four times on the police drama series Dixon of Dock Green portraying various minor characters: Larkin in series 4 episode 25 "Little Boy Blue" in 1958, Mick in series 5 episode 20 "Blue in the Night" in 1959, Dave "Cha-Cha" Charlton in series 7 episode 16 "The Burn-Up" in 1961, and finally as Atkins in series 11 episode 24 "The Inside Man" in 1965. However, none of these episodes remain the BBC archive, presumed to have been wiped.[12][13][14]
On 1 May 1960, he performed in the one-time stage show Change for the Angel at the Arts Theatre.[15] In 1961 he was on stage in The Fantastiks and Why the Chicken, and on 10 November 1962 began portraying Wilfred Compton in Spring and Port Wine, which would run at the Mermaid and Apollo Theatre for the next years, performing its last show on 12 October 1968.
In the mid-1960s, Hayes had recurring roles in films starring pop musician Cliff Richard; these include as Jimmy in The Young Ones (1961) Cyril in Summer Holiday (1963), and 'Brother' Willy in Crooks in Cloisters (1964). Hayes has mentioned many times, including on an episode of Would I Lie to You?, that filming was terrifying as he and Richard were only taught how to drive a double-decker bus half an hour before filming: "Coming round bends on the cliffs of Greece, I remember driving this big bus round a bend, first day of shooting, and wondering what the insurance would cost, with Cliff, The Shadows and Una Stubbs in the seats behind me., I was heading for the cameras, as I knew we wouldn't go over the edge that way, they told me if they waved their right arms, I was too near the wall, and if they waved their left, I was too close to the edge".[excessivequote][16]
Hayes appeared in an episode of the drama The Human Jungle starring Herbert Lom in 1963. A day after Hayes' last performance of Spring and Port Wine, he debuted in the show Staring at the Sun as Tom, on 13 October 1968 which lasted for another seventeen days. In December 1968, he was in Toad in Toad Hall at the Duke of York's Theatre.
1970s and 1980s
In 1971 he performed at the Thorndike Theatre as a part of the show Ballad of the Sad Cafe. In 1974, he toured South Africa in the stage show Habeus Corpus.[10]
Hayes' biggest role came in the sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974–1981) as Gunner "Gloria" Beaumont. He played the flamboyantly camp character Gloria Beuamont. For the first two series, the character held the rank of gunner, but after character Gunner Solomon left, he was promoted to bombardier. Hayes appeared in all 56 episodes of the comedy show, from 1974 to 1981. He has openly criticised the BBC on many occasions over the years for refusing to repeat episodes of the show[6][17] due to some of its dated language, and because Caucasian actor Michael Bates applied brown tan and an Asian accent to play the Indian character Bearer Rangi Ram. Hayes said to The Telegraph in 2014: "It was one of the most popular shows on television and I don't understand the decision. Now, people can swear on television - which we never did - and you're seemingly allowed to tell any homophobic joke you want, et cetera. Yet because Windsor Davies's character called us a "bunch of poofs" and Michael Bates, who was born in India, dressed up as an Indian, the BBC won't repeat it."[6]
After It Ain't Half Hot Mum was cancelled in 1981, Hayes appeared with most of the cast in a year long stage show of the serires from 1982 to 1983, hosted at the Bristol Hippodrome. In 1983/1984, he was in Run for Your Wife. Afterwards, he started appearing on many popular talk and game shows as himself.[citation needed]
Hayes found a new career path as a voice actor in the 1980s, and shifted his career toward that. He mainly voiced characters on children's cartoons, most notably in SuperTed as the "flamboyantly gay" villain Skeleton[20] from 1983 to 1986 and its revived show The Further Adventures of SuperTed in 1989.
Hayes played the Mole in a production of The Wind in the Willows from November 1984 to February 1985. In 1988, he was a part of the shows In One Bed... Out the Other and Who Goes Bare? as Maurice and Eddie respectively.
He appeared in the final series of Drop the Dead Donkey in 1998. From 2000 to 2006, he was a guest in Dictionary Corner on 27 episodes of Countdown. Also in 2000, he was in two new stage shows: The Bespoke Overcoat as Fender in June-July, and Saved by Sex as Maybelline in August.[21]
Adventure in the Hopfields, one of the first films Hayes ever appeared in, was deemed lost until a copy was found in 2002. He attended the film's first screening since the 1950s at an event in Kent.[22]
For eight episodes in May and June 2005, he was in EastEnders as Michael Rawlins, a character introduced for a storyline in which Rawlins, a driving instructor, tries to have his way with Dot Branning.[23] In 2007, Hayes played Uncle George in the stage show Cash on Delivery, which toured the UK from July to November.[24][25] In 2008, he returned to Run for Your Wife for a few shows in June and July.[26][27]
In February 2016, Hayes publicly expressed his disapproval of Dad's Army and "You Can't Teach a New Dog Old Tricks", a one off revival episode of Are You Being Served?, stating that the BBC should "let old TV series lie" and that David Croft, who co-wrote both series plus It Ain't Half Hot Mum, would have "turned in his grave" as Hayes claimed he was "very disappointed" in the revival film.[28][29]
Hayes was featured on a celebrity edition of Pointless in 2019, paired up with It Ain't Half Hot Mum co-star Stuart McGugan.[30]
Hayes was a guest speaker at a ceremony celebrating 65 years of Carry On films in June 2023.[31] In August 2023, he appeared in the BBC sitcom Not Going Out. In December 2023, he appeared on a Christmas edition of Would I Lie to You?, and was on Lee Mack's team, with Alex Brooker being the other guest on his panel.[32]
In 2025, Hayes was filming in Wakefield for an upcoming comedy film, Doubles, as Stan, a widowed pensioner.[33] In August 2025, he was a star guest at Comic Con at Weston-super-Mare.[34]
In 1986, Hayes started writing an autobiography,[7] which is set to release in January 2026. Its original title was If You Ain't Got Your Sock, after something his dad used to say to him ("if you ain't got your socks, you can't pull them up"), but he changed the title to It Ain't Half Late Mum, a play on words for It Ain't Half Hot Mum.[35][19]
Personal life
Family
Hayes has been married three times and has eight children, thirteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.[36] He had three children with his first wife, Rosalind Allen.[9]
After they divorced, he married Wendy Padbury in 1974, and had two daughters before divorcing in 1987,[37] including actress Charlie Hayes.[9]
Hayes and his third wife, Jayne Male, wed in 1992 and were married for thirty years before Male's death in 2022.[5][8] they fostered over 50 children and had a child of their own.[6][8][38]
Hayes and Jayne moved to Cotswolds in 1997.[38] He moved to South London in 2022 following Jayne's death to live with his daughter and her husband.[5]
Health
Hayes broke his foot in while filming Wonderful Life, which delayed filming for a scene in which the cast dance on a boat.[39]
Hayes is a member of the Grand Order of Water Rats, having been initiated in 1994, and in 2004 was made King Rat.[40] Also in 2004, to raise money for the Grand Order, Hayes spent £3,000 on a signed photo of pantomime actor Dan Leno.[5] The organization held a special event in March 2025, for Hayes' 90th birthday, and in May 2025, awarded him two PKR medals.[41]
Hayes was at one time the pub landlord of the Stag Inn in the village of Offchurch in Warwickshire,[42] the White Hart Tap in St Albans, Hertfordshire, and The Brantham Bull, Brantham, Suffolk from December 1994 to January 1997.[38] When he owned the Brantham Bull, he was regularly in the local papers as he and the Suffolk County Council were in constant disagreement over Hayes writing comical jokes on a blackboard hung outside the pub.[38]
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