Bob Todd

Brian Geoffrey Todd (15 December 1922 – 21 October 1992), known professionally as Bob Todd, was an English comedy actor, mostly known for appearing as a straight man in the sketch shows of Benny Hill and Spike Milligan. For many years, he lived in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

Life and career Todd was born in Faversham, Kent. One of the great stooges of television comedy, Todd was best known for his lugubrious expression and talent for slapstick, and was known to fellow comedians by the nickname 'Silly Todd'.

Before working in television, Todd trained to be a dentist. The outbreak of the Second World War saw him enlist in the Royal Air Force, where he became a navigator stationed at RAF North Killingholme, Lincolnshire. He had ambitions of becoming a farmer—making money from cattle breeding, whilst working as a manager at London Airport. The farming business, once begun, failed and almost made him bankrupt. Meeting scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson in a pub, he bluffed them into believing that he was in fact an actor and ended up with the part of a policeman in the Sid James comedy series Citizen James. He appeared as several characters in Milligan and John Antrobus' stage play The Bed-Sitting Room, which opened at the Mermaid Theatre on 31 January 1963.

He subsequently stooged in The Dick Emery Show and The Mike and Bernie Winters Show amongst others, before joining The Benny Hill Show in 1968. He stayed with the programme, on and off, until Thames Television ended the show twenty-one years later. Todd was a regular on the 1971 The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine, appearing in 13 of the 14 episodes. In 1973, he appeared as Bill Thompson, the referee at a regimental boxing tournament in Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall.

Todd gained a reputation for drunkenness while working on The Benny Hill Show. He once failed to turn up for a London Palladium show after a drinking episode, and found himself in a Dublin hospital five days later. After this was reported in the media, Hill had Todd dropped from the show. Producer Dennis Kirkland persuaded Hill to rescind the decision, saying that Todd brought much to the show and his drinking rarely affected his work.

Todd's only starring role was as Dan the lavatory attendant in his own 1972 series In for a Penny, although he did appear in the Jimmy Jewel series Funny Man. He appeared in Eric Sykes's television series, in the episode "Sykes and A Bath", broadcast on 25 January 1961, in series three of Sykes and A..., in which he played a sad-faced man with one hand stuck inside a vase.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in February 1984.

Personal life Todd and his wife, Monica, had one daughter and two sons. He died at home in the village of Burwash, Sussex (six months after Benny Hill), at the age of 69, from myocardial hypertrophy.

Filmography

Film

Television