Drawing

Norman Wisdom performed during the war as a musician and tap-dancer in army concert parties and discovered his talent for comedy when he found that his ability to fall over realistically made everyone laugh. He made his professional debut as an entertainer in the summer of 1947 aged 31, appearing as a straight man to the magician David Nixon with the Fol de Rols, a variety troupe based in Scarborough. His costume of a flat tweed cap with turned-up peak and under-sized suit become his trademark, and he went on to become a huge star and box-office draw in British films of the late 1940s and 1950s, featuring as the lovable but pathetic character Norman Pitkin. He spent much of the 1960s and 1970s appearing on television, including the 1973 programme Nobody is Norman Wisdom.