Will Hay
Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia William Thomson "Will" Hay (6 December 1888 – 18 April 1949) was an English comedian, actor, film director and amateur astronomer. Description above from the Wikipedia article Will Hay, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Born: December 5, 1888
Place of Birth: Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England, UK
Known For
Go to Blazes
Ministry of Information-sponsored comedy short showing wartime audiences how to deal with the threat of incendiary bombs.
The Black Sheep of Whitehall
A professor teaching at a correspondence school discovers that a Nazi agent is trying to prevent a trade treaty being signed between England and South America.
Windbag the Sailor
Will Hay plays a bragging sea captain whose maritime experience actually extends to navigating a coal barge down inland waterways. His tall tales catch him out when he is co-erced into commanding an unseaworthy ship by an unscrupulous shipping agent who means to have it wrecked. This was the first film to couple Will Hay with both Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt.
Those Were the Days
A farce based on Arthur Wing Pinero's play 'The Magistrate' in which the son (John Mills) of a stern magistrate (Will Hay) visits a music hall against the wishes of his father. In true farcical style, the magistrate too ends up at the music hall, and before long all the characters are trying not to avoid each other... Mainly notable (a) because of its depiction of the music hall as seen by a generation which knew it intimately (b) because of its use of music hall acts of the time and (c) because it gave Will Hay his first film role.
Ask a Policeman
The mirthful adventures of Police-Sergeant Samuel Dudfoot and his two constables, Albert Brown and Jeremias Harbottle, who stage a fabricated crime-wave to save their jobs---and then find themselves involved in the real thing.
Where's That Fire
Capt Viking and his incompetent fire crew accidentally foil a plot to steal the crown jewels.
Good Morning, Boys!
Dr. Benjamin Twist (Hay) and his pupils become involved with art thieves on a trip to Paris. Hay’s seamy schoolmaster act is supported by a fine cast including Charles Hawtrey and Lilli Palmer.
Oh, Mr. Porter!
Comedy in which a bungling railway worker is given the job of stationmaster at a rundown station in rural Ireland, where his sidekicks are a toothless old gaffer and a portly young loudmouth. Hilarious adventures ensue, including a locomotive chase after gunrunners make off with a train.
Hey! Hey! USA
While working as a porter Benjamin Twists mistakenly ends up on a cruise ship heading for the USA. Upon landing on the American coast Twist takes up work as a professor.
Where There's a Will
Will Hay plays the pennyless, bungling solicitor Benjamin Stubbins, who arrives at his office to find his insolent office boy (Graham Moffatt) with his feet up on the desk, reading a wild west magazine, which Hay confiscates so that he can read it later. Stubbins later takes a job from a group of Americans who claim they want him to track down some ancestors of theirs in Scotland. In reality however they want to use his office so they can rob a safe in the room immediately below his office. Stubbins takes the job (which is designed to keep him out of the office). In the end Stubbins realises his mistake and at a Christmas Eve fancy dress party he informs a group of carol singing policeman about the Americans nefarious activities
Filmography
as William Potts (archive footage) (uncredited)
as William Fitch
as William Potts / Muller
as Prof. Davis
as Skipper
as Father
as Will Lamb
as Captain Benjamin Viking
as Sergt. Dudfoot
as Prof. Benjamin Tibbetts
as Dr. Benjamin Twist
as Dr. Benjamin Twist
as William Porter
as Dr. Benjamin Twist
as Captain Ben Cutlet
as Benjamin Stubbins
as Dr. Alec Smart
as Rev. Richard Jedd
as William Garland
as Magistrate Brutus Poskett