| Birth: | Jun. 5, 1907 | | Death: | Nov. 16, 1960 | 
Television Personality. A well known British television personality and quizmaster, notorious as "the rudest man in Britain", he was born in Hereford, where his parents ran the workhouse. He was educated at Wolverhampton School and at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he read History. After graduation, he trained to be an Anglican vicar, but abandoned this and, largely under the influence of G.K. Chesterton, converted to Roman Catholicism. He then took various jobs, as a teacher in England, Canada and Cyprus, and as a policeman in Bradford. During World War II, he was exempt from military service because of his obesity and asthma, so he joined the B.B.C. Monitoring Unit and, in 1944, became liaison officer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. On returning to England three years later, he became the best-known person in England, apart from Queen Elizabeth and Winston Churchill, appearing on such programs as "Twenty Questions", "What's My Line" and "Round Britain Quiz", where, frequently, he insulted the other panelists (on one occasion, he introduced Joy Adamson, author of "Born Free", as "Joy by name, but certainly not by nature") and, at least once, being drunk and disorderly on the air. His fame was so great that he appeared, usually as himself, in thirteen British films of the 1950's, but one B.B.C. producer has said: "A time came when we began to wonder how much longer we could go on displaying this drunken homosexual, like a freak at a sideshow." In September 1960, however, Harding was interviewed by John Freeman on a legendary program called "Face to Face" which, even now, is often repeated by the B.B.C., and his tough and bullying behavior was shown to be no more than a facade when he burst into tears when Freeman, who did not know that Harding's mother had died, asked him whether he had ever seen a dead body. Almost the last words spoken by Harding in the interview were: "I should much rather be dead than alive, if I hadn't got to go through the miseries of actually dying." Eight weeks later, after recording an edition of "Round Britain Quiz", he collapsed and died on the steps of Broadcasting House. (bio by: Iain MacFarlaine)
Search Amazon for Gilbert Harding | | | Burial:
St Mary Roman Catholic Cemetery
Kensal Green
Greater London, England |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Originally Created by: Iain MacFarlaine
Record added: Mar 14, 2004
Find A Grave Memorial# 8505554 |
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(3.7 after 21 votes)
