Tommy Steele

Sir Tommy Steele OBE
Tommy Steele performing in Stockholm in 1957
Background information
Birth name	Thomas Hicks
Born	(1936-12-17) 17 December 1936 (age 84) Bermondsey, London, England, United Kingdom
Genres	Rock and roll, skiffle
Occupation(s)	Singer, actor
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, banjo
Years active	1949–present
Labels	Decca, Columbia, RCA Victor
Associated acts

Sir Thomas Hicks, OBE (born 17 December 1936), known professionally as Tommy Steele, is an English entertainer, regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star.^[1][2] He reached number one with "Singing the Blues" in 1957, and The Tommy Steele Story was the first album by a UK act to reach number 1 in his native country.

Steele's film credits include Half a Sixpence, The Happiest Millionaire and Finian's Rainbow and he has made many stage tours in the UK. He is also a songwriter, author and sculptor.

In 2012, Steele was among the cultural icons selected by pop-artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in "Vintage Blake", a montage to celebrate Blake's 80th birthday.^[3]

Biography[]

Early life[]

Steele was born in Bermondsey, London, England, in 1936.^[4] His father Darbo was a racing tipster and his mother Betty worked in a factory.

Singer[]

Steele worked in various jobs, including a brief period as a merchant seaman.^[4] He was not eligible for national service because, at eighteen years old, he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy.^[5] In his autobiography, Bermondsey Boy: Memories of a Forgotten World, he reports that he failed the medical because he had flat feet. Whenever not working, he played guitar and banjo and sang in two coffee houses in Soho, the 2i's Coffee Bar and the Cat's Whisker, both as a solo performer and with Wally Whyton's Vipers Skiffle Group.

When a ship Steele was serving on docked in Norfolk, Virginia, U.S., he heard Buddy Holly^{[citation needed]} and fell in love with rock and roll, turning his back on the British skiffle craze. He was discovered by freelance photographer John Kennedy, who believed Steele could be Britain's answer to Elvis Presley.^[4] Later co-manager Larry Parnes was incorrectly credited with creating the stage name 'Tommy Steele'. It was Steele who adapted the surname of his Scandinavian paternal grandfather, Thomas Stil-Hicks (pronounced Steel-Hicks), adding another E to the spelling.^{[6][citation needed]}

Steele became famous in the UK as the frontman for a rock and roll band, the Steelmen, after their first single, "Rock With the Caveman", reached number 13 in the UK Singles Chart in 1956.^[4] Steele and other British singers would pick known hit records from the United States, record their cover versions of these songs, and release them in the UK before the American versions could enter the charts. Most of Steele's 1950s recordings were covers of American hits, such as "Singing the Blues" and "Knee Deep in the Blues". Although Steele never proved a serious threat to Presley's popularity in the UK, he did well on the 1950s UK chart and "Singing the Blues" got to Number 1 in the UK before Presley did so.^[1] Guy Mitchell was number 1 with "Singing the Blues" on 4 January 1957 and Tommy Steele on 11 January 1957. Steele's 1957 album, The Tommy Steele Story, was the first by a UK-based act to reach number 1 in the UK.^[1]

Only four months after his first chart presence, he was filming his life story.^[1] To do so, Steele and his songwriting collaborators, Lionel Bart and Mike Pratt, wrote twelve songs in seven days.^[7] His first three single releases were issued at a rate of one every three weeks.^[8] In 1957 Steele bought a four-bedroomed house in South London for his parents.^[9] In August 1959, Steele undertook a three-day concert visit to Moscow.^[10]

In 1958, Steele had the opportunity to work with his younger brother, Colin Hicks, during a tour in which the latter replaced one of the other performers, Terry Dene, who had withdrawn for psychiatric reasons.^[11]

In late 2009 his greatest hits collection, The Very Best of Tommy Steele, reached the Top 40 in the UK Albums Chart. This was the first UK chart entry, of any kind, that Steele had had for over 46 years.^[12]

Actor[]

The increase in home-grown musical talent during the 1950s and 1960s allowed Steele to progress to a career in stage and film musicals, leaving behind his pop-idol identity. In 1957, he was voted the seventh-most-popular actor at the British box office.^[13]

In 1960, a tour of Australia had not been particularly successful, and on his return to England he received two offers, one to star in the play Billy Liar, the other to join the Old Vic Company. He chose the latter.^[14]

In the West End, he appeared in She Stoops to Conquer,^[15] and played the title role of Hans Christian Andersen. On film, he recreated his London and Broadway stage role in Half a Sixpence, and played character roles in The Happiest Millionaire and Finian's Rainbow, although many critics^[who?] found his personality to be somewhat overwhelming on screen. In this last film, probably his best known appearance in films, he played Og, the leprechaun turning human, and co-starred with Petula Clark and Fred Astaire. In 1968, British exhibitors voted him the fourth most popular star at the local box office.^[16] The following year, he starred with Stanley Baker in the period drama Where's Jack?

In April 1971, Steele starred in his own show Meet Me in London originating in Las Vegas before a limited run at London's Adelphi Theatre.^[17] The London production was troubled when Steele demanded cuts to the first act on opening night. Singer Clodagh Rodgers refused to accommodate the cuts and walked out fifteen minutes before the first night curtain. She was eventually replaced by Susan Maughan.

In 1978, Steele performed in a TV movie version of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard (misspelt as "The Yeoman..."), singing the role of the hapless jester Jack Point.^[18]

In 1983, Steele directed and starred in the West End stage production of Singin' in the Rain at the London Palladium. In 1991 he toured with Some Like It Hot the stage version of the Jack Lemmon/Tony Curtis/Marilyn Monroe film. In 2003, after a decade-long hiatus, save his one-man shows An Evening With Tommy Steele and What A Show!, he toured as Ebenezer Scrooge in a production of Scrooge: The Musical, an adaptation of Scrooge. Following this return, he reprised his role at the Palace Theatre, Manchester over Christmas 2004, and brought the production to the London Palladium for Christmas 2005. In 2008, at the age of 71, Steele toured in the lead role of the stage musical Doctor Dolittle.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1958 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre.

Sculptor[]

Steele is a respected sculptor and four of his major works have been on public display. Bermondsey Boy at Rotherhithe Town Hall in London, was stolen in 1998: its whereabouts is unknown.^[19] Eleanor Rigby, which he sculpted and donated to the City of Liverpool as a tribute to the Beatles, stands in Stanley Street, Liverpool, not far from the Cavern Club.^[4][20] Union, featuring two rugby players, is on display at Twickenham Stadium. Trinity, designed during the regeneration of the docklands area in Bermondsey, stood outside the Trinity building in Bermondsey. When Steele lived in Montrose House, Petersham, Surrey, his life-sized sculpture of Charlie Chaplin as "The Tramp" stood outside his front door.^{[citation needed]} He is also an artist of some note and has exhibited at the Royal Academy.

Writing career[]

In 1981, Steele wrote and published a novel titled The Final Run about World War II and the evacuation of Dunkirk.^[21]

He also wrote a children's novel, entitled Quincy, about a reject toy trying to save himself and his fellow rejects in the basement of a toy store from the furnace the day after Christmas.^[22] Released in 1983, it was based on his own television film, Quincy's Quest, from 1979, in which Steele played Quincy and Mel Martin played Quincy's girlfriend doll, Rebecca.

Steele co-wrote many of his early songs with Lionel Bart and Mike Pratt, but he used the pseudonym of Jimmy Bennett^[a] from 1958 onwards.^[23]

On 7 November 2019, Steele was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the British Music Hall Society, at a Celebratory Luncheon in Mayfair's Lansdowne Club. Those paying tribute to his then 63 years and 2 days in show business included Sir Tim Rice, Wyn Calvin MBE and Bill Kenwright CBE.

In May 2020, Steele announced a new project which he had been working on titled 'Breakheart,' which was available exclusively online throughout May. Announced via a specially recorded video during the COVID-19 lockdown, 'Breakheart' was a seven-episode audio thriller, written by Steele and set during the Second World War. A new episode was released each day for a week.

Following the re-release of ‘Breakheart’ for the 2020 festive period, Steele also released a specially recorded festive tale ‘The Christmas Mystery of Muchhope.’

In June 2021, to celebrate Tommy's 65 years in the entertainment industry, his authorised biography 'A Life in the Spotlight' was published by FontHill Media, written by fan and archivist Sebastian Lassandro.

Personal life[]

Steele was born in Bermondsey, London. His father was Thomas Walter Hicks, and his mother was Elizabeth Ellen Bennett; they had married in 1933, in Bermondsey. There is a London Borough of Southwark blue plaque on Nickleby House, in the Dickens Estate in Bermondsey, commemorating Steele.^[24]

Steele and [Winifred] Ann Donoughue married at St. Patrick's Church, Soho Square, London, in spring 1960.^[25] They have one daughter, Emma Elizabeth (1969).^[26]

In the 1979 New Year Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his work as an entertainer and actor.^[27]

Steele is mentioned briefly in Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Thunderball.

He was knighted in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to entertainment and charity.^[28][29]

In 2019, Tommy was awarded the Freedom of the City of London. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the ceremony at Mansion House was delayed until July 20th 2021.

Discography[]

Filmography[]

Notes[]

References[]

Sources[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tommy Steele.

• Tommy Steele at IMDb 
• Tommy Steele at AllMovie
• Tommy Steele at the TCM Movie Database
• Tommy Steele at the Internet Broadway Database
• Tommy Steele at the British Film Institute
• Tommy Steele discography at Discogs
• www.45rpm.org.uk (2003). "Tommy Steele". Archived from the original on 2 February 2004.
• BBC (23 January 2004). "The man who brought rock to Britain". Archived from the original on 17 May 2004.
• The Stage, Nick Smurthwaite (7 November 2005). "Scene stealer – Tommy Steele". Archived from the original on 11 June 2011.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
• Biography at Rockabilly.nl
• Tommy Steele's appearance on This Is Your Life