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Sir Harry Donald Secombe (8 September 1921 – 11 April 2001) was a Welsh actor, comedian, singer and television presenter. Secombe was a member of the British radio comedy programme The Goon Show (1951–1960), playing many characters, most notably Neddie Seagoon. An accomplished tenor, he also appeared in musicals and films – notably as Mr Bumble in Oliver! (1968) – and, in his later years, was a presenter of television shows incorporating and other devotional songs.
His family were regular churchgoers, belonging to the congregation of St Thomas Church. A member of the choir, from the age of 12 Secombe would perform a sketch entitled The Welsh Courtship at church socials, acting as "feed" to his sister Carol. His elder brother, Fred Secombe, became the author of several books about his experiences as an Anglican priest and rector.
When Secombe visited the Falkland Islands to entertain the troops after the 1982 Falklands War, his old regiment promoted him to the rank of sergeant – 37 years after he had been demobbed.
Secombe joined the cast of the Windmill Theatre in 1946, using a routine he had developed in Italy about how people shaved. An early review said that Secombe was "an original humorist of the infectious type and is very funny in a series showing how different men shave and in an impression of a vocalist." Secombe always claimed that his ability to sing could always be counted on to save him when he bombed.
Following a regional touring career, his first break came in radio in 1951 when he was chosen as resident comedian for the Welsh series Welsh Rarebit, followed by appearances on Variety Bandbox and a regular role in Educating Archie.
Secombe met Michael Bentine at the Windmill Theatre, and he was introduced to Peter Sellers by his agent Jimmy Grafton. Together with Spike Milligan, the four wrote a comedy radio script, and Those Crazy People was commissioned "Comedy The Goon Show", BBC website and first broadcast on 28 May 1951. Produced by Dennis Main Wilson, this soon became The Goon Show and the show remained on the air until 1960.
With the success of The Goon Show, Secombe developed a dual career as both a comedy actor and a singer. At the beginning of his career as an entertainer, his act would end with a joke version of the duet Sweethearts, in which he sang both the baritone and falsetto parts. Trained under Italian maestro Manlio di Veroli, he emerged as a bel canto tenor (characteristically, he insisted that in his case this meant "can belto") and had a long list of best-selling record albums to his credit.
In 1958 he appeared in the film Jet Storm, which starred Dame Sybil Thorndike and Richard Attenborough and in the same year Secombe starred in the title role in Davy, one of Ealing Studios' last films. By this time he was invited to appear on the Royal Command Performance (1958) where he struck up a lifelong friendship with Roy Castle.
The power of his voice allowed Secombe to appear in many stage musicals. This included 1963's Pickwick, based on Charles Dickens's The Pickwick Papers, which gave him the no. 18 hit single "If I Ruled the World" – his later signature tune. In 1965 the show was produced on tour in the United States, where, on Broadway, he garnered a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Secombe scored his biggest hit single in 1967 with his version of "This Is My Song", which peaked at no. 2 on the charts in March 1967 while a recording by Petula Clark, which had hit no. 1 in February, was still in the top ten. He also appeared in the musical The Four Musketeers (1967) at Drury Lane, as Mr. Bumble in Carol Reed's film of Oliver! (1968), and in the Envy segment of The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971).
He went on to star in his own television show, The Harry Secombe Show, which debuted on Christmas Day 1968 on BBC1 and ran for 31 episodes until 1973. A sketch comedy show featuring Julian Orchard as Secombe's regular sidekick, the series also featured guest appearances by fellow Goon Spike Milligan as well as leading performers such as Ronnie Barker and Arthur Lowe. Secombe later starred in similar vehicles such as Sing a Song of Secombe and ITV's Secombe with Music during the 1970s.Jack Kibble-White & Steve Williams, The Encyclopedia of Classic Saturday Night Telly, London: 2007, pp 158–9
In 1990, he was one of a few to be honoured by a second appearance on This Is Your Life, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at a book signing in a London branch of WH Smith. Secombe had been a subject of the show previously in March 1958 when Eamonn Andrews surprised him at the BBC Television Theatre.
He was Knight Bachelor in 1981, and jokingly referred to himself as Sir Cumference (in recognition of his rotund figure). The motto he chose for his coat of arms was "GO ON", a reference to goon.
Secombe died on 11 April 2001 at the age of 79, from prostate cancer, in hospital in Guildford, Surrey. His ashes are interred at the parish church of Shamley Green, and a later funeral to celebrate his life was held at Westminster Abbey on 26 October 2001. As well as family members and friends, the service was attended by Charles III and representatives of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Anne, Princess Royal, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon and Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. On his tombstone is the inscription: "To know him was to love him."
At Peter Sellers's funeral in 1980, Secombe sang a hymn and Spike Milligan joked: "I hope you die before me because I don't want you singing at my funeral." After Milligan's death in 2002, a recording of Secombe singing Guide me, O Thou great Redeemer was played at Milligan's memorial service.
The Secombe Theatre in Sutton, Greater London, was named after him. He is also fondly remembered at the London Welsh Centre, where he opened the bar on St Patrick's Day (17 March) 1971.
Myra, Lady Secombe died on 7 February 2018, aged 93.
| 1949 | Helter Skelter | Alf | Ralph Thomas | Uncredited | |
| 1951 | Penny Points to Paradise | Harry Flakers | Tony Young | ||
| 1952 | Down Among the Z Men | Harry Jones | Maclean Rogers | ||
| 1953 | Forces' Sweetheart | Harry Llewellyn | Maclean Rogers | ||
| 1954 | Svengali | Barizel | Noel Langley | Hildegard Knef, Donald Wolfit, Terence Morgan | |
| 1957 | Davy | Davy Morgan | Michael Relph | Ron Randell, Susan Shaw, Alexander Knox | |
| 1959 | Jet Storm | Binky Meadows | Cy Endfield | Richard Attenborough, Stanley Baker | |
| 1968 | Oliver! | Mr. Bumble | Carol Reed | ||
| 1969 | The Bed Sitting Room | Shelter Man | Richard Lester | ||
| 1969 | Pickwick | Mr. Pickwick | Terry Hughes | Roy Castle, Hattie Jacques | |
| 1970 | Doctor in Trouble | Llewellyn Wendover | Ralph Thomas | ||
| 1970 | Song of Norway | Andrew L. Stone | |||
| 1971 | Stanley | Graham Stark | (segment "Envy") | ||
| 1972 | Sunstruck | Stanley Evans | James Gilbert | ||
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