Leslie Banks

He was awarded a Commander of the British Empire for his services to theatre in 1950, the year in which he made both his final stage and film appearances. In 1940 he was grand marshall of the Tournament of Roses Parade. His theatre roles included Eliza Comes to Stay (his American debut in 1914), Captain Hook in Peter Pan (1924), Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew (1937), and the schoolmaster in Goodbye, Mr Chips (1938). Bergen was the father of actress Candice Bergen, whose first performances were on the radio show; although she came to be weary of being called "Charlie's little sister". His other film roles include Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), Fire Over England (1937), Jamaica Inn (1939) and Laurence Olivier's Henry V (1946). He was elected to the Radio Hall of Fame in 1990, the same year that The Charlie McCarthy Show was selected as an honored program. His first important film role was in The Most Dangerous Game (1932) as a diabolical "human hunter" with Joel McCrea and Fay Wray and for the rest of his career he divided his time between Britain and the United States, and between film and theatre. Edgar Bergen died of kidney disease in Las Vegas, Nevada at age 75; he is interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

He returned to London in 1921 and established himself as a leading dramatic actor known for his powerful yet restrained performances. Later the school gave him an honorary degree as Master of Innuendo and Snappy Comeback. After the war, Banks joined the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. He attended Northwestern University, but did not graduate. In his acting career he would use this injury to good effect, by showing the unblemished side of his face when playing comedy or romance, and the scarred, paralysed side of his face when playing drama or tragedy. In 1938 Bergen was presented an Honorary Oscar (in the form of a wooden Oscar stauette) for his creation of Charlie McCarthy. He served in the British Army during World War I where he received injuries that left his face partially scarred and paralysed. It was his last appearance, and the film was dedicated to him.

Born in West Derby, England, made his acting debut in 1911 in regional vaudeville before moving to London to appear at the "Vaudeville Theatre" in 1914. He and McCarthy appeared in The Goldwyn Follies (1938) and in The Muppet Movie (1979). Leslie Banks (June 9, 1890 – 21 April 1952) was a British theatre and film actor, director and producer. He also appeared in Captain China (1949) and Don't Make Waves (1965). He appeared as the shy Norwegian suitor in I Remember Mama (1948). In addition to his work as a ventriloquist, Bergen was also an actor.

After the radio show ended, Bergen and McCarthy appeared on the television show Do You Trust Your Wife?, and also in live performance. Bergen and McCarthy are sometimes credited with "saving the world" because, on the night of October 30, 1938 when Orson Welles performed his War of the Worlds radio play that so panicked the nation, most of the American public had tuned in to hear Bergen and McCarthy and never heard Welles' play. And moving his lips hardly mattered, as he was a radio ventriloquist. Bergen's brilliant wit in creating McCarthy's striking personality and that of his other characters was the making of the show.

Bergen was not the most technically skilled ventriloquist – Charlie McCarthy frequently twitted him for moving his lips; but his sense of comedic timing was superb, and he handled Charlie's snappy dialogue with aplomb. Fields was a regular feature of the show. C. Charlie's feud with W.

Similar lines given to human Mae West in a sketch on the show resulted in her 15-year broadcasting ban. As a child, and a wooden one at that, Charlie could get away with double entendre that adult humans could not, even in those more-censored times. The star, however, was Charlie, who was always presented as a child – albeit in top-hat, cape, and monocle – a debonair, girl-crazy, child-about-town. For the radio program, Bergen developed other characters, notably the slow-witted Mortimer Snerd and the man-hungry Effie Clinker.

They were on the air from 1937 to 1956. He and Charlie were seen at a Hollywood party by Noel Coward, who recommended them for an appearance on Rudy Vallee's program - the appearance was so successful that the next year they were given their own show. His first performances were in vaudeville and one-reel movie shorts, but his real success was on the radio. The head went on a puppet named Charlie McCarthy, who became Bergen's lifelong sidekick.

A few years later he commissioned a woodcarver to make a portrait of a rascally Irish newspaperboy he knew. He was born in Chicago, Illinois to a Swedish family, grew up in Decatur, Michigan, and taught himself ventriloquism from a pamphlet when he was only 11. Edgar John Bergen (February 16, 1903 - September 30, 1978) was an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist. "Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?" Charlie McCarthy.

"Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy." Charlie McCarthy.