Person    | Male  Born 17/12/1936 

Tommy Steele

Categories: Cinema, Music / songs, Theatre

Musician and actor. Born Thomas William Hicks in Bermondsey. He was promoted as the British Elvis Presley and had his first chart success with 'Singin' the Blues'. Many hits followed and in time, he became a 'family entertainer'. His life story was filmed when he was only twenty, and he turned to acting, both on stage and in film, particularly in 'Half a Sixpence'. He was however not universally adored. There is a theatrical legend, that when he was appearing in the stage version of 'Singin' in the Rain', he so antagonised the backstage crew, that they wreaked revenge by regularly urinating into the water tanks that were to rain down on his head during the show’s title number.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Tommy Steele

Commemorated ati

Tommy Steele

Tommy Steele OBE, entertainer, born Bermondsey, 17th December 1936. London Bo...

Read More

Tommy Steele - London Palladium

We found this photo of the plaque at Blue Plaque Places, which doesn't seem t...

Read More

Other Subjects

First cinema in Britain

First cinema in Britain

It was in Regent Street that a film was first played to a paying audience in Britain, whereas King's Hall Picture Palace is thought to have been the first purpose-built cinema in Britain.

Event, Cinema, France

2 memorials
The Flicker Club

The Flicker Club

A 'boutique' cinema club based in Stoke Newington that specialises in showing films adapted from short stories or novels. It invites surprise special guests from the worlds of entertainment and lit...

Group, Cinema

2 memorials
Peter Hall

Peter Hall

Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE was a theatre and film director who was born on 22 November 1930 in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. He founded the Royal Shakespeare Company and was its first artis...

Person, Cinema, Theatre

1 memorial
Gainsborough Film Studios

Gainsborough Film Studios

Gainsborough Pictures was founded in 1924 by Michael Balcon. These Islington studios were closely related to those at Lime Grove, used by Gaumont-British, with Balcon as Director of Production for ...

Building, Cinema

2 memorials
Irene Handl

Irene Handl

Comedy actor.  Born 13 Leith Mansions, Paddington and grew up in St John's Wood.  Began acting in her mid thirties and was almost never out of work, giving cameo performances in many British films ...

Person, Cinema, Humour, Theatre, TV & Radio

2 memorials