The legendary British entertainer Bruce Forsyth who died today aged 89 may not have much name recognition in the rest of the world, but in the UK where his career lasted a staggering 75 years, he was regarded as a national treasure. Forsyth’s stage act had him playing the Variety Theaters for years until 1958 when his big break came hosting a TV variety show Sunday Night at the London Palladium and he found his milieu.
His enormously successful career on Television saw him hosting the major Game Shows of the day which were built around his outrageous character which struck a chord with the general public who had been so used to well-educated and well-spoken rather bland BBC types. It seemed for decades that he was never off our screens with programs such as Bruce Forsyth and the Generation Game, Play Your Cards Right, and You Bet!
In an attempt at building an international career in 1986, he went to the United States to host a game show on ABC, Bruce Forsyth’s Hot Streak, which ran for 65 episodes from January to April that year but was never renewed.
Forsyth also acted from time to time and in 1968 he was in the movie Star! alongside lead performer Julie Andrews, and was also in the Disney fantasy film Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
In 2003 at the age of 75 years old his career was revived when he co-presented the hit TV show Strictly Come Dancing (the UK version on Dancing with The Stars) which he did for the next 10 years.
Forsyth is a prime example of why so much of the world thinks that all British men are gay, because his mannerisms were so very hilariously camp ……. and so very English too, as so often men of other nationalities are insecure about how their sexuality is perceived. The British actor Daniel Radcliffe explained his take on this “... One of the girls explained to me it was because American men feel the need to in some way assert a sense of masculinity in everything they do, and British men don’t feel the same compulsion to do that all the time.”
For the record, Forsyth married three times (and two of his wives are former Beauty Queens) and by his six children, he had nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
After a years-long public campaign to award him a knighthood HM the Queen made him a Knight on 12 October 2011 and he became Sir Bruce Forsyth CBE.
Forsyth is one of those rare breed of old-fashioned entertainers whose personality was as important as his actual talent, and who always wanted to be sure that they completely won the audiences over. There will not be a single person in the U.K. today who will not feel sad about the news of his passing, and believe that the World just lost one wonderfully funny man, and a damn nice chap too.
Sir Bruce Forsyth CBE 22 February 1928 – 18 August 2017 R.I.P.
