Will Hay

Born in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham in 1888, he became interested in astronomy at school and carried on his research work in this direction after he had finished his nightly stage entertainments.

Father of Gladys Hay (1909-1979), Will Hay Jr.. (1913-1995) and Joan Hay (1917-1975).

In 1918 he joined the Fred Karno comedy troupe. Will Hay played Nosey Parker in the Karno revue Nosey Knows which toured Britain until the end of 1918. Will Hay then starred in the Karno revue Moonstruck which toured Britian from December 1918 to March 1920.Other former members of the Karno troupe include Stan Laurel and Charles Chaplin, both of whom left the company in 1913.

Began playing his bumbling, seedy schoolmaster character on stage in the late 1920s. Much later on, Will Hay would reprise the role for a radio series.

He was first "on the air" in 1922 and his then comedy sketches of "St. Michaels School" (of which he was the headmaster) proved to be one of the most popular comedy characters on radio at that time. This character was transferred to film and became equally successful. He worked at Elstree Studios, then Gainsborough, then Ealing; the Gainsborough period was the most consistently successfully, particularly when he worked with the team of Marcel Varnel (director), Val Guest and Marriott Edgar (writers), and Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt (supporting cast). By the time he made his first film, he was in his mid forties and his last role came less than a decade later.

William Thompson Hay was probably one of the most versatile of entertainers. He was not only a character comedian of the first rank, but was also an astronomer of high repute - he discovered the spot on the planet Saturn in 1933 - and a fully qualified air pilot; he was once an engineer.

Will and his wife Gladys separated in 1935 after 28 years of marriage, but never divorced because she was a Roman Catholic. Gladys died in 1982, having outlived Will and two of their three children.

In 1942 he became a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR), Special Branch, as an instructor on navigation and astronomy to the Sea Cadets Corps. He was awarded a star for his work. He also made the short Go to Blazes (1942) in which he showed how to deal with incendiary bombs.