Patrick Comerford
Hallowe’en is tomorrow and shops and pubs in Stony Stratford are decorated with spiders and skulls, pumpkins and brooms, cobwebs and coffin lids, white sheets and black cats, spiders and witches.
But in the Old George, where I like to drop in for a drink occasionally, the framed photographs of Sid James on a wall between the door and a window, have been left untouched, alongside other memorabilia from the Carry On films and actors. It’s as though the East End comedian and actor who died half a century ago is being left in peace, considering the unusual circumstances of his death on stage 50 years ago in 1976.
Sidney James (1913-1976) was born Solomon Joel Cohen in South Africa on 8 May 1913. But his family were deeply rooted in the Jewish East End of London, and became a very typecast British actor, with a career in radio, television, stage and screen, best known for his top billing in 19 Carry On films, his part alongside Alec Guinness in The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), his role in Tony Hancock’s co-star in Hancock's Half Hour and his distinctive laugh.
Sid James was born Solomon Joel Cohen in in Newcastle, Natal, on 8 May 1913. His parents were two London-born Jewish vaudeville performers, Reina (Solomon) Cohen (1892-1965) and Lazarus Joel ‘Lew’ Cohen (1884-1948) from Mile End. His paternal grandparents, Solomon Cohen (1835-1911) and Rahle (Davidoff) Cohen (1836-1936), were born in Latvia, and nine of their ten children were born in the Russian Empire before they fled the Tsarist pogroms and arrived in London in the early 1880s. The family lived in the East End in Horsley Buildings, a lane with small houses on either side, and their home was at the extreme end facing the entrance to the lane, near Sidney Street in Stepney.
The Siege of Sidney Street – also known as the Battle of Stepney – began on 16 December 1910 and came to an end on 3 January 1911, and was one of the most notorious events at the time in the East End. It was one of the worst days in the history of British policing and was considered to be the biggest criminal event in the East End since ‘Jack the Ripper’.
As a child, Sid James was known as Sollie. He later changed his name to Sidney James following confusion with a similarly-named cousin at school. The name Sidney may have come from the area in Stepney where his grandparents had lived, the new surname James came from the stage names his parents used. During his childhood, his parents travelled abroad, were divorced in Australia, and he spent part of his childhood in the care of an uncle and aunt, Abraham and Esther Cohen. His family were not members of a local synagogue, and it is said that 100 years ago he prepared for his Bar Mitzvah at the age of 13 in 1926 by learning prayers from an elderly Lithuanian immigrant to recite at a house party.
In his early adult years, he claimed, he had been a diamond cutter, dance tutor, and boxer. In fact, he had been a hairdresser before beginning to work as an actor. He was a lieutenant in the South African army during World War II, but he returned to the stage after the war and had moved to London by the end of 1946.
His early film career included roles in The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) alongside Alec Guinness, The Buccaneers, The Galloping Major (1951), The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953), Father Brown(1956), and The Adventures of Robin Hood and, as well as parts in television comedies.
He starred with Miriam Karlin in East End, West End (1958) by Wolf Mankowitz, a half-hour comedy series set in the Jewish community in the East End.
He began working with Tony Hancock in 1954, and Sid James played a character called Sid James but with the invented middle name Balmoral, a petty criminal who would con Hancock in one way or another. Tony Hancock and Sid James were seen as a double act until the series ended in 1960.
James became a leading member of the Carry On team with Carry On Teacher in 1959, and in all made 19 Carry On films, with top billing in 17. His characters were often wise-cracking, sly, lecherous Cockneys, sometimes with the name Sid or Sidney, such as Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond or Sid Boggle, all with his distinctive laugh and his catchphrase ‘Cor, blimey!’
He first appeared on The Eamonn Andrews Show in 1964. He starred in the 1970s sitcom Bless This House until he died in 1976. He had major problems with alcohol and gambling, and lost tens of thousands of pounds as a compulsive gambler. After a severe heart attack in 1967, he gave up cigarettes, lost weight, ate only one main meal a day, and limited himself to two or three alcoholic drinks in the evening.
Sid James was married three times: his first marriage in 1936 ended in divorce in 1940, his second marriage in 1943 ended in divorce in 1952, and he married a third time later that year. He also fathered three or four children in other relationships, and during his third marriage he had a three-year affair with his Carry On co-star Barbara Windsor (1937-2000).
He had a notoriously antagonistic relationship with Carry On co-star Kenneth Williams. Williams was particularly scathing and personal about James’s acting ability, while James found Williams’s loud and attention-seeking behaviour annoying.
Sid James was on stage on 26 April 1976 when he suffered a heart attack at the Sunderland Empire Theatre. The other actors thought he was playing a practical joke when he failed to reply to their dialogue. They ad-libbed but when he still failed to respond, the curtains closed and they called for a doctor. The audience laughed, believing it was all part of the show. He was pronounced dead at Sunderland General Hospital. He was 62.
Sid James was cremated and his ashes were scattered at Golders Green Crematorium in London, directly opposite Golders Green Jewish Cemetery, but without any Jewish prayers or rituals. Dying on stage as a famous comic actor to the sound of laughter might be seen by some as the way to go. But fame and celebrity had never brought him fortune or inner happiness, and he had gambled away most of his earnings.
Many fans thought he was from the East End but were not aware of his Jewish background, nor that he was born and raised in Johannesburg. His Jewish heritage rarely defined his public persona or roles, and he rarely played Jewish characters on screen, apart from the mini sitcom series East End, West End (1958), in which he was Sid, a small-time Jewish businessman from the East End always on the look-out for a scheme that could make him rich. Instead, he seemed to fit in seamlessly into general British working-class character roles.
May his memory be a blessing, ז״ל.
Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום
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