Alfred Hawthorne Hill

Benny Hill, born Alfred Hawthorne Hill (21 January 1924 - 18 April 1992), was an English comedian, actor, writer and musician. He is best remembered for his television programme The Benny Hill Show, a comedy variety show merging slapstick, burlesque, double entendre and innuendo in live and filmed segments with Hill in almost every one. The BFI called Hill "the first British comedian to attain fame through television" and "a major star for over forty years".

Making his television debut in 1949, Hill appeared on BBC variety shows where he developed his parodic sketches and, in 1954, was voted television personality of the year. The Benny Hill Show, which debuted in 1955, was among the most-watched programmes in the UK, with an audience of more than 21 million in 1971, and was exported to over 100 countries. He received a BAFTA Television Award for Best Writer and a Rose d'Or, and was nominated for two Emmy Awards. In 1990 Anthony Burgess described Hill as "a comic genius steeped in the British music hall tradition".

Born in Southampton, Hill was the son of a surgical appliance shop manager whose own father and grandfather had been circus clowns. He worked as a milkman and driver before becoming an assistant stage manager, and served as a mechanic in the British Army during the Second World War. He took the nickname "Benny" in homage to his favourite comedian, Jack Benny. Outside television he starred in films including Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and The Italian Job (1969), and his comedy song "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)" was 1971's Christmas number one on the UK singles chart.