- Born
- Died
- Birth nameGeoffrey William Hughes
- Height5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
- Geoffrey began his extensive stage career at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool. He then appeared in several West End productions, such as Say Goodnight to Grandma and Run for Your Wife. He appeared in numerous TV shows, including Coronation Street (1960) and Keeping Up Appearances (1990), where he played the slob Onslow. When not acting, Geoffrey enjoyed sailing, cricket, and music. He died on the Isle of Wight- IMDb Mini Biography By: anon-14
- Geoffrey Hughes acted in a wide variety of television series for many years. His first major TV role was in Coronation Street (1960), and having left the soap after nine years he managed to steer away from the traditional career slumps suffered by many ex-soap actors.
It's not hard to see why. Whilst often typecast as the "loveable rogue" type character, he was a superb actor. Whether as the slowish Onslow in Keeping Up Appearances (1990), Twiggy in the The Royle Family (1998), or the affable Vernon Scripps in Heartbeat (1992), Hughes was a man who knew how to win the affection of television audiences.
Aside from television, he featured in many stages performances.- IMDb Mini Biography By: A J Lewis - His father was Welsh and his mother Scottish and while they had no show business connections themselves, his mother's family was in entertainment for 8 generations, first as circus folk then in vaudeville. As a schoolboy, Geoffrey became involved with the Merseyside Unity Theatre. On leaving school, his one ambition was a career in acting but coming from a working class family presented some difficulties at the outset. A chance meeting with actor Tom Bell who traveled up to Liverpool to see 'Progress to the Park' in which Geoffrey was appearing changed everything. Going back-stage after the show and talking to Geoffrey, he couldn't believe that Geoff, prior to doing the play, had been a car salesman and working in a big store, and tried to persuade him to go to London with him. Geoffrey said he would be down in a couple of weeks and would be in touch. Meeting up, Tom took him to meet his agent who said that if Tom believed in him he'd take a chance and signed him up. That was in 1963 and soon after Geoff was in rep in Stoke on Trent for 6 weeks before returning to London to play the juvenile lead in 'Maggie May' opposite Rachel Roberts. After that he appeared in the television series 'Curry and Chips', 'Z Cars' and 'The Mind of J.G. Reader' amongst others. He made his film debut in 'The Virgin Soldiers' followed by 'The Bofors Gun'. For a time he was a resident actor with the Newcastle University Theatre appearing in many productions including 'The Cherry Orchard' and 'Rosencrantz and Guilderstern'.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tonyman 5
- SpouseSusan Mundell(1975 - July 27, 2012) (his death)
- His character on Keeping Up Appearances (1990) wears a hat that has the letters FH on it; they stand for Fulton Hogan, a New Zealand airport development, management, and technology company. His tattoos on KUA are fake.
- He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1996 but recovered. In 2010 the cancer returned and he had to retire from acting.
- In 2009, he was appointed Deputy Lord Lieutenant for the Isle of Wight, making him 'the official link between the island and royalty at formal engagements'.
- Geoffrey Hughes has appeared in two short comedy films which were in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, Expresso 2007 and Waiting in Rhyme 2009.
- The joy of doing a play as an actor is that you've got that interaction with the audience and you're also your own editor. If I want to make a pause three quarters of an hour long, I can, whereas on television and film you've got an editor and if you feel there's a rhythm to a line and you want to say it that way, there's no guarantee it'll stay that way.
- [on his audition for "Yellow Submarine"] The audition was quite interesting because I was asked to go and read for the part of George Harrison. I arrived at the offices in Soho Square and sat in the waiting room. There were a few other people there waiting to be seen. I was sitting next to two guys who were chatting, and after a few minutes the guy sitting next to me turned to me and asked what I was auditioning for. I told him it was George. He then asked if I knew The Beatles. I told him that although I hadn't known them in Liverpool, I had met Paul when he and his then-girlfriend, Jane Asher, had attended the premiere of the West End musical "Maggie May" that I was in. He then asked if there was anything particular about their accents. I explained that while Ringo and George had quite hard Liverpool accents, John and Paul's were much softer. They had what we call posh scouse accents. I explained that they had a tendency to have a rising inflection at the end of sentences and would also put the emphasis on the end of words, such as "interesting," where they would put the emphasis on "resting." Just then my name was called and I went in to see Al Brodax and John Coates. The guy I'd been chatting to followed me in and asked me to tell John and Al what I'd just told him. He turned out to be George Dunning, and I was asked to play Paul.
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