ROY CASTLE
With a career that stretched almost fifty years, Roy Castle was one of Britain’s best loved entertainers. Born in 1932 in Scholes, Yorkshire, Roy was the son of a mill worker mother and insurance agent father. He got his first taste of the music business when at the age of six he took up piano lessons. One year later, he started tap dancing lessons – a pastime which soon after led to his billing as ‘The Boy Wonder’ with a local revue.
By the time he was fourteen Roy had turned professional and it was while he was serving out his national service that he learned to play the trumpet. From there he joined the legendary Jimmy James comedy act as stooge, but his big break came with his first television experience. The programme was the Dickie Valentine Saturday Spectacular – a showing which led to regular appearances on the ‘New Look’ television programme. This in turn resulted in his star billing on the 1958 Royal Variety Show – Overnight Success!
Over the next fifteen years Roy’s career went on to encompass more television (including forty-two appearances on American coast to coast tv), radio and cabaret. Roy’s ‘Record Breakers’ television show, which he presented for twenty-two series, started in 1972 and gained Roy no less than eight listings in the Guinness Book of Records. These include the world’s fastest tap dancer (twenty-four beats per second!); forty-three different instruments played in four minutes whilst continuing the same tune; and a three-hour twenty-three minute wing-walk from London to Paris.
Roy received an O.B.E. in the 1993 New Year`s Honours List.
In March 1992, Roy was diagnosed as having lung cancer and many will remember the nationwide fundraising tour he undertook in 1994. This was his final public appearance and six weeks later he died at home. His wife Fiona told the waiting press “No flowers, no mourning, no fuss, just lots of joy”. The Roy Castle Fund in aid of Cancer Research UK is a fitting tribute to a man whose determination was an inspiration for those suffering from the disease, their families and the people striving to ease its devastating effects.
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