Freddie Davies
| Freddie Davies | |
|---|---|
| Born |
21 July 1937 Brixton, London, England |
Freddie Davies (born 21 July 1937) is a British comedian and actor who achieved fame in 1964 via the television programme Opportunity Knocks and has since appeared in several television series and films.
Freddie Davies was born in Brixton, London in 1937, the grandson of music hall comedian Jack Herbert. At the start of the Second World War, Davies was evacuated to Seend in Wiltshire, subsequently to Torquay in Devon and then to Salford, Lancashire in 1941.
After serving national service in the Royal Army Pay Corps, Davies became a stand-up comedian. He began his career in 1958 as a Butlin's holiday camp entertainer. He started on the cabaret circuit in 1964, when he turned professional, and he appeared on many television shows in the 1960s, '70s and '80s including Opportunity Knocks, Sunday Night at the London Palladium, The Des O'Connor Show, The Tom Jones Show, The Bachelors Show and Blackpool Night Out.
His first appearance on the ITV talent show Opportunity Knocks, on 1 August 1964, brought him overnight fame. The single joke he told involved an increasingly exasperated character remonstrating with a tiresome pet-shop owner with the words: "look here, Parrot-face!" Audience reaction prompted him to bill himself as "Freddie 'Parrot-face' Davies". He made further allusions to birds in jokes about budgies and by playing a character he named Samuel Tweet. His visual identity included wearing a black Homburg hat pulled low on his head, pushing out his ears.
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