Charles Hawtrey (actor Born 1914) - Personal Life

Personal Life

Little is known about Hawtrey's early years or later private life. He guarded his relationships very carefully, perhaps no surprise in an age when male homosexual behaviour in Britain was illegal and punishable by a prison sentence. His outrageous drunken promiscuity however, did not portray him in a positive light to an unsympathetic world; nor did his general demeanour and increasing eccentricity earn him many (if any) close friends.

Nevertheless, a few anecdotes told by his colleagues shed a little light on his character off-screen. Kenneth Williams recorded a visit to Deal in Kent where Hawtrey owned a house full of old brass bedsteads which the eccentric actor had hoarded, believing that "one day he would make a great deal of money from them".

A lot of strain was put on him by his mother, who suffered senile dementia in later years. Another anecdote recounted by Williams described how his mother's handbag caught fire when her cigarette ash fell in. Hawtrey, without batting an eyelid, poured a cup of tea into it to put out the flames, snapped the handbag shut and continued with his story. Williams also recounted his gathering up of the leftover sandwiches from a buffet for the Carry On cast.

In her autobiography, Barbara Windsor wrote about Hawtrey's alcoholism, and his outrageous flirting with footballer George Best. While filming Carry On Spying she thought he had fainted from fright at a dramatic scene on a conveyor belt—in fact he had passed out because he was drunk. When he came on set with a crate of R. White's Lemonade, everyone knew that he had been on another heavy drinking binge. Nevertheless he was an integral face to the Carry On family, smoking Woodbines profusely and playing cards between takes with Sid James and his gang.