Sunny Rogers (May 10, 1913 – December 30, 2005) was an English entertainer best known for her work with comedian Frankie Howerd.
Rogers was born Jessie Mary Rogerson in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. Her nickname "Sunny" comes from her constant smiling. When attending the Welbeck Street Primary School, the headmistress wrote to her parents saying that "You really should consider sending little Jessie for dancing lessons as she entertains us all day with her singing and dancing."
Rogers began as a dancer at The Trocadaro in London and then joined the Tiller Girls; she went on from there to become a choreographer and producer of floor shows.
With her deadpan comedy expression, she became the long-suffering sidekick of Frankie Howerd, a role she played for over 35 years. She was his accompanying pianist who would be continually mocked by the comedian ("She's deaf you know - can't hear a word - poor old soul!"). One of the best examples of her work with the star is the Channel 4 hour-long special "Superfrank!" recorded in 1986.
After Frankie Howerd died in 1992, Sunny retired to Brighton, Sussex, where she continued to help show business charities. Rogers died at age 92 at a nursing home in Worthing.
Famous quotes containing the words sunny and/or rogers:
“And that is ... how they are. So terribly physically all over one another. They pour themselves one over the other like so much melted butter over parsnips. They catch each other under the chin, with a tender caress of the hand, and they smile with sunny melting tenderness into each other’s face.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Those of us who are in this world to educate—to care for—young children have a special calling: a calling that has very little to do with the collection of expensive possessions but has a lot to do with the worth inside of heads and hearts. In fact, that’s our domain: the heads and hearts of the next generation, the thoughts and feelings of the future.”
—Fred M. Rogers, U.S. writer and host of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. “That Which is Essential Is Invisible to the Eye,” Young Children (July 1994)