- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJosephine Edwina Jaques
- Nicknames
- Mother Superior
- Hat
- Height5′ 6″ (1.68 m)
- Best known for playing Matron--as in "Ooh, Matron!"--in four films: Carry on Nurse (1959), Carry on Doctor (1967), Carry on Again Doctor (1969) and, of course Carry on Matron (1972). Key roles included: Grace Short in Carry on Teacher (1959), Sophie Bliss in Carry on Loving (1970) and Peggy Hawkins in Carry on Cabby (1963). She was married to John Le Mesurier (Sergeant Wilson in Dad's Army (1968)), but left him for another man. They divorced but remained friends. An unexpectedly attractive woman in her time, she played parts which depended upon and mocked her weight. Only in Carry on Cabby (1963) was she allowed to escape her dragon persona and play the romantic lead opposite Sidney James. She died prematurely at the age of 58 from a heart attack.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Joolz
- Prior to entering show business, she trained as a hairdresser but during the war she worked first as a Red Cross nurse and then as an arc welder at a North London factory and it was there that she discovered her talent for making people laugh.. When her brother got a job at London's Little Players Theatre in 1944 she went along, did an audition on a Friday, and the following Monday she was a professional entertainer singing Victorian songs in their late night reviews. It was there that she also developed her famous Christmas Fairy persona appearing annually in their pantomimes as an outsized fairy. At Christmas 1949 she played Marrygolda, one of Beauty's sisters in 'Beauty and the Beast' at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. Throughout her career though she remained faithful to the Players Theatre returning to it whenever she could as a performer, producer and occasionally as a writer and in that guise adapted 'Riquet with the Tuft' in which she played her favourite character - the immortal Fairy Queen.She got the name Hattie while at the Players when as part of her act she sang a negro song. This was just after the film Gone with the Wind (1939), which featured the well-built black actress Hattie McDaniel, had been released. She performed regularly at the Players until 1962. She first gained fame on radio as Sophie Tuckshop, a greedy schoolgirl addicted to mammoth meals in Tommy Handley's 'It's That Man Again' aka 'ITMA' which ran 1947 - 49. In 1956 she then had a spell as Agatha Danglebody in 'Educating Archie' supporting Max Bygraves and Tony Hancock, joining the latters regular 'Hancock's Half Hour' series in 1956. While doing 'Educating Archie' she met Eric Sykes, who'd contributed to some of the scripts and was the beginning of a 30 year partnership with Eric as his long suffering sister in a long running tv series, 'Sykes' which ran from 1960 to 1965 then from 1972 to 1979.with Richard Wattis and Deryck Guyler in the latter series. She was philosophical about her size but sometimes expressed a yearning to look more normal once shedding four stone but when she arrived at a tv studio nobody noticed the difference so she abandoned all ideas of dieting. She considered the three big points in her career were: being taken on by the Players Theatre; joining the programme ITMA and working with Tommy Handley; and doing the radio series Educating Archie where she met Eric Sykes who wrote the scripts.- IMDb Mini Biography By: tonyman 5
- SpouseJohn Le Mesurier(November 10, 1949 - August 31, 1965) (divorced, 2 children)
- Children
- Large, heavy build.
- Two sons with actor John Le Mesurier: Robin Le Mesurier (born 22 March 1953) and Kim Le Mesurier (born 12 October 1956). Kim died of an accidental drug overdose on 6 October 1991, exactly 11 years after his mother's death.
- She worked as an arc-welder during World War II. She was able to use this skill when she played Alice, a welder, in Chance of a Lifetime (1950).
- She allegedly declined an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 1974 for her services to drama and charity.
- Being most famous for her matron characters it is interesting to note that she actually was a Red Cross nurse during the Second World War.
- She suffered from a number of health problems in later years, including arthritis, ulcerated legs and high blood pressure, as well as breathing difficulties due to a 60-a-day smoking habit. These health problems, along with her increasing weight, eventually made her uninsurable for film work.
- Carry on Dick (1974) - £2,000
- Carry on Abroad (1973) - £500
- Carry on Matron (1972) - £2,500
- Carry on at Your Convenience (1971) - £2,000
- Carry on Loving (1970) - £3,000
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