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[[Category:Male actors from London]]
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[[Category:20th-century English male actors]]
[[Category:20th-century English male actors]]
[[Category:20th-century English male comedians]]
[[Category:20th-century British comedians]]


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Revision as of 13:35, 3 April 2018

Max David Bacon (1 March 1904, London, England, UK – 3 December 1969, London, England, UK) was a British actor, comedian and musician (drummer and occasional vocalist in Ambrose's band).[1] Although he was British-born, his comedic style centred on his pseudo-European, Yiddish accent and in his straight-faced mispronunciation of words.

Early life

Bacon Had two brothers Sydney and Harry but no sisters. His father was one of three brothers who came from Katowice, then in Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Two of the brothers left in 1901, His father came to London, his uncle Yochanan went to Moravia, to Ostrava (now in the Czech Republic). The family business was leather working. Max Bacon's cousin, Baruch, continued selling leather goods when he moved to Tel-Aviv, then in Palestine in 1938. In London, the family engaged in another traditional Bacon occupation, basket-weaving. They had the monopoly on the round baskets that the Covent Garden porters used to carry on their heads.

Before becoming a character actor, Bacon was one of the most significant drummers in Britain during the 1920s and 1930s. He was taught by the vocalist Harry Bentley (who also played drums). After a couple of years at the Florida Club with Ronnie Munro's band he began a long association with Ambrose's Orchestra (the Rolls Royce of British Dance Bands). Bacon can be heard on hundreds of records by Ambrose as part of his rhythm section and occasionally as "Yiddish" vocalist. He can also be seen in photographs of the band, presiding over the drum kit at the rear and top of the photograph. In the late 1930s he had become well known enough to tour the halls in his own right and as part of a touring unit known as the Ambrose Octet with Evelyn Dall, Les Carew etc. Bacon was particularly associated with deft cymbal-work in the many "speciality" instrumentals which are regarded by some[who?] as the pinnacle of British Jazz/swing between the wars. Cotton Picker's Congregation, Deep Henderson, man About Town, Night Ride are good examples.

Bacon played Julie Jordan in the 1967 British film Privilege. In a short clip, he may be seen playing the drums and singing.

He lived in his later years at The White House, a hotel near Great Portland Street, London, still there and known as the Melia White House. He never married.

TV, theatre and filmography

References

  1. ^ http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/102671
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