Joe Gladwin, 1906 – 1987
Perhaps best remembered for starring as Nora Batty’s hen pecked husband Wally Batty in Last Of The Summer Wine, Joe Gladwin had a career that spanned some thirty years.
Quick Bio
Born Joseph Gladwin on 22nd January 1906, at 44 Tatton Street in the Ordsall district of Salford, Lancashire. His parents were Joseph and Elizabeth (née Dooley) Gladwin. His Father was a coal dealer.
A lifelong Roman Catholic Gladwin was baptised on 28th January 1906 at Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church, Ordsall ad educated in the local parish school.
Gladwin married Lily Anne Wynne on 30th December, 1933 at the same church he was baptised.
During Word War II, before his professional career took off, Gladwin performed with a Concert Party based in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in Manchester, known as The Decoys
This Concert Party (ENSA) entertained the troops in hospitals and elsewhere. At the same time, Gladwin was a driving for a company delivering medicines to chemists.
Gladwin also served as a Northern representative of the Catholic Stage Guild.
Throughout his life Joe Gladwin suffered from rhotacism, a condition affecting the ability to pronounce speech sounds.
By 1987 and a household name having being ill for sometime with Bronchial Cancer, Joe Gladwin died on 11th March 1987, from Bronco-Pneumonia complications as a result of Bronchial Cancer.
Career
Whilst Joe Gladwin will always be remembered as Wally Batty he had a long and varied career going as far back as 1950 when he worked as ‘Cedric’ a “feed” for British Music Hall Comic Dave Morris. This partnership lasted 12 years and included starring alongside Morris in BBC Radio comedy Club Night and it’s 1959 TV counterpart ‘The Artful Dodger’.
By the 1960’s Gladwin was a regular TV making guest appearances on shows such as Z-Cars and Dixon Of Dock Green. There was also a recurring role as Fred Jackson a local fish and chip shop owner on Coronation Street between 1961 and 1966 .
However it would be 1968 and the hit ITV sitcom Nearest and Dearest that would bring him to prominence.
Starring as Stan Hardman, a long time worker in fictional Pledge’s Pickle factory the show starred Jimmy Jewel and Hylda Baker and ran until 1973.
Two years later, from 1975, he would star as Wally Batty in Last Of The Summer Wine a role that would make him a household name.
Wally Batty remained part of the show until 1986. Prior to his death in 1987 Gladwin had completed work on the show’s ninth series and 1986 Christmas special.
It wasn’t just TV Joe Gladwin worked in he also made appearances in a host of films including; Three Hats For Lisa 1965, Charlie Bubbles 1967, Work Is A Four Letter Word 1968,
the film version of Nearest and Dearest 1972
Escape From The Dark 1976 and Yanks 1979.
As a true Yorkshire man he was a natural for the Hovis Ads