Gordon Wharmby

Gordon Wharmby (6 November 1933 – 18 May 2002) was a British television actor. He was best known for the role of Wesley Pegden on Last of the Summer Wine.

Gordon Wharmby
Gordon Wharmby and Dame Thora Hird as Wesley and Edie Pegden in "Last of the Summer Wine"
Born(1933-11-06)6 November 1933
Manchester, Lancashire, England
Died18 May 2002(2002-05-18) (aged 68)
Abergele, Conwy, Wales[1]
OccupationActor
Years active1977–2002

He was born in Manchester, Lancashire,[2][3] in 1933, and served in the Royal Air Force during his national service. Wharmby was originally employed as a painter and decorator and had no formal training as an actor. He gained stage experience with Oldham Repertory Theatre and worked part-time as a jobbing actor. Early television roles included bit-parts in programmes such as Bill Brand (1976), The One and Only Phyllis Dixey (1978), and Coronation Street (1982), and Heartbeat (1994).

He was then auditioned for a one-line part in Last of the Summer Wine, which had begun in 1973, filmed in and around the Yorkshire town of Holmfirth. The producer, Alan J.W. Bell, was so impressed with Wharmby's "natural" performance that, instead, he cast him in the more prominent role of the bumbling Wesley Pegden for another episode and Clarke later wrote him in as a regular. Although initially overawed by working with Thora Hird as his screen wife from 1986, Wharmby eventually started giving her "notes", to the veteran actress's great amusement.

Wharmby made his debut in Last of the Summer Wine in 1982, as Wesley Pegden, the boilersuit wearing, tinkering mechanic and would be inventor. He appeared as a regular cast member for 16 series between 1985 and 2002. Thora Hird played his nagging wife Edie.

Wharmby had small roles in programmes such as Troy Kennedy Martin's nuclear thriller Edge of Darkness (1985), Brookside (1985), All Creatures Great and Small (1988), A Very British Coup (1988), Coronation Street as a milkman (1982) Agatha Christie's Poirot (1990), Heartbeat (1994), and Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (1996).

At his time of death, he had been due to start recording the 24th series of Last of the Summer Wine.

Gordon died of cancer on 18 May 2002, aged 68. Wharmby and his wife Muriel had no children.(ref 3)

References
  1. "Gordon Wharmby". The Independent. 23 May 2002.
  2. "Lancashire Births Marriages & Deaths Indexes". www.lancashirebmd.org.uk.
  3. "FreeBMD Home Page". www.freebmd.org.uk.
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