Entertainer and pantomime star Dave Lee died, aged 64, of pancreatic cancer on January 12.
Lee, who lived in Canterbury, was dearly loved in Kent, having played the dame in Marlowe Theatre pantomimes for 16 years. Utterly professional, he did 1,000 performances without missing a single one.
He was due to play Baron Hardup in the 2011/12 Cinderella, the first pantomime in the rebuilt Marlowe, but was forced by his illness to pull out.
His pantomime work was as legendary as his friendly, self-deprecating personality was adored. “I am proud to have done the bench gag with the only man who could get an ovation just by walking on with the bench every night for two months,” said actor Alan Mehdizadeh.
Lee began his career as a drummer and singer and had several records released. Spotted by Eric Morecambe, he went on to develop a career as a comedian and actor. He worked as a TV warm-up man for Michael Parkinson, Jimmy Tarbuck and Michael Aspel, as well as appearing on many shows, including The Generation Game and Live from the Palladium. He recently hosted his own golfing series, Through the Green.
An indefatigable charity supporter, Lee raised over £2 million for children’s charities and founded Dave Lee’s Happy Holidays in 1994. He was made an MBE in 2003.
Marlowe Theatre presented Lee with a plaque for his dressing room door just before Christmas - soon to be opened officially as the Dave Lee suite - reading, “Well, we’ll have to sing it again then won’t we”. And Canterbury City Council is going ahead with its plans to make Lee a Freeman of the City on January 31 - the first time it has done this posthumously.
Predeceased by his wife Linda three years ago, he is survived by his two sons and a daughter.
Content is copyright © 2012 The Stage Media Company Limited unless otherwise stated.
All RSS feeds are published for personal, non-commercial use. (What’s RSS?)
