With his lithe, dancer’s body and thick mop of curls, everything in Lionel Blair moved to an inner rhythm. He was the epitome of the razzle-dazzle man, whose cheeky-chappie charm entertained audiences through eight decades. He even became a fashion icon when 70s flares entered the cockney slang lexicon as your “Lionel Blairs.”
The Canadian-born British actor, choreographer, tap dancer, and television presenter, who has died aged 92, was a dancer to the very marrow of his bones. From the late 1960s to the, early 1980s his self-mocking style and energy drew viewers to his TV gameshows, Give Us a Clue, Name that Tune and Blankety Blank. He was used to being urged to “Give us a twirl!”
He was born Henry Lionel Ogus in Montreal, the son of Myer Ogus, who worked as a barber, and tailor, Debora (Della) Greenbaum. Both emigrés of Russian and Polish background they had moved to Canada from East London and returned to Stamford Hill in 1930. The young Lionel was evacuated to Oxford at the outbreak of the Second World War, and back in London, he and his older sister Joyce entertained people in air raid shelters at Manor House station with their improvised dance routines. They became known as “England’s youngest swingsters”.
“From an early age Joyce and I were taken to the pictures — it was always Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers or Shirley Temple”, Blair recalled. “We used to go home and try to copy them. That’s how we learned to tap dance.” At Craven Park School he met the comedians Mike and Bernie Winters who became life-long friends, before moving to the Egerton Road school linked to the synagogue.
In 1942 he played a munchkin in The Wizard of Oz at Croydon’s Grand Theatre, which had recently reopened after serious bomb damage. In 1943 at the age of 14 he played one of the children in the touring production of Lillian Hellman’s ant-Nazi play, Watch on the Rhine, after its West End launch.
His own West End debut came the following year in Flying Colours with Binnie Hale and Douglas Byng, followed by five minor Shakespearian roles, including MacDuff’s son in Macbeth. He also performed in The Taming of the Shrew and Hamlet at the Memorial Theatre, Stratford on Avon, directed by Robert Atkins.
His father’s death in 1947 changed everything: “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced loss like it”, he recalled. Forced into the role of family breadwinner, he started work in musical productions with Joyce, who was studying dance. He played a waiter in the musical comedy, Bob’s Your Uncle (1948) at the Saville and performed in productions of Annie Get Your Gun and Kiss Me, Kate at the Coliseum in 1951. Soon he was choreographing the Five Past Eight shows, at the Alhambra, Glasgow, with Jimmy Logan and Stanley Baxter, and by the 1960s he had brought his show- girl troupe to BBC television .
Armed with his new name, Lionel Blair, his dancing talent came to the fore. He choreographed several films and appeared in Michael Winner’s The Cool Mikado (1963) with Frankie Howerd and Stubby Kaye, and Richard Lester’s A Hard Day’s Night (1964) with the Beatles. He also choreographed The Magic Christian in 1969.He married Susan Davis in 1967 with whom he had three children.
One highlight was a comedy dance sketch with his idol, Sammy Davis Junior, at the 1961 Royal Variety Show at London’s Prince of Wales Theatre. It turned into a competitive dance routine between them, which neither won.
This led to a life-long friendship. Blair later recalled the episode as “one of the most thrilling things, ever. He was just so kind to me. He gave me a silver dollar. I carry it with me all the time”.
Blair’s crinkly smile and lissom dance routines made him a natural on the London pantomime circuit, where he could command a fee of £15,000 a week. His West End stage appearances included a 1968 revival of the Gershwins’ Lady Be Good with Aimi MacDonald at the Saville, touring with Jimmy Edwards in Doctor in the House in 1978, and alternately playing the Player King to critical acclaim. while touring Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in 1987.
By now Blair’s era dawned as a TV entertainer on such prime time family shows as The Tommy Cooper Hour and the Jimmy Tarbuck Show. In 1976 he became a judge on ITV’s X-Factor forerunner New Faces. The 1980s TV games shows, Give Us A Clue and Name That Tune attracted celebrity team players. He played a team captain in the former opposite women’s team captain Una Stubbs. However, on Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue in the mid 90s, the good-natured Blair drew the line at being the focus of gay jokes.
“It was merciless and just plain mean”, he told the Mirror. “I didn’t mind for myself but my wife and family really hated it. I don’t understand why they had to be gay gags either. Yes, I’m very over-the-top and flamboyant but I always have been. I’m theatrical, darling!”
Stories about his vanity dogged him — the bouffant hair, the dapper dress sense and his legs — said to be insured for half a million pounds. He admitted he had taken four years off his age in his autobiography. But the chat show invites kept coming and there was no question of Blair disappearing into the sunset of retirement. Certainly not while the dance was still in him.
By the time the noughties arrived, Blair was drawn into reality shows like Channel Five’s The Farm, in 2005, the finale of Ricky Gervais’ Extras in 2007, and a one-off spot in Emmerdale. He recovered from prostate cancer in 2007 and toured the UK in both group and solo productions, including Tap & Chat With Lionel Blair, his virtual musical autobiography.
He could not resist appearing on Celebrity Big Brother in 2014, becoming the third house guest to be evicted. And perhaps in a final plea, in his own words – “to escape being Lionel Blair” — he revived his old thespian talents in a portrayal of an elderly actor suffering from Alzheimer’s in the BBC drama, Doctors.
Blair worked for various charities, including Stage for Age and Age UK. He is survived by Susan, their daughter Lucy, sons David and Matthew, and three grandchildren. His sister, Joyce, a noted performer in her own right, pre-deceased him in 2006.
Lionel Blair: born December 12, 1928. Died November 4, 2021
