In March 1952 he was admitted to hospital in Kettering after two weeks of hiccuping. [3] He still made sporadic cinema film appearances in minor parts, the last being in the 1963 film 80,000 Suspects, directed by Val Guest, who was a writer of many of the films that Moffatt starred in with Will Hay and Moore Marriott. [4] Personal life and death [ edit ] a b c d e f g h i j k "Will Hay – Master of Comedy". YouTube. BBC Radio 4. 2 June 1976 . Retrieved 10 May 2017.

In his later years, Marriott kept a grocer's store in Bognor Regis, and it is where he died on 11 December 1949; only eight months after the death of his comedy partner Will Hay. Cause of death was cardiac syncope, acute pulmonary oedema and chronic myocardiac degeneration caused by earlier pneumonia. He outlived his mother and his father by merely three years and nine years respectively. [3] He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, where his ashes were also interred. a b c d e "The Essay, British Film Comedians: Will Hay". BBC Radio 3. 13 April 2015 . Retrieved 9 May 2017. Hay decided to become an actor when he was 21 after watching W. C. Fields perform a juggling act in Manchester. In the early years of the twentieth century Hay experienced some moderate success as a stand-up comedian and an after-dinner speaker. [5] Hay's first professional job came when he was offered a contract to perform at a theatre in Belper. [5] In 1914 Hay began working with the impresario Fred Karno who had previously helped Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin achieve success. He worked with Karno for four years. [5] He first performed his schoolmaster character in 1910 which he based upon a colleague of his sister, who was a teaching mistress. [4] The characterisation was initially performed in drag as a schoolmistress, but he transferred the character to a headmaster. [6] Graham Victor Harold Moffatt (6 December 1919 – 2 July 1965) was an English comedic character actor. He is best known for a number of films where he appeared with Will Hay and Moore Marriott as 'Albert': a plump cheekily insolent street-savvy youth. He made his last public appearance on Good Friday (15 April) 1949. Hay died at the age of 60 on 18 April 1949 after suffering a stroke at his flat in Chelsea, London. [1] His body was buried in Streatham Park Cemetery in London. [42] Those who were present at Hay's final appearance described him as showing no sign of illness, and said he had discussed his plans for the future. [5] Influences [ edit ]The film was produced by Gainsborough Pictures, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and released on 28 August, 1939. Turnbotham Round has no crime, something that becomes common knowledge after a radio programme is broadcast from the village. Upon hearing this broadcast, the top brass at Scotland Yard send word that if there is no crime there, then why employ policemen to police the village? Realising that their good lives are about to come to an end, inept coppers Dudfoot (Will Hay), Brown (Graham Moffatt) and Harbottle (Moore Marriott) set about making some arrests. What they hadn't bargained for was the uncovering of a smuggling ring and the unleashing of the phantom headless horseman. Hay, W.T. (1933). "The spot on Saturn". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 94: 85. Bibcode: 1933MNRAS..94...85H. doi: 10.1093/mnras/94.1.85 . Retrieved 11 May 2017. In June 1932 he joined the British Astronomical Association, in November of the same year he became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. [29] [30] He is noted for having discovered a Great White Spot on the planet Saturn in 1933. [31] [32]

a b Mobberley, Martin P.; Goward, Kenneth J. (April 2009). "Will Hay (1888-1949) and his telescopes". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 119 (2): 67–81. Bibcode: 2009JBAA..119...67M. Pathé, British. " 'Star' Turns Star Gazer Will Hay Discovers Spot On Saturn. 'School-Master Comedian' Tells How He Located White Blemish On Planet". www.britishpathe.com . Retrieved 9 June 2021. I founded the Will Hay Appreciation Society in 2009 when writing my university dissertation about Hay and his films. He was known to be a hypochondriac, and would often complain of illness to his colleagues when working. [6] PICTURES and PERSONALITIES". The Mercury. Hobart, Tas. 10 April 1937. p.5 National Library of Australia . Retrieved 27 April 2012.Will Hay was a comic genius, years ahead of his time and we believe that he deserves to be remembered. Colonel Stephens' New Locomotives". The Colonel Stephens Railway Museum, Tenterden, Kent . Retrieved 13 May 2011. The film critic Barry Norman included it among his 100 best films of all time, and fellow critic Derek Malcolm also included the film in his Century of Films, describing it as "perfectly representing a certain type of bumbling British humour", [10] despite being directed by a Parisian director.