The Two Ronnies star Ronnie Barker was a deeply private and shy man who rarely appeared in public as his authentic self. The revelation comes as Channel 5 broadcasts The Two Ronnies: The Lost Sketches this evening, revisiting material and musical numbers by Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett filmed for their 1986 series in Australia.
A Life Behind Characters
Ronnie Barker, who died aged 76 in 2005, seldom made public appearances, and when he did, it was almost invariably not as his genuine self. "I've always known I haven't a personality of my own," he once remarked, according to The Independent. "I have to be someone else to be happy. That's why I became an actor, I suppose."
Frequently concealing himself behind characters, he chose to obscure his true personality beneath a disguise or dialect. He shunned public recognition by penning scripts under the alias Gerald Wiley so his material would be assessed entirely on quality rather than his celebrity status.
Biographer's Insight
His biographer, Bob McCabe, told The Northern Echo of their encounters: "Eventually he relaxed and was very open, a very genial person to talk to."
"He is a very serious man on one level and he certainly took his work seriously. He is also quite a humble man and he is much more concerned about the work than the fame it would bring," McCabe added. "He is a very shy person on one level, and a very private person, so he is very happy to hide in the characters. He disguised himself very well in the characters, to the point where the Ronnie Barker you see on television is almost a character."
Career Regrets and Early Life
Having aspired to transition his career to cinema, Barker once disclosed to McCabe his greatest professional disappointment. A 2004 article quoted McCabe as saying: "The one regret about his career is that he never really got into movies. He always said he would have loved to have done that one great movie role and he is still quietly holding out for it."
Barker's working life did not commence in acting, as following his departure from school, he pursued training as an architect. However, feeling he was not talented enough, he abandoned the course after six months. He subsequently worked as a bank clerk at the Westminster Bank, pursuing amateur dramatics in his spare time.
For 18 months, while still employed at the bank, he undertook work as both an actor and stage manager. Eventually, he resigned from his position to pursue professional acting - a decision his father opposed.
Final Years
The star died from heart failure after declining to undergo heart valve replacement surgery, with his condition deteriorating swiftly following the recording of The Two Ronnies Christmas Sketchbook. He died at the Katherine House hospice in Adderbury, Oxfordshire. His wife Joy, a stage manager, was with him when he passed, and he is survived by three children, among them actress Charlotte Barker.
The Two Ronnies: The Lost Sketches is on Channel 5 on Saturday at 5.30pm.
