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Max Wall
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Max Wall
Maxwell George Lorimer (12 March 1908 – 21 May 1990), known professionally as Max Wall, was an English actor and comedian whose performing career covered music hall, films, television and theatre.
Wall was born Maxwell George Lorimer, son of the successful music hall entertainer Jack (Jock) Lorimer, a Scottish comedy actor from Forfar, known for his songs and dancing, and his wife Stella (born Maud Clara Mitchison). He was born near the Oval, at 37 Glenshaw Mansions, Brixton Road, Lambeth, London SW9.[citation needed] In 1916, during a World War I air raid, Max and his elder brother Alex were saved from death by a cast-iron bed frame, but his younger brother Bunty and their Aunt Betty, who was looking after them, were killed by a bomb dropped from a German Zeppelin which also destroyed their house.
Max and Alex went to live with their father and his family, whilst their mother went to live with Harry Wallace, whom she had met on tour. When their father died of tuberculosis in 1920, aged 37, their mother married Harry Wallace, and they all moved to a pub in Essex.
Wall auditioned for a part with a touring theatre company, and made his stage début at the age of 14 as Jack in Mother Goose with a travelling pantomime company in Devon and Cornwall featuring George Lacey. In 1925 he was a speciality dancer in the London Revue at the Lyceum. He became determined not to rely on his father's name, so he abbreviated Maxwell to Max, and his stepfather's name Wallace, to Wall.
He is best remembered for his ludicrously attired and hilariously strutting Professor Wallofski. John Cleese has acknowledged Wall's influence on his own "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch for Monty Python's Flying Circus. After appearing in many musicals and stage comedies in the 1930s, Wall's career went into decline, and he was reduced to working in obscure nightclubs. He then joined the Royal Air Force during World War II and served for three years until he was invalided out in 1943.
Wall married dancer Marion Pola, and the couple had five children. In an interview with the family in the mid-1950s, Tit-Bits magazine wrote
The kind of private jokes you find in all the nicest families flourish with the Walls. After Max and his wife, Marion, had their first son, Michael, it seemed kind of natural to make a corner in names beginning with 'M', and there are now Melvyn (aged nine), Martin (nearly five) and the four-month-old twins Meredith and Maxine. ... In the same way, because the Walls, like other couples married during the war, were eventually thrilled when they found a house with four walls of their own, they decided to call it just that, only Martin arrived and made it 'Five Walls'.
In a rare outing to the musical stage he played Hines in the original London production of The Pajama Game, which opened at the London Coliseum in October 1955 and ran for 588 performances. In that year he began an affair with Jennifer Chimes, the 1955 Miss Great Britain. He divorced his wife and married Chimes in 1956. The relationship attracted widespread press condemnation. In 1957 Wall experienced mental health issues that affected his work. Chimes and Wall divorced in 1962.
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Max Wall
Maxwell George Lorimer (12 March 1908 – 21 May 1990), known professionally as Max Wall, was an English actor and comedian whose performing career covered music hall, films, television and theatre.
Wall was born Maxwell George Lorimer, son of the successful music hall entertainer Jack (Jock) Lorimer, a Scottish comedy actor from Forfar, known for his songs and dancing, and his wife Stella (born Maud Clara Mitchison). He was born near the Oval, at 37 Glenshaw Mansions, Brixton Road, Lambeth, London SW9.[citation needed] In 1916, during a World War I air raid, Max and his elder brother Alex were saved from death by a cast-iron bed frame, but his younger brother Bunty and their Aunt Betty, who was looking after them, were killed by a bomb dropped from a German Zeppelin which also destroyed their house.
Max and Alex went to live with their father and his family, whilst their mother went to live with Harry Wallace, whom she had met on tour. When their father died of tuberculosis in 1920, aged 37, their mother married Harry Wallace, and they all moved to a pub in Essex.
Wall auditioned for a part with a touring theatre company, and made his stage début at the age of 14 as Jack in Mother Goose with a travelling pantomime company in Devon and Cornwall featuring George Lacey. In 1925 he was a speciality dancer in the London Revue at the Lyceum. He became determined not to rely on his father's name, so he abbreviated Maxwell to Max, and his stepfather's name Wallace, to Wall.
He is best remembered for his ludicrously attired and hilariously strutting Professor Wallofski. John Cleese has acknowledged Wall's influence on his own "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch for Monty Python's Flying Circus. After appearing in many musicals and stage comedies in the 1930s, Wall's career went into decline, and he was reduced to working in obscure nightclubs. He then joined the Royal Air Force during World War II and served for three years until he was invalided out in 1943.
Wall married dancer Marion Pola, and the couple had five children. In an interview with the family in the mid-1950s, Tit-Bits magazine wrote
The kind of private jokes you find in all the nicest families flourish with the Walls. After Max and his wife, Marion, had their first son, Michael, it seemed kind of natural to make a corner in names beginning with 'M', and there are now Melvyn (aged nine), Martin (nearly five) and the four-month-old twins Meredith and Maxine. ... In the same way, because the Walls, like other couples married during the war, were eventually thrilled when they found a house with four walls of their own, they decided to call it just that, only Martin arrived and made it 'Five Walls'.
In a rare outing to the musical stage he played Hines in the original London production of The Pajama Game, which opened at the London Coliseum in October 1955 and ran for 588 performances. In that year he began an affair with Jennifer Chimes, the 1955 Miss Great Britain. He divorced his wife and married Chimes in 1956. The relationship attracted widespread press condemnation. In 1957 Wall experienced mental health issues that affected his work. Chimes and Wall divorced in 1962.