Kendrew Lascelles(1935-2022)
- Writer
- Actor
Kendrew Lascelles was born in Gatley, Chester. At the age of three his father took the family to South Africa where his work moved them around until Kendrew's teenage years, which he spent in Durban. Kendrew moved from being class clown to a theatrical career in 1953 when he stepped in at Principal Dancer level for an Italian touring opera when their Principal broke his ankle. Kendrew considers that his first break. His second break came about eleven years later when an actress booked into the Intimate theatre broke her ankle and Kendrew was asked by Leon Gluckman to write a fill-in piece to save the theatre from going dark.
That piece was Wait a Minim - which was an international success and toured the world for seven years, including two at the Fortune Theatre in London and almost two years at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway. Gluckman produced and directed the anti-apartheid revue with the entire cast contributing to the production's development. At the end of the Minim tour Kendrew settled in California, continuing some performance but mainly focusing on writing. His notoriety and popularity from Minim held him in good stead and he was often a guest on the talk shows of the time.
The Smothers' Brothers so liked Minim they offered him a job as staff writer for their Summer Season and he stayed with them for a few years before moving to write for the Dean Martin Show and then Martin's Gold Diggers. Because of Kendrew's comic timing and performance background he was often used as the "other man" in their broadcast comedy sketches. One famous example with Peter Sellers, Julius "Nipsy" Russell and Dean Martin included Kendrew: The Midnight Cat Burglar.
Kendrew was a successful playwright and poet by now but still was called on by friends to make cameo appearances and to play some of his own characters onstage. As of mid 2015 Kendrew lives just outside Los Angeles, California, and is still writing with a tally of around four musicals, six stage plays, eight screenplays, five novels and various poems and lyrics, including some recorded by John Denver, Jack Lemmon, Peter Lawford and the band Chicago.
That piece was Wait a Minim - which was an international success and toured the world for seven years, including two at the Fortune Theatre in London and almost two years at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway. Gluckman produced and directed the anti-apartheid revue with the entire cast contributing to the production's development. At the end of the Minim tour Kendrew settled in California, continuing some performance but mainly focusing on writing. His notoriety and popularity from Minim held him in good stead and he was often a guest on the talk shows of the time.
The Smothers' Brothers so liked Minim they offered him a job as staff writer for their Summer Season and he stayed with them for a few years before moving to write for the Dean Martin Show and then Martin's Gold Diggers. Because of Kendrew's comic timing and performance background he was often used as the "other man" in their broadcast comedy sketches. One famous example with Peter Sellers, Julius "Nipsy" Russell and Dean Martin included Kendrew: The Midnight Cat Burglar.
Kendrew was a successful playwright and poet by now but still was called on by friends to make cameo appearances and to play some of his own characters onstage. As of mid 2015 Kendrew lives just outside Los Angeles, California, and is still writing with a tally of around four musicals, six stage plays, eight screenplays, five novels and various poems and lyrics, including some recorded by John Denver, Jack Lemmon, Peter Lawford and the band Chicago.
