Showbiz legend Johnny dies at 93
Stars pay tribute to Scots comedy hero
ENTERTAINMENT legend Johnny Beattie MBE has died at the age of 93. The much-loved comedian and actor, whose illustrious career spanned seven decades, passed away peacefully after a period of ill health. He most recently played River City’s loveable pensioner Malcolm Henderson before leaving the
JOHNNY Beattie was one of the pillars of Scottish entertainment.
He and fellow Glaswegians Rikki Fulton, Jack Milroy, Jimmy Logan and Stanley Baxter were the blueprint of post-war Scottish comedy. Now, only Stanley remains.
What set them apart was their ability to turn their hand at anything.
In his incredible 63-year career, Johnny was a stand-up, film and TV actor, presenter, panto dame, soap star and even a rapper.
With his passing yesterday at 93, the door has closed on a group of working-class Scots who had entertainment in their blood.
As Johnny was fond of saying: “Jack Milroy used to say when I opened the fridge door and the light came on, I’d do a 40-minute set.”
He just couldn’t help it. When you spoke to Johnny, he’d sing you a song. He was a naturalborn storyteller who lit up a room and whose eyes twinkled when he made you laugh.
In this day and age of reality TV, youngsters wear bikinis or do TikTok dances for likes to become famous. For Johnny, it was just something he was born to do.
From Govan, Johnny’s life seemed to be mapped out early.
Born in 1926, he left school at 16 to work as an electrician at the Fairfield Shipyard.
Like thousands of others, he was called up for national service at the end of World War II and at 18, as a Royal Marine, was sent to Singapore.
Even then, Johnny saw the funny side. His first duty was to guard a jungle camp.
He said: “I had to guard the main gate, which was pretty pointless as there was no fence around the rest of the camp.
“I then heard a rustle in the bush, pointed my gun and shouted, ‘Who goes there?’ It turned out to be a local riding an elephant.
“I told him to halt but he just ignored me and plodded on. I let him go – well, they hadn’t told me how to stop an elephant.”
Back in Glasgow, his life changed in the University Cafe on Byres Road in 1951 when he was asked to join an am-dram outfit. He said: “I was an ex-Royal Marine and a Govan boy and I didn’t think acting was for me at all.
“But I went along because I fancied the lassies.”
During the tours of Robert Wilson, Scotland’s top tenor at the time, he found his forte was in stand-up and writing comedy.
Wilson offered him a job in a Broxburn club, which stretched to a six-month contract.
Johnny said: “I became a professional in 1952 after I got offered six months of work touring. There wasn’t a theatre in Scotland I didn’t play.”
Like the other Glaswegians who would become household names in the 60s and 70s, Johnny
was part of a new generation of Scottish variety acts making their names after the war.
He toured the world playing venues in America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand with Kenneth McKellar. In one week, he played the Manhattan Centre in New York on the Monday and by the Saturday was back in Scotland playing the miners’ club in Cowdenbeath.
He wrote and starred in his own BBC One TV sketch show, Johnny Beattie’s Saturday Night Show, which included his alter ego Glaikit O’Toole and ran from 1964 to 1970.
Another TV favourite was STV’s A Ground Tour in 1974 which saw him, Rikki, Jack, Stanley, Billy Connolly and Taggart’s Mark McManus going round the country doing useless tasks. Johnny teamed up with his pal Rikki again on the latter’s Scotch & Wry. In one sketch, Glaikit O’Toole meets Rikki’s Supercop.
In the 80s, Johnny became the original host of Scottish Television gameshow Now You See It.
He also claimed, lightheartedly, to be Scotland’s first rapper when he took The Glasgow Rap into the charts. It included the immortal line: “Who needs to go to New York State/When you can rap in the Gallowgate.”
He kept up his TV profile in the