More than just a glint in their father’s eye
NAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN. AHEAD OF FATHER’S DAY ON JUNE 20, MARION McMULLEN LOOKS AT SOME FAMOUS DADS
FATHERHOOD came late in life for Only Fools And Horses star Sir David Jason. He was 61 when he became a first-time dad to daughter Sophie in 2001 and named her after writer Roald Dahl’s young heroine Sophie, from The BFG.
David, who was the voice of the Big Friendly Giant in the 1989 animated version of the children’s story, was present for his daughter’s birth and remembered: “I put on the mask and gown and was admitted to the inner sanctum to watch as the doctors delivered a 9lb 60z girl – my Sophie Mae. She was handed to me and the room seemed suddenly very still and I had my first moments with my daughter.”
Debonair Hollywood star Cary Grant married five times, but only became a father once, in 1966, when he was 62 and his fourth wife, actress Dyan Cannon, gave birth to daughter Jennifer. The North By Northwest actor said before her arrival: “Being a father will make me more free than I have ever been. It will be a great experience. I can’t wait.”
Jennifer, who also turned to acting, later said: “When it comes to Father’s Day, I will remember my dad for both being there to nurture me and also for the times he gave me on my own to cultivate my own interests and to nurture my own spirit.”
Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne has been a real heavy metal dad. “A life of booze, drugs and unprotected sex is only going to f*** you up. I mean, look at me,” he once said.
The father-of five had two children from his first marriage and three with wife Sharon – Aimee, Kelly and Jack. Family life was put under the spotlight in hit reality TV show The Osbournes. The family have had their fair share of highs and lows but Jack, now 35, has said: “I think we are more functional than most families I know.”
Gavin & Stacey actor Larry Lamb was pictured with five-month-old son George in 1980. George, who has carved out his own career as a TV and radio presenter, worked with his famous father on 2018 television series Britain By Bike.
The pair sound almost identical and have the same mannerisms. The only difference is that George, at 6ft 5ins, is now taller than his dad.
George said of one childhood holiday: “I remember being in Scotland in the torrential rain and my dad and uncle trying to put on a brave face going ‘Nope, we are staying’. And me crying, saying ‘Please can we go home?’”
Singin’ In The Rain’s Gene Kelly was pictured giving his daughter Kerry a bottle feed during a break from filming in 1943. The dancing star had three children – Kerry, Bridget and Tom, with two of his three wives.
Movie tough guy Humphrey Bogart proved he had a soft centre when it came to being a dad. The actor had two children with his fourth wife actress Lauren Bacall – Stephen and Leslie.
Leslie was named after Britishborn Gone With The Wind actor Leslie Howard, who gave Bogart his big acting break in 1936 film The Petrified Forest and Stephen has written books about his Casablanca and Maltese Falcon star father and his family.
Charlton Heston’s two-monthold son Fraser joined his father on set to play baby Moses during the filming of director Cecil B DeMille’s film epic The Ten Commandments.
Heston once quipped: “It’s hard living up to Moses.”
Carry On actor Jim Dale had four children – three sons and a daughter from his first marriage. He welcomed baby girl Jane Belinda at a nursing home in London’s Holland Park in 1958.
Crackerjack and The Price Is Right host Leslie Crowther had five children – twins Liz and Lindsay, Caroline, Charlotte and Nicholas. Liz later turned to acting herself and said her father was always “incredibly supportive” of her career.
British comedian Tommy Cooper wore his trademark fez and brought along a prop snake to bring a smile to his baby daughter Vicky’s face in 1953 at his London flat in Russell Square. Tommy, also had a son called Thomas, and met his wife Gwen towards the end of the Second World War on a troop ship from Port Said where they had been staging shows for the armed forces.
Vicky recalled: “Dad had a list of jokes... he would sit at the dining table and he used to get me to go through the jokes and mark them, red, amber or green. He loved laughing. That’s all he wanted to do, make people laugh. He got such joy when people laughed.”