Will Hay Video | Celebrity Interview and Paparazzi

William Thomson "Will" Hay (6 December 1888 – 18 April 1949) was an English comedian, actor, film director and amateur astronomer. He was born in Stockton-on-Tees, in north east England, to William R. Hay and his wife Elizabeth, but moved to Suffolk at an early age. Hay was educated at Gardner Street Higher Grade School in Pendleton, a suburb of Salford — then in Lancashire, but now within Greater Manchester. Hay was trained as an engineer and joined a firm of engineers, but at the age of 21 he gave up that profession for the stage. Starting in Manchester as a juggler, self-taught... MORE

William Thomson "Will" Hay (6 December 1888 – 18 April 1949) was an English comedian, actor, film director and amateur astronomer. He was born in Stockton-on-Tees, in north east England, to William R. Hay and his wife Elizabeth, but moved to Suffolk at an early age. Hay was educated at Gardner Street Higher Grade School in Pendleton, a suburb of Salford — then in Lancashire, but now within Greater Manchester. Hay was trained as an engineer and joined a firm of engineers, but at the age of 21 he gave up that profession for the stage. Starting in Manchester as a juggler, self-taught after seeing W C Fields doing it in a film, later he took up acting. He had a relatively brief screen career: by the time he made his first film he was in his mid-40s and an established music hall artist, and his last role came less than a decade later. But between 1934 and 1943 he was a prolific and popular film comedian. He was credited on several films as a writer or co-ordinator, and was arguably the dominant "author" of all the films in which he appeared, in that they were built around his persona and depended on the character and routines he had developed over years on the stage. He worked at the LESS