Sid James established himself as a nationally recognized figure in British broadcasting in a groundbreaking radio comedy, Hancock's Half Hour in the mid- 1950s. But James was a ubiquitous supporting role actor. Appearing in more than 150 features during his career, he was best known as a regular character in some of the Carry On comedy films (1958-80). He acted in numerous stage comedies and starred in several television series. With the situation comedy, Bless This House (ITV, 1971-76), James secured his status as one of the most enduring figures of postwar British popular culture. Clever exploitation of a naturally heavily lined face to produce a variety of put-upon expressions endeared him to Carry On and television audiences alike. His "dirty" cackle of a laugh embodied a vein of "kiss-me-quick" bawdiness that runs deep in English humor.

     Christened Sidney Joel Cohen, Sid James was a South African-born Jew whose parents worked in the music hall business. James joined a South African regiment of the British Army in 1939 and soon became a producer in its entertainment unit. As such, he was typical of a generation of British performers and writers who learned their trade while in the armed forces. After the service, James arrived in London on Christmas day 1946, looking to make a start in acting. He landed his first film role nine days later. His grizzled face led to typecasting as minor gangsters in his early film appearances. His career success came when he transformed himself into a quintessential Londoner, an ordinary "bloke," who drew sympathy from his audience despite playing a rascal in many of his roles.

     His television credits include some dozen plays (including some drama) and several series. He made his television debut in 1948 in a two-part BBC drama, Kid Flanagan, as Sharkey Morrison and played the lead role of Billy Johnson in The Front Page (BBC) later the same year. In 1949 he played an American film director in a 30- minute play called Family Affairs (BBC). After significant supporting roles in films such as The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and The Titchfield Thunderbolt (1952), his repertoire began to develop from gangsters into characters who lived just this side of the law in the austere conditions of 1950s Britain. Although he was best known for his comic roles, James rarely turned down dramatic work. His next television appearance was in Another Part of the Forest (BBC, 1954), one of an acclaimed 20th-Century Theatre series.

     Spotted by two scriptwriters, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, James was cast as Tony Hancock's house­ mate in the BBC radio comedy Hancock's Half Hour. His ability as an actor to play off a lead was recognized by Hancock. When the show switched to television, Hancock insisted that all his supporting actors from the radio version be dropped except James. The 30-minute television show (1956-60) represented a defining moment in British situation comedy. The show developed huge audiences; BBC audience research estimates that 28 percent of the population watched at its peak. During this four-year period, James appeared as a pirate (Shanty Jack) in The Buccaneers (BBC, 1957) and played a character from the shadier side of London's Jewish community in a six-part series for ITV called East End, West End (1958). James's dependency on the Hancock connection was broken at the start of the I 960s, when he began to appear in a highly successful series of Carry On films (Carry On Constable was his first in 1960). These quickly made film farces provided regular, almost annual income for its troupe of actors. James became one of the best-loved stars, appearing in almost 20 films, usually playing a hen-pecked husband desperate for extramarital sex with younger women.

     James never worked with Hancock again, but he was immediately contracted by the BBC to star in a Galton and Simpson-scripted series called Citizen James (1960-62). In a series called It's a Deal (BBC, 1961 ), he played a working-class property dealer whose business partner was a Mayfair playboy (Den­nis Price). Mismatched in class, the two characters were essentially similar rogues underneath, who found themselves reluctantly dependent on one another. Throughout the I 960s, James's television work was based on characters and plots that employed variations on this theme. In Taxi! (BBC, 1963-64), he played a London cabby who gets involved in the day-to-day problems of his fares and his fellow drivers. The 12 50-minute episodes were an uneven mix of drama and comedy that did not prove successful in the audience ratings. In George and the Dragon (ITV, 1966-68), James played a chauffeur (George) to John Le Mesurier (Colonel Maynard). Both men are dominated by the overbearing housekeeper character (the Dragon), played by Peggy Mount. The comedy came from James's challenge to her control of their social superior and employer.  In Two in Clover (ITV, 1969-70) James played alongside Victor Spinetti in a series whose comic situation derived from the transplant­ing, mismatched pair from the city to the country.

With Bless This House, James secured his position as a television sitcom actor of national acclaim. It also signaled a change in emphasis from his early film and Carry On types to one that suited his maturing years. He played Sid Abbott, a long-suffering father-husband to his wife Jean (Diana Coupland) and their two children, Mike and Kate. The key to his success was his ability to deliver lines for comic effect and react to those around him. His lined face testified to a lot of laughter. While his characters typically gave in to their fate, his distinctive dirty cackle erased any lingering pathos. James died suddenly in 1976, on stage in a comedy called The Mating Game after the prerecorded Bless This House series had just completed its run.