Graham Stark
Graham William Stark (20 January 1922 – 29 October 2013) was an English comedian, actor, writer and director.
Early life
The son of a purser on transatlantic liners, Stark was born in New Brighton (part of Wallasey) on the Wirral, England. He attended Wallasey Grammar School and made his professional stage debut aged 13 in pantomime at the Lyceum Theatre in London.
During the Second World War he served in the Royal Air Force, but did not fly as he was colour blind. While in the RAF, he first met Dick Emery, Tony Hancock and Peter Sellers, the latter two as fellow members of Ralph Reader's Gang Shows. Sellers would become a long-lasting close friend. With the Gang Shows, Stark toured the locations where military personnel were seeing active service. After the war he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and joined the regulars at Grafton's, a pub in Victoria run by Jimmy Grafton, a venue at which soon-to-be-prominent entertainers of the next few decades regularly gathered.
