Comedians: From the 1940s to now
Past display archive
17 September 2011 - 8 January 2012
Room 37 and 37a
Free
Benny Hill
by Bob Collins
1958
NPG x35152
Photographers represented include Bob Collins who documented the rise of radio and television performers in the 1950s, Lewis Morley, photographer of the satire boom, and Trevor Leighton whose photographic survey of British comedians, The Jokers (1999), was first displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in 2000.
On display are several recent contemporary acquisitions including portraits of Mitchell and Webb by Barry Marsden, Omid Djalili by Karen Robinson, Matt Lucas by Nadav Kander and Johnny Vegas by Karl J. Kaul – a comedic tribute to Annie Leibovitz’s iconic Vanity Fair cover.
Comedians: From the 1940s to Now began in 2009 as a partnership project between the National Portrait Gallery and Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, Museums Sheffield and Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery.
A programme of events accompanies this display. Please see our events calendar https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/events-calendar.php or What’s On leaflet for full details.
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© National Portrait Gallery, London
Related resources
Related portraits
- Spike Milligan (NPG P907)
- Eric Morecambe; Ernie Wise (NPG P150(42))
- John Cleese (NPG P622)
- (Florence) Elsie Waters; Doris Ethel Waters (NPG x88158)
- Sid Field (NPG x75964)
- The Crazy Gang (Bud Flanagan; Jimmy Nervo; Teddy Knox; Charlie Naughton; Jimmy Gold) (NPG x27531)
- Kenneth Williams (NPG x76113)
- Benny Hill (NPG x35152)
- Sid James; Tony Hancock (NPG x45334)
- 'The Establishment' cast (John Fortune; Eleanor Bron; John Bird; Jeremy Geidt) (NPG x125249)
- Norman Wisdom as Norman Puckle in 'The Bulldog Breed' (NPG x34612)
- Beyond the Fringe (Jonathan Miller; Peter Cook; Dudley Moore; Alan Bennett) (NPG x38939)
- Kenneth Horne (NPG x87822)
- Frankie Howerd (NPG x135385)
- The Goons (Peter Sellers; Spike Milligan; Sir Harry Donald Secombe) (NPG x88639)
- Peter Cook; Dudley Moore (NPG x76922)
- Eric Sykes (NPG x87790)
- Ken Dodd (NPG x88954)
- Les Dawson (NPG x87637)
- Tommy Cooper (NPG x128497)
- Monty Python group (John Cleese; Terry Gilliam; Graham Chapman; Eric Idle; Michael Palin; Terry Jones) (NPG x45078)
- Billy Connolly (NPG x87594)
- Alexei Sayle (NPG x31074)
- Dame Julie Walters (NPG x27869)
- Stephen Fry (NPG x34602)
- Rowan Atkinson (NPG x36488)
- Lenny Henry (NPG x32735)
- Jennifer Saunders; Dawn French (NPG x47380)
- Rik Mayall (NPG x36225)
- Jenny Eclair (NPG x87706)
- Paul Merton (NPG x47390)
- Victoria Wood (NPG x88397)
- Jack Dee (NPG x76764)
- Joanna Lumley; Jennifer Saunders as Edina and Patsy in 'Absolutely Fabulous' (NPG x125837)
- Charlie Higson; Paul Whitehouse (NPG x88393)
- David Baddiel; Frank Skinner (NPG x87552)
- Julian Clary (NPG x87779)
- Bob Mortimer (NPG x88400)
- Harry Enfield (NPG x88383)
- Michael Hamburger (NPG x88368)
- Ricky Gervais (NPG x125840)
- Meera Syal (NPG x126122)
- Paul O'Grady as Lily Savage (NPG x135364)
- Omid Djalili (NPG x135362)
- Shazia Mirza (NPG x131275)
- Russell Brand (NPG x131761)
- Catherine Tate (NPG x133050)
- Jimmy Carr (NPG x135324)
- Johnny Vegas as Demi Moore (NPG x135373)
- Simon Pegg (NPG x132098)
- Bill Bailey (NPG x133115)
- Jo Brand (NPG x133170)
- Matt Lucas (NPG x133353)
- David Mitchell; Robert Webb (NPG x135323)
- Rob Brydon; Steve Coogan (NPG x134835)
- Peter Sellers (NPG x22474)
Related sitters
- Rowan Sebastian Atkinson
- David Baddiel
- Alan Bennett
- John Bird
- Jo Brand
- Russell Brand
- Eleanor Bron
- Jimmy Carr
- Graham Chapman
- Julian Peter McDonald Clary
- John Cleese
- Peter Edward Cook
- Thomas Frederick ('Tommy') Cooper
- Les Dawson
- Jack Dee
- Omid Djalili
- Sir Kenneth Arthur ('Ken') Dodd
- Jenny Eclair
- Harry Enfield
- Sid Field
- Bud Flanagan (Reuben Weintrop)
- John Fortune
- Dawn French
- Stephen John Fry
- Jeremy Geidt
- Ricky Dene Gervais
- Terrence Vance ('Terry') Gilliam
- Jimmy Gold
- Anthony John ('Tony') Hancock
- Sir Lenworth George ('Lenny') Henry
- Charles ('Charlie') Higson
- Benny Hill
- (Charles) Kenneth Horne
- Frankie Howerd (Francis Alex Howard)
- Eric Idle
- Sid James
- Terry Jones
- Teddy Knox
- Matthew Richard ('Matt') Lucas
- Joanna Lumley
- Barry Marsden
- Richard Michael ('Rik') Mayall
- Paul Merton
- Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller
- Terence Allan ('Spike') Milligan
- Shazia Mirza
- David Mitchell
- Dudley Stuart Moore
- Eric Morecambe (Eric Bartholomew)
- Robert ('Bob') Mortimer
- Charlie Naughton
- James ('Jimmy') Nervo
- Paul O'Grady
- Michael Edward Palin
- Simon John Pegg (né Beckingham)
- Vic Reeves (Jim Moir)
- Jennifer Saunders
- Alexei David Sayle
- Sir Harry Donald Secombe
- Richard Henry ('Peter') Sellers
- Frank Skinner (Christopher Graham Collins)
- Meera Syal
- Eric Sykes
- Johnny Vegas (Michael Joseph Pennington)
- Dame Julie Walters
- Doris Ethel Waters
- (Florence) Elsie Waters
- Robert Webb
- Paul Whitehouse
- Kenneth Williams
- Sir Norman Wisdom
- Ernie Wise (Ernest Wiseman)
- Victoria Wood
Related artists
- David Appleby
- Godfrey Argent
- Cecil Beaton
- Jason Bell
- Bill Brandt
- Anthony Buckley
- Albert Clarke
- Bob Collins
- Sir William ('Billy') Connolly
- James Eckersley
- Jillian Edelstein
- Francis Goodman
- Nadav Kander
- Karl J. Kaul
- Annie Leibovitz
- Trevor Leighton
- Thomas Patrick John Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield
- Angus McBean
- Wolf Marloh
- Barry Marsden
- Paul Massey
- Lewis Morley
- Alistair Morrison
- Arnold Newman
- Sukey Parnell
- Spiros Politis
- Karen Robinson
- Steve Speller
- Philip Townsend
- Michael Ward
- Eric Watson
- Bryan Wharton