Tommy Steele

Thomas Hicks, born on 17 December 1936 in Bermondsey, London, is an English entertainer who performs professionally as Tommy Steele. His father, Thomas Walter Hicks, worked as a racing tipster, and his mother, Elizabeth Bennett, was a factory worker; the couple had married in Bermondsey in 1933. Steele attended Bacon's College in Rotherhithe, south London, and as a child was hospitalized for porphyria. His stage name derived from his full paternal family name, Still-Hicks, which he adapted into the professional identity he would carry to international fame. A diagnosis of cardiomyopathy rendered him ineligible for national service, and in 1952, at the age of fifteen, he joined the Merchant Navy, serving on the Cunard line.

While working as a merchant seaman, Steele taught himself guitar and performed country and calypso music, drawing particular inspiration from Hank Williams. During shore leave in the summer of 1956, he met writer Lionel Bart and actor Mike Pratt at a party in Soho, and the three began writing together and formed a loose band called the Cavemen. A performance at the 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho, backed by members of the Vipers Skiffle Group, was witnessed by photographer and publicity man John Kennedy, who secured Steele a recording deal with Decca within two weeks. His debut single, "Rock with the Caveman," reached number thirteen on the UK Singles Chart in November 1956, making it one of the first British rock and roll hits. His first television appearance followed in promotion of the single, on bandleader Jack Payne's BBC series Off the Record. A third single, "Singing the Blues," reached number one in January 1957, holding off a competing recording by Guy Mitchell for one week.

Steele's debut album, Tommy Steele Stage Show, was recorded at a London concert the night before his twentieth birthday and released in March 1957. His rise to fame was dramatized in the biographical film The Tommy Steele Story that same year, which featured twelve new songs written by Steele, Bart, and Pratt and expanded his repertoire to include ballads and calypso. The film's soundtrack became the first album by a British act to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart. The single "A Handful of Songs," a collaboration with Bart and Pratt, received the 1958 Ivor Novello Award for Most Outstanding Song of the Year, Musically and Lyrically. He topped the bill at the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium in November 1957 and performed at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC's Third Annual Festival of Dance Music in April of that year.

Steele continued recording and filming through 1958 and 1959. His second film, The Duke Wore Jeans, was released in March 1958, with its soundtrack also reaching the top of the UK Albums Chart. His first colour film, Tommy the Toreador, followed in 1959, producing the hit single "Little White Bull," which was released in aid of a children's cancer research unit and became a children's favourite. In May 1958, Steele was hospitalized after being mobbed by fans at a concert at Caird Hall in Dundee, sustaining injuries including a hurt right arm. Following that incident, he largely withdrew from concert performances and directed his focus increasingly toward theatre work.

In the 1960s, Steele transitioned away from rock and roll and established himself as an all-round entertainer. He originated the role of Kipps in Half a Sixpence in the West End before bringing the production to Broadway, where it opened in 1965. His performance earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical that year. He reprised the role of Kipps in the 1967 film adaptation of Half a Sixpence. That same year he appeared in The Happiest Millionaire, and in 1968 he appeared in Finian's Rainbow. He also starred as the lead in several West End productions of Singin' in the Rain.

Beyond performing, Steele has worked as an author and sculptor. In August 1959, he undertook a three-day concert visit to Moscow, where The Tommy Steele Story was screened at the Kremlin. He was knighted in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to entertainment and charity and was awarded the Freedom of the City of London in 2021.