Les Dennis
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| Les Dennis | |
 Les Dennis
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| Born | October 12, 1954 Liverpool, Merseyside, England |
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| Occupation | Television presenter, Actor |
| Spouse | Amanda Holden (1995 - 2003 Claire Nicholson (Engaged). |
| Children | Philip Dennis and Eleanor Grace |
Les Dennis (born Leslie Dennis Heseltine on October 12, 1954 in Liverpool, Merseyside) is an English television presenter and actor. Dennis married actress Amanda Holden in 1995, but they divorced eight years later.
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[edit] Early life
He was born and brought up in Liverpool where his father managed a betting shop and his mother worked in a factory. He had a saturday job in a DIY store whilst still at school and started in entertainment as a stand-up comedian in working men's clubs.
[edit] Career
As a comedian in the 1980s Dennis has appeared on numerous light-entertainment shows and worked originally as a stooge to Russ Abbot on Russ Abbot's Madhouse and The Russ Abbot Show before forming a comedy partnership with fellow impressionist Dustin Gee. Following Gee's death in 1986, he was the host of Family Fortunes, a fifteen year run from 1987 to 2002.
His theatre work includes Amos Hart in Chicago, Bill Snibson in Me and My Girl in the West End. He has starred in Skylight at the Water Mill Theatre, Newbury; Mr Wonderful at the Chester Gateway Theatre, Misery at Oldham Coliseum Theatre; toured in the play Just Between Ourselves and appeared with Janet Suzman in Cherished Disappointments In Love at London's Soho Theatre. He starred with Christopher Cazenove and John Duttine in a national tour of Art and as Norman Bartholomew in Anthony Shaffer's dark comedy Murderer at London's Menier Chocolate Factory. He recently starred in a hit season in Neville's Island at Birmingham Repertory Theatre. He has also made an appearance on two episodes of Bang Bang, It's Reeves and Mortimer in The Club sketch, where he played himself.
His big screen debut was in the film Intimate Relations with Julie Walters, Rupert Graves and Laura Sadler and he appeared in the comedy feature film Large and in Wildlife, a short directed by Nick Allsop.
He has also acted in soap operas Brookside, Merseybeat, Casualty and the short-lived revival of Crossroads. Dennis appeared in the second series of the UK Celebrity Big Brother during the period that his marriage to Amanda Holden was collapsing.
On August 11, 2005 Dennis appeared as a guest star in the BBC-series Extras starring Ricky Gervais. In this appearance, Dennis played himself and made several jokes about his career, or the lack thereof. On the DVD, creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant say that Dennis added real details about his career that the writers didn't know about and made him look even worse. In September and October 2005 he appeared in Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon, in which he appeared at the winners' homes to present the prizes they had won.
In early 2006, Dennis presented and performed in BBC One's The Sound of Musicals and guested in New Street Law on BBC One.
In Summer 2006 he played scriptwriter Nick Chase in a new comedy play called Marlon Brando's Corset, which toured the UK from July 2006, including a month-long run at the Edinburgh Fringe.
He appeared as a guest in August 2006 on the ITV drama series, The Bill starring as a man suspected of murdering his father. Dennis appeared alongside fellow former Russ Abbot performer Lisa Maxwell, who plays D.I. Samantha Nixon in the series.
At the 2006 Edinburgh International Television Festival, it was announced Les would make a return to the gameshow genre, presenting a new big-money quiz show titled In the Grid for Five TV. The show debuted on October 30, 2006. From April 2007 he also hosted UKTV Gold's TV Now and Then quiz show. The same month he guested on BBC One's Holby City. He appeared on The Friday Night Project as a panelist on "Who knows the most about the guest host?" when Rupert Everett guest hosted. In theatre Les guest-starred as narrator in Side by Side by Sondheim at the Venue, London. As one of the team, he completed running the Safaricom Marathon in Lewa to raise funds for the BBC Wildlife Fund, screened on BBC One's Saving Planet Earth in July.
In August 2007 he starred in the hit play Certified Male- about the highs and lows of modern manhood - at the Edinburgh Festival. He then toured in The Servant of Two Masters, directed by Michael Bogdanov and at Christmas he co-starred in the pantomime Cinderella with Hollywood veteran Mickey Rooney at the Sunderland Empire Theatre.
Les Dennis's autobiography is published by Orion in Spring 2008.
He is engaged to Claire Nicholson, with whom he has a daughter, Eleanor Grace, who was born on 24 April 2008.[1] He also has a son, Phillip, by his first wife Lynn, who is 26 years older than his sister. from 2008 Les Dennis has his new programmme coming soon to Challenge Les Dennis's Home Video Heroes
[edit] External links
[edit] References
| Preceded by Max Bygraves |
Host of Family Fortunes 1987–2002 |
Succeeded by Andy Collins |
