William Thomson Hay (6 December 1888 – 18 April 1949) was an English comedian best known for playing authority figures with comic failings in several films, most notably as a schoolmaster. His film Oh, Mr Porter! (1937), made by Gainsborough Pictures, is often cited as the supreme British-produced film-comedy, and in 1938 he was the third highest-grossing star in the UK. Many comedians have acknowledged him as a major influence. Hay was also a keen amateur astronomer.
Hay was born at 23 Durham Street in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, one of the five children (two sons and three daughters) of William Robert Hay (1859–1920) and his wife, Elizabeth (1859–1910) (née Ebden). The family moved to Lowestoft in Suffolk when he was less than a year old. By his late teens, Hay had become fluent in Italian, French and German and secured employment as an interpreter.
Will Hay decided to become an actor at the age of 21 after watching W. C. Fields perform a juggling act in Manchester. His first professional job came with a contract at a theatre in Belper, and in 1910 he first performed his schoolmaster character, which he based on a colleague of his sister (a teaching mistress). Initially played in drag as a schoolmistress, the character was later transferred to a headmaster. In the early years of the twentieth century, he experienced some moderate success as a stand-up comedian and an after-dinner speaker, and in 1914 he began working with the impresario Fred Karno—who had previously helped Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin achieve success—remaining with him for four years.
The schoolmaster sketch developed into a routine known as "The Fourth Form at St. Michael's", which Hay toured internationally, appearing in the United States, Canada, Australia and South Africa—where he taught himself to count to five in Afrikaans. His wife Gladys often played a schoolboy or the character Harbottle in his sketches. The Harbottle character—a dim-witted, nearly deaf old man who is still in school because of his backwardness—was one of the most appreciated in Hay's act. The character was later portrayed in Hay's films by Moore Marriott. In a 1976 interview, Val Guest, who was a screenwriter for many of Hay's films, recalled transposing Harbottle from school into other everyday situations. Hay famously performed the schoolmaster routine at the 1925 Royal Command Performance before King George V and Queen Mary.
Hay published a magazine piece entitled Philosophy of Laughter, in which he discussed the psychology of comedy. In the essay he rhetorically asks, "Why does every one of us laugh at seeing somebody else slapped in the face with a large piece of cold custard pie? Is it because we're all naturally cruel? Or is it because there's something inherently funny in custard pies? Or in faces? Or in throwing things? No, no, and no! The real reason why we laugh is because we are relieved. Because we are released from a sense of fear. Wherever we may happen to be – in the cinema, theatre, or music-hall – we tend to identify with the actors we are watching. So that when a custard pie is thrown we fear for a moment that it has been thrown at us. And then, immediately we realise that it hasn't hit us, we experience a feeling of relief, and we laugh".
From 1934 to 1943, he was a prolific film star in Britain and ranked as the third highest grossing star at the British box office in 1938, behind George Formby and Gracie Fields. He is widely regarded as one of the most prolific and influential British comedians of all time.
Hay worked with Gainsborough Pictures from 1935 to 1940, during which time he developed a partnership with Graham Moffatt, playing an insolent overweight schoolboy, and Moore Marriott as a toothless old man. Hay's 1937 film, with Moffatt and Marriott, Oh, Mr Porter! was described by The Times as "a comic masterpiece of the British cinema", while the writer Jimmy Perry cited the film as an influence on key character development for Dad's Army.
Hay often portrayed incompetent authority figures who attempt to conceal their incompetence but whose true traits are gradually exposed. As well as being incompetent, his characters are often immoral; for example, a clergyman involved in horse betting in Dandy Dick, a fraudster who lies about his career as a distinguished sea captain in Windbag the Sailor, and a prison warden, Dr Benjamin Twist, in Convict 99, who obtains his job under false pretences. He is often compared to W. C. Fields, who typically portrayed characters similar to those of Hay, being misanthropic, self-centered scoundrels who nevertheless remain sympathetic.
Hay had become interested in film making while touring in the United States in the 1920s, although, at the time he doubted he had a future in this field. Having returned to Britain, Hay started work at Elstree Studios in 1934 where he made three films, Those Were the Days, Radio Parade of 1935 and Dandy Dick.
Hay's work at Gainsborough was his most successful, and established his reputation as a great comic actor. During this period he became one of the most prolific film stars in Britain. On three occasions, British film exhibitors voted him among the top ten box office stars in an annual poll run by the Motion Picture Herald. He was ranked 8th in 1936, 4th in 1937 and 3rd in 1938. He particularly thrived under the studio management of Ted Black.
His first film for the studio was Boys Will Be Boys, with the screenplay written by Hay himself. The movie's satire on the public school system was loosely based on the Narkover vein of humour in the work of Daily Express columnist, Beachcomber. Hay's film was widely seen as subversive towards authority, and it was granted an 'A' (adult) certificate by the British Board of Film Classification. Boys Will Be Boys is widely regarded as Hay's break-out film. Writing for The Spectator, Graham Greene described the film as "very amusing", and Hay's portrayal of Dr Smart as "competent", though Greene thought Claude Dampier's portrayal of Second Master Finch (Hay's adversary) was the film's "finest performance". Many years later, the Radio Times Guide to Films gave Boys Will Be Boys three stars out of five, observing that the film contains "the blend of bluster and dishonesty that makes his films irresistible".
During his time with Gainsborough Hay worked with Marcel Varnel, Val Guest, Charles Hawtrey, and Marriott Edgar, as well as Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt, who were Hay's straight men in a number of his films. Moffatt played Albert, the overweight, insolent schoolboy reminiscent of Billy Bunter, while Marriott was the toothless old Harbottle. The trio appeared in six films together between 1936 and 1940, Windbag the Sailor, Oh, Mr Porter!, Convict 99, Old Bones of the River, Ask a Policeman and Where's That Fire?
Hay's 1937 film alongside Moffatt and Marriott, Oh, Mr Porter! is often considered as one of the greatest British comedy films of all time. The British Film Institute included the film in its 360 Classic Feature Films list; Variety magazine described the movie as "amusing, if over-long", noting that there was "no love interest to mar the comedy"; and the cult website TV Cream listed it at number 41 in its list of cinema's Top 100 Films. The director Marcel Varnel considered the film as among his best work, and it was described in 2006, by The Times in its obituary for writer Val Guest, as "a comic masterpiece of the British cinema". Jimmy Perry, in his autobiography, wrote that the comedy trio of Captain Mainwaring, Corporal Jones and Private Pike in Dad's Army was inspired by watching Oh, Mr Porter.
Both Moffatt and Marriott were absent from Hay's 1938 film, Hey! Hey! USA with American comedy actor Edgar Kennedy being cast as Hay's sidekick instead; the film was a (somewhat unsuccessful) attempt to break into the American market. In his Gainsborough films, Hay wore a wig, which made it appear as if he was balding.
Hay decided to break up the partnership with Moffatt and Marriott after their 1940 film Where's That Fire? due to his concern that their act was becoming repetitive. He was known to dislike working with the pair, describing their partnership as "a three legged stool". He had also expressed concern that Moore Marriott, who portrayed Harbottle, received a bigger reaction from audiences than he did. He had been seeking to break up their partnership in previous years, and it was only due to his film Hey! Hey! USA being somewhat unsuccessful that the writers and producers successfully talked him into bringing Moffatt and Marriott back.