William George Rushton (18 August 1937 – 11 December 1996) was an English cartoonist, comedian, actor and satirist who co-founded the satirical magazine Private Eye.
Rushton was born 18 August 1937 at 3 Wilbraham Place, Chelsea, London, the only child of publisher John Atherton Rushton (1908–1958) and his Welsh wife Veronica (née James, 1910–1977). He was educated at Shrewsbury School, where he was not particularly successful academically but met his future Private Eye colleagues Richard Ingrams, Paul Foot and Christopher Booker. He also contributed to the satirical magazine The Wallopian (a play on the school magazine name The Salopian), mocking school spirit, traditions and the masters. Later, he said he recalled little of his schooldays, except that "it was Blandings country. The sort of place where you go to die, not to be educated."
After school, Rushton had to undertake two years of national service in the Army, where he failed officer selection. He later commented, "The Army is, God bless it, one of the funniest institutions on earth and also a sort of microcosm of the world. It's split almost perfectly into our class system. Through serving in the ranks I discovered the basic wit of my fellow man – whom basically, to tell the truth, I'd never met before." On leaving the army, he worked in a solicitor's office for a short period.
Private Eye and the satire boom
Rushton remained in contact with his friends from Shrewsbury School, who had added John Wells to their number and were now running their own humour magazines at Oxford University, Parsons Pleasure and Mesopotamia, to which Rushton made many contributions during his frequent visits to meet them. A cartoon of a giraffe in a bar saying "The high balls are on me" was not met with approval by everyone in the university administrative quarters. Rushton suggested that Mesopotamia could continue after they left university. During his time as a clerk he had been sending his cartoons out to Punch but none had been accepted. After being knocked over by a bus, he gave up his job as a clerk, determined not to waste another day.
After almost but not quite being accepted by Tribune (a Labour-supporting newspaper edited by Michael Foot, Paul Foot's uncle), Rushton found a place at the Liberal News, which was also employing Christopher Booker as a journalist. From June 1960 until March 1961, he contributed a weekly strip, "Brimstone Belcher", following the exploits of the titular journalist (a forerunner of Private Eye's Lunchtime O'Booze), from bizarre skulduggery in the British colonies (where the soldiers holding back the politicised rabble bear a strong resemblance to privates Rushton and Ingrams), travelogues through the US, and the hazards of by-electioneering as the independent candidate for the constituency of Gumboot North. After the strip folded, Rushton still contributed a weekly political cartoon to the Liberal News until mid-1962.
The Salopians finally found a financier for their magazine and the first issue of Private Eye was published on 25 October 1961. Rushton created the magazine in his bedroom in Scarsdale Villas using Letraset and cow-gumming illustrations onto cards which were taken away to be photo-lithographed. He also contributed all the illustrations and the mast-head figure of Little Gnitty (who still appears on the cover, a blended caricature of John Wells and the Daily Express standard-head). One critic described the original lay-out of the magazine as owing much to "Neo-Brechtian Nihilism", although Rushton thought it resembled a betting shop floor. One feature in the early issues was the "Aesop Revisited", a full-page comic strip which let him work in a wealth of puns and background jokes.
With Private Eye riding the satire boom, Peter Cook soon took an interest and contributed two serials recounting the bizarre adventures of Sir Basil Nardly-Stoads and the Rhandi Phurr, both of which were illustrated by Rushton, as was "Mrs Wilson's Diary". In the early days the team also worked on two books, Private Eye on London and Private Eye's Romantic England that made heavy use of Rushton's cartooning talents. One of the first Private Eye-published books was Rushton's first collection of cartoons, Willie Rushton's Dirty Weekend Book, which was subsequently banned in Ireland on the grounds of its explicitness.
Reuniting with his Salopian friends had also reawakened Rushton's taste for acting. After they had finished university, he had accompanied his friends in a well-received revue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. (Richard Burton even appeared one night in their parody of John Osborne's play Luther.) In 1961, Richard Ingrams directed a production of Spike Milligan's surreal post-nuclear apocalypse farce The Bed-Sitting Room, in which Rushton was hailed by Kenneth Tynan as "brilliant", but it was a cabaret at the Room at the Top, a chicken-in-a-basket nightclub at the top of a department store in Ilford, that really launched his career. Rushton recalled meeting the Kray twins in the audience one night and that fellow performer Barbara Windsor "wouldn't come out for a drink that night". The revue also starred John Wells.
Rushton's impersonation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan caught the attention of Ned Sherrin, a young BBC producer searching for talent to appear in a forthcoming TV satire series. That Was the Week That Was (aka "TW3") ran from November 1962 until December 1963. It drew audiences of up to 13 million, making stars of its cast, particularly David Frost. Rushton became known for his impersonation of the Prime Minister, a daring novelty in those respectful days. "It's the only impersonation that people have ever actually recognised – so I'm very grateful to the old bugger ... But then I had voted for him, so he owed me something." Rushton also appeared on the original flexi-discs of skits, squibs and invective that Private Eye gave away, having success with two self-penned songs: "Neasden" and the "Bum Song". He also wrote songs for TW3, many of which were revisited on later solo albums like Now in Bottles and The Complete Works.
In the autumn of 1963, a health scare led Macmillan to resign and Alec Douglas-Home became prime minister. It was necessary that Douglas-Home resign his peerage to find a safe Parliamentary seat. The Private Eye team were so disgusted by the Conservative Party's machinations that they decided to stand their own protest candidate in the Kinross and Western Perthshire by-election. Since he was the most well-known member of the team, Rushton was the obvious choice to stand. Rushton gained much attention from journalists, since he stood under the slogan "Death to the Tories". He polled only 45 votes, having advised his supporters at the last minute to vote Liberal, the Conservatives' only credible challenger. Douglas-Home won.
Rushton described his political beliefs as being "left of Limbo" stating that he had always voted for Labour because he felt their attitude to life was "more generous than anyone else's" but would happily take potshots at anyone who said something silly.
When TW3 was cancelled in anticipation of the 1964 election, Rushton and some of the cast, as well as some of the members of the Cambridge University revue Cambridge Circus (including future Goodies Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie), went on tour in America as David Frost Presents TW3. Rushton and Barry Fantoni (another Private Eye contributor) entered a painting titled Nude Reclining, a satirical portrait of three establishment types, for the 1963 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition under the name of Stuart Harris, which excited much controversy. He also began a career as a character actor for films in 1963. In late 1964 Rushton was involved as one of the hosts in the early episodes of another satirical programme, Not So Much a Programme, but drifted away as it became the vehicle that launched David Frost as a chat show host. In 1964 he appeared as Richard Burbage in Sherrin and Caryl Brahms' musical of No Bed for Bacon, while his early stature as a personality was confirmed by a cartoon advert he devised for the Brewers' Society proclaiming the charms of the local pub. Rushton performed his own host duties for New Stars and Garters, a variety entertainment show in 1965, where he first met Arlene Dorgan. He also appeared as a guest in programmes including Not Only... But Also with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.