Biography

Albert Frederick Modley (3 March 1901 – 23 February 1979) was an English variety entertainer and comedian. He was born in Liverpool, but moved to Ilkley in Yorkshire with his family as a child. His father, known as 'Professor Modley', ran a gymnasium, and gave exhibitions presenting strongmen such as Eugen Sandow.Albert Modley won amateur boxing and diving competitions as a youth, but did not follow his father's profession as a physical trainer. Instead, he began work as a delivery boy and then as a railway porter, entertaining in local pubs in his spare time. He made his stage debut at Morecambe, and his London debut in 1931. He started working in a double act with Harry Korris, until 1934.Wearing an oversized peaked cap, and described as "one of the finest Yorkshire dialect comedians", he appeared in a wide variety of revues, pantomimes, and summer shows. He sometimes performed as a one man band, with drums, xylophone, harmonica and trumpet. From 1940 he toured with his own show, "On with the Modley". From 1949, he became successful on BBC radio as the resident comedian and host on Variety Bandbox. In 1974, he acted in a television adaptation of Alan Bennett's Across the Bay.He died in Morecambe in 1979, at the age of 77.