 In Britain from 1946, Johannesburg-born former ladies' hairdresser Sidney James (real name Cohen) is now best remembered for the incurably lascivious persona he honed to such comic effect in the Carry On series, but in fact he had appeared in almost 80 films before appearing as Sergeant Frank Wilkins in the very funny Carry On Constable (1960).
He had played barmen, as in the notorious No Orchids for Miss Blandish (d. St.John Legh Clowes, 1948) and The Small Back Room (d. Powell & Pressburger, 1948), as Knucksie, taxi drivers (Father's Doing Fine, d. Henry Cass, 1952), cops (Cosh Boy, d. Lewis Gilbert, 1953) and a deeply incompetent crook in The Lavender Hill Mob (d. Charles Crichton, 1951), and even a country gent in The Man in Black (d. Francis Searle, 1949). He also famously played Tony Hancock's sidekick in TV's Hancock's Half-Hour (1956-60), derived from their radio show, but Carry On gradually eclipsed everything in this wildly prolific career.
At best homely of mien, with a filthy laugh, ever with an eye to the main chance, sexual or financial or both, he was perhaps the keystone which held the series together. Mostly playing characters called Sid(ney), memorably as Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond in Carry On Up the Khyber (1968), he had his finest hour as Mark Antony in Carry On Cleo (1964) and as Johnny Finger, the Rumpo Kid in Carry On Cowboy (1965). For his last ten years, he was as much institution as actor.
Only well after his death on stage at the Empire, Sunderland, did the darker side of the legend - the gambling, drinking, the broken marriages and the unhappy affair with costar Barbara Windsor - become widely known. In 2000, the National Theatre staged a play which drew on some of this material: Cleo, Camping, Emmannuelle and Dick.
Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Film
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