A History Of Liverpool Thespians - Clive Hornby

Clive William Hornby was born on the 20th of October 1944 in Liverpool to a marine-engineer father, William and mother Daisy Hornby and had a sister Margaret who was born in 1947. He attended the Liverpool Collegiate school before training as an accountant. As with many others from Liverpool he also had a dalliance with music and in the 1960s was a drummer in the Liverpool band 'The Dennisons'. You can find out more on this part of his life here - http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2016/01/mersey-beat-dennisons.html

After leaving music behind him he decided he wanted to be an actor and took lessons at the Crane Studios in Liverpool for an hour a week, and after working backstage at the Liverpool Playhouse as an assistant stage manager, he trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, before making the rounds of regional theatres. Here he collected numerous stage credits, including 'Oh What a Lovely War', 'Macbeth', 'The Homecoming', 'An Inspector Calls' and 'The Philanthropist'. On TV he was in 2 episodes of 'Space 1999' (1975) as a Security Guard and in ITV's national service sitcom 'Get Some In!' (1975), where he appeared with Linda Cunningham, Robert Lindsay and Tony Selby. Then he appeared as an uncredited extra in Yanks (1979) but a planned recurring role in the first series of the considerably more successful Minder (1979), as Norman Gibbons, was curtailed after one episode. Clive's big break came in late 1979 when his acting career took off as he landed an initial 3 month contract in 'Emmerdale Farm' as Jack Sugden. In a scenario all too characteristic of an actor's life, he maintained that prior to his debut in 1980, he had been in financial difficulties and had gone to the audition only to pacify his agent, Andrew Burt, who had played the role of the would-be writer Sugden intermittently since the series began in 1972, had left in 1976 to concentrate on the theatre (and voiceovers).

 

The lean, balding Clive Hornby was believable as an outdoors type, playing the part resplendent in wax jacket and, he said, the same cloth cap that he had worn since 1980. Speaking to the Daily Mirror in 2007 about his early days in the show, he said: "It really was about farming then - I'd milk the cows, drive the combine harvester, plough fields. On my first day on location, we had to deliver a calf." During his tenure, one wife was killed in a car crash and another in a botched insurance scam that saw Jack arrested for murder. He was also accidentally shot by his son, whom he understandably disowned. Jack was so popular that Clive's contract was extended and he remained in it until his death in 2008 as he became one of the shows most popular actors. Reportedly Clive signed a contract in 2007 for another 3 years, which would have taken him to 2010 but he took ill in early 2008 and sadly passed away that July. Les Dawson once famously described the series as "Dallas with dung". During a mid-1980s attempt by Thames to poach the American soap from the BBC, Yorkshire Television, part of the ITV network, announced that they for one "had no intention of screening Dallas, which is, after all, less popular than our own Emmerdale Farm". The second word was dropped from the title in 1989.

Jack (Clive Hornby) marries Pat (Helen Weir)

 

His first marriage had ended in divorce, but in 1984 he married Helen Weir ,who had played Pat, his unfortunate first wife in Emmerdale, two years after their screen wedding. Behind the scenes the pair had struck up a romance and they married for real the year she left the soap. They also welcomed a son called Thomas in 1986, who Clive doted on. The relationship lasted 14 years until they divorced in 2000. In an interview with the Mirror that same year, Clive said of his connection with his son: "Tom and I are mates. We do everything together. I cuddle him all the time, and kiss him when I say goodnight. He is 14, I know, and he probably wonders why but I don’t care. It is important to show your love. We talk as well, all the time.” Clive was seriously injured in 1997 while filming a scene in which he had to push a tractor. The actor's lung collapsed and led to an eight-day stay in hospital, something he said he never wanted to experience again. It even prompted him to quit cigars, although he continued smoking cigarettes.

He had been taking a break from the soap since January because of ill health but died on the 3rd of July 2008 of cancer aged 63. His funeral took place on the 15th of July 2008 at Rawdon Crematorium in Leeds. Following Clive's death, Tom received £324,000 in a trust.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/11/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians_22.html