1. Jeffrey Joseph Bernard was an English journalist, best known for his weekly column "Low Life" in The Spectator magazine, and notorious for a feckless and chaotic career and life of alcohol abuse.
28 Facts About Jeffrey Bernard
1. 2.
Jeffrey Bernard became associated with the louche and bohemian atmosphere that existed in London's Soho district and was later immortalised in the comical play Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell by Keith Waterhouse.
3.
Jeffrey Bernard was played by his friend Peter O'Toole when the play first opened.
4.
Jeffrey Bernard was born in Hampstead, London, and was the youngest of the three sons of the English architect Oliver Percy Jeffrey Bernard and his opera singer wife Edith Dora Hodges.
5.
Jeffrey Bernard's siblings were the poet Oliver Bernard, and the photographer Bruce Bernard.
6.
Jeffrey Bernard was a paternal cousin to the actor Stanley Holloway.
7.
Jeffrey Bernard attended Pangbourne College for two years before his parents responded to the college's protest that he was "psychologically unsuitable for public school life".
8.
Jeffrey Bernard soon got a job at the Folies Bergere show, sticking stars on the dancers' nipples.
9.
Jeffrey Bernard later took up photography with the encouragement of his second wife Jackie Ellis and often collaborated with his best friend Frank Norman.
10.
In 1962, Norman and Jeffrey Bernard worked together on a collection of writing and photography based on Soho called Soho Night and Day.
11.
Jeffrey Bernard did not get along well with Ian Board, who took over The Colony Room from Belcher.
12.
Jeffrey Bernard took racing bets for his friends and infamous pub landlord Norman Balon.
13.
Jeffrey Bernard was arrested for illegal betting practices and pleaded guilty to taking illegal bets in 1986.
14.
Jeffrey Bernard knew Dylan Thomas, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, John Minton, Nina Hamnett, Graham Greene and Ian Fleming.
15.
Jeffrey Bernard's drinking, gambling, violence and infidelities ensured each marriage failed.
16.
Jeffrey Bernard sought treatment for alcoholism and was sober for two years before returning to the bottle.
17.
Jeffrey Bernard later described her as "my fourth, last and most angry wife".
18.
Jeffrey Bernard did not remarry for the rest of his life.
19.
Elizabeth Smart suggested that Jeffrey Bernard try journalism and he started to write about his interest in horseracing in Queen magazine in 1964.
20.
Jeffrey Bernard took Monolulu some chocolates and gave him a strawberry cream chocolate.
21.
Jeffrey Bernard later became racing correspondent for satirical magazine Private Eye, and became a columnist for Sporting Life in October 1970.
22.
In 1971, Jeffrey Bernard was at Royal Ascot when he vomited on the Queen Mother's shoes.
23.
Jeffrey Bernard was given a column in The Spectator in 1975.
24.
Jeffrey Bernard's lifestyle had an inevitable effect on his health and reliability, and the magazine often had to post the notice "Jeffrey Bernard is unwell" in place of his column.
25.
Jeffrey Bernard was an unrepentant alcoholic for most of his adult life apart from two years of sobriety in the 1970s.
26.
Jeffrey Bernard was hospitalised for detoxification, he suffered from pancreatitis for many years and later developed diabetes.
27.
Jeffrey Bernard often forgot to take insulin regularly and his right leg was amputated due to the resulting complications.
28.
Jeffrey Bernard died at his home in Soho at the age of 65 on 4 September 1997 of renal failure after turning down further treatment by dialysis.