Lionel Blair presented the quiz programme Name That Tune, and was a team captain on the televised charades gameshow Give Us a Clue.
24 Facts About Lionel Blair
2.
Lionel Blair was born to Jewish parents, Myer Ogus and Debora "Della" Greenbaum.
3.
When Lionel Blair was thirteen, his father died after what should have been a routine operation on an ulcer.
4.
Lionel Blair started out with girlish parts, as his voice had not yet broken.
5.
Lionel Blair was singled out in several reviews for his performance as one of the children in a touring performance of the play Watch on the Rhine during 1943, and attended the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford in 1944.
6.
Lionel Blair eventually rekindled his passion for musical theatre and began working in the West End.
7.
Lionel Blair gave up acting for dancing in 1947, although he subsequently appeared in a national tour of Who Killed Agatha Christie.
8.
Lionel Blair took his stage name around this time, later changing it by deed poll just before he married in 1967; his sister decided to use the same surname professionally.
9.
Lionel Blair came to the fore in the 1960s when, with his dance troupe, he appeared on television variety programmes.
10.
Lionel Blair appeared in Miss World 1969 and 1970 at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
11.
Lionel Blair was one of the team captains on the game show Give Us a Clue from 1979 until the early 1990s, and was the second presenter of the British version of Name That Tune in the 1980s.
12.
In 1988, Lionel Blair made an appearance in aid of charity on the British television game show Catchphrase, hosted by Irish comedian Roy Walker.
13.
In 1993, Lionel Blair appeared as himself in an episode of Birds of a Feather.
14.
In 2003, Lionel Blair released his first full-length album as a singer, in a tribute to Fred Astaire titled Lionel Blair Sings Astaire, together with the Jive Aces.
15.
Lionel Blair took part in the 2007 Christmas special of the Ricky Gervais show Extras, as himself, portraying the end-stages of his showbiz career by trying to keep up his profile by appearing on Celebrity Big Brother.
16.
In 2009, twenty-one years after Chris Rea's "Driving Home for Christmas" was first released, Lionel Blair starred in an original video for the song that was made in aid of Shelter.
17.
In July 2010, Lionel Blair appeared in the "Great British Dog Walks" feature on ITV's This Morning with his dog Lola.
18.
Lionel Blair became the third housemate to be evicted on 17 January 2014.
19.
Lionel Blair continued to work as an actor, having filmed an episode of BBC One's medical soap opera Doctors in 2014.
20.
Lionel Blair appeared in the British short film Evil's Evil Cousin in 2016.
21.
In 2017, Lionel Blair was one of the celebrities appearing in the second series of the BBC reality series The Real Marigold Hotel.
22.
Lionel Blair, and his incorrectly assumed homosexuality, was a recurring joke on the long-running BBC Radio 4 series I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.
23.
Lionel Blair married Susan Davis at Kensington Register Office on 21 March 1967, with Bernie Winters as best man.
24.
Lionel Blair died on the morning of 4 November 2021, at the age of 92.