11 Facts About Richard Hearne

Richard Lewis Hearne was an English actor, comedian, producer and writer.

Richard Hearne is best remembered for his stage and television character Mr Pastry.

Richard Hearne worked on and off for the BBC for thirty years; he became the first performer to be known as a "television star" and the first to have his own television series.

The Mr Pastry character had originated in the 1936 stage show Big Boy in which Richard Hearne had appeared with Fred Emney.

Richard Hearne's act first appeared on the US Ed Sullivan Show in 1954, and thereafter Hearne appeared on the show frequently.

Richard Hearne was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1959 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre.

In 1963, Richard Hearne became President of the Lord's Taverners charity and he subsequently raised money for hundreds of hydrotherapy pools.

Richard Hearne was interviewed for the role of the Fourth Doctor in the BBC series Doctor Who after the 1974 departure of Jon Pertwee, but a misunderstanding over the required interpretation of the role led to no offer being made by the producer, Barry Letts.

Richard Hearne died in Bearsted, Kent, in 1979, aged 71, leaving a widow, Yvonne, and two children.

Richard Hearne was buried in the churchyard in the village of St Mary's Platt, near Borough Green in Kent.

Richard Hearne had lived at Platt Farm, a fifteenth-century property in Long Mill Lane in the village, from the 1940s, and ran a market garden there.