1. In January 1954,19-year-old Ronnie Carroll Cleghorn was appearing in a variety show at the Town Hall, Portadown billed as Belfast's Nat King Cole and the show went on to play at several locations in Northern Ireland.
14 Facts About Ronnie Carroll
1. 2.
Ronnie Carroll sang in the style of Nat King Cole in blackface.
3.
Ronnie Carroll was given a recording contract by Philips and his first record "Last Love" was released on 1 February 1956.
4.
Ronnie Carroll joined a touring show "New Faces of 1956" which began in Nottingham on 27 February 1956 and then he went into a radio show "Calling All Stars".
5.
Ronnie Carroll is the only singer to have represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest two years in succession.
6.
Ronnie Carroll played a pop musician named 'Ronnie' in the 1963 film Blind Corner.
7.
Ronnie Carroll contested his home Hampstead and Highgate constituency seat in the 1997 UK General Election, and the Uxbridge by-election in July that year with the Rainbow Alliance.
8.
Ronnie Carroll stood in the 2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election as a candidate for Make Politicians History and received 29 votes, despite announcing that he was trying to enter the record books by receiving no votes.
9.
Ronnie Carroll stood as a candidate for the 2015 general election, in the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency.
10.
Ronnie Carroll was first declared bankrupt in 1974 when his second marriage to June Paul ended, Paul went on to own the "Everyman Cinema" in Hampstead.
11.
Ronnie Carroll went on to marry and divorce his third and last wife, South African-born Glenda Kentridge.
12.
In 1989 Ronnie Carroll was declared bankrupt for a second time, at one point, running a food stall in Camden Market.
13.
Ronnie Carroll lived his last years in Hampstead, north London, and was a regular caller to radio phone-in shows on BBC London 94.9.
14.
Ronnie Carroll died in London on 13 April 2015, at age 80.