Trivia

Music hall comedian, juggler, conjurer and frequent member of the Crazy Gang. Noted for his 'Cockney-French' patter, round spectacles and curly moustache. Toured Australia and South Africa in the 1920's as part of 'Harry Lauder''s troupe. Remained active as a performer right up until his death in September 1969.

In 1931 he married Marie Cecilia Loftus (died in 1994), a variety performer known professionally as Patti Loftus, one of the "Loftus Sisters".

Gray and his brother Danny were apprenticed to a juggling troupe when Gray was nine years old. As a juggler he toured Europe, the US, and Asia. At first he performed as a straight, and highly skilled, juggler, but he gradually introduced into his act the deadpan humour for which he became known.

Gray was apprenticed to a juggler at the age of nine and became a technically proficient straight juggler. He gradually introduced a wry humour into his act, and was invited to appear with the comic double act Nervo and Knox in 1919. The three performers formed the original basis of the group of seven comedians who became famous under the collective name the Crazy Gang in the 1930s.

Among his later appearances was that in the London production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1962.

Gray never retired. He made his last stage appearance in September 1969, in an impromptu guest appearance in Elsie and Doris Waters' show at the Royal Hippodrome Theatre. He died three days later, on 15 September 1969.

In 1963 Gray played Senex in the first London production of Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Reviewing the show in The Observer, Bamber Gascoigne wrote that the piece had roles for five comics: Frankie Howerd, Kenneth Connor, Jon Pertwee, Robertson Hare and Gray. "All are good, but the highest laurels must go to Eddie Gray and Frankie Howerd for a wonderful quality of detachment. They both make a comic routine 10 times funnier by plodding through it as though it occupies only one-fifth of their attention.".

During the 1920s Gray toured widely. He was a member of Harry Lauder's company touring Australia and South Africa. The Sydney Morning Herald praised his "amusing dexterity in the handling of clubs and hoops".

Edward Earl Gray who performed as 'Monsewer' Eddie Gray, was an English stage comedian.

Brother of Billy Gray.

He had two brothers Billy and Danny.