- Born
- Died
- Birth nameTerence Alan Patrick Sean Milligan
- Height5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
- Spike was born an 'Army Brat', the son of an Irish Captain in the British Raj in India. Educated in a series of Roman Catholic schools in India and at Lewisham Polytechnic in England, he spent his formative years playing the fool and playing the trumpet in local jazz bands.
He joined the British Army himself (under protest if you believe his auto-biogs) as a conscript at the outbreak of WWII. He served in the Royal Artillery as Gunner Milligan through the North African and Italian campaigns. He got a bit too close to an exploding shell and was hospitalised with shell-shock. On his escape from army life he started his "real" work as an author and humourist.
Most famous for 'The Goon Show' with Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe (and originally Michael Bentine), these radio shows are commonly regarded as re-writing the rules of comedy (even before Monty Python). However under the pressure of writing all the scripts he suffered a breakdown and became a clinical manic-depressive.
He was fondly regarded as the last of the great British eccentrics and had written a wealth of comic poetry mainly for children, a few novels and his multi-volume auto-biography. Spike was also a keen (fanatical?) environmental campaigner.
- IMDb mini biography by: Steve Crook <steve@brainstorm.co.uk>
- SpousesShelagh Milligan(1983 - February 27, 2002) (his death)Patricia 'Paddy' Ridgeway(June 1962 - 1978) (her death, 1 child)June Marlow(1952 - 1960) (divorced, 3 children)
- Children
- Parents
- RelativesHastie Harrower(Grandchild)Desmond Milligan(Sibling)Georga Malcolm(Grandchild)Brodie Milligan Harrower(Grandchild)Eileen McIntyre(Aunt or Uncle)Callum Milligan Harrower(Grandchild)Jay Malcolm(Grandchild)
- The inscription on his tombstone reads "Dúirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite", which is Irish for "I told you I was ill".
- When Peter Sellers and Stanley Kubrick were stuck for an ending for Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), it was Milligan who suggested the use of the Vera Lynn song "We'll Meet Again".
- Roald Dahl had wanted Spike to play his character "Willy Wonka" on the big screen. The studio instead chose Gene Wilder.
- Spike has at last been officially recognised by the establishment. He was awarded a knighthood in the 2000 New Years honours list. But because he's an Irish citizen (he refused to take the oath of loyalty when he became stateless in 1960, despite spending 7 years on active service in the British Army) he can only be awarded an honorary knighthood.
- Once anonymously placed an advert in the 'lonely hearts' section of England's Private Eye magazine which said 'Wanted - rich elderly widow - object, murder', and got several replies.
- Money couldn't buy friends but you got a better class of enemy. - Puckoon 1963
- World peace could be a possibility...if it weren't for all those damned foreigners!
- I don't mind dying - I just don't want to be there.
- The fondest memory I have is not really of the Goons. It's of a girl called Julia with enormous breasts.
- [on his 62nd birthday] Any man can be 62, but it takes a bus to be 62A.
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