Biography

Of all the films that Graham Moffatt worked on, about half were with Will Hay, in his Billy-Bunter style persona. After being dropped by Will Hay, Moffatt (and Moore Marriott) went on to support Edmund Gwenn in Cheer Boys Cheer (1939) and Arthur Askey in Band Waggon (1940). The last film he made with Moore Marriott was in 1943, after which the pair went their separate ways. He left show business to run a pub, but appeared in many more films, up to the age of 44.
- IMDb mini biography by: Joolz, corrected by ben-sherwood

Graham Moffatt's parents intended him to work in the family florist in London's Shepherds Bush, but he was more interested in acting and became a call boy at Gainsborough's Shepherds Bush studios. Here he was discovered by comedy star Tom Walls and given a part as a choirboy in "Cup of Kindness". He continued to work as a call boy while playing office boys and indeed a call boy in several other films for Gainsborough both at their Shepherds Bush and Islington studios. This culminated in his leading role as Albert with Moore Marriott as Harbottle in the Will Hay comedy "Windbag the Sailor" in 1936. Moffatt and Marriott went on to play the same roles in four more films with Hay, notably "Oh, Mr Porter!" in 1937. (They don't play the parts in "The Fourth Form at St Michael's", 78rpm records Hay made in 1929). After "Where's That Fire?" in 1939, Hay allegedly told his agent, "I've no intention of being one of a three-legged act." Hay made his remaining films at Ealing without his two stooges. Moffatt went on to play Albert in three films with Arthur Askey and a Children's Film Foundation serial "The Voyage of Peter" (1946). After marriage to Joyce Hazeldine in 1948 he worked only sporadically in films and TV. The couple ran a pub, the Swan Inn in Braybrooke, Northants, until 1958 and then moved to the Englishcombe Inn in Bath. (It's now a nursing home). Moffatt's last screen appearance was a bit part in "80,000 Suspects" (1963), shot in Bath by Val Guest, who had worked as a writer on most of Moffatt's films with Hay. Moffatt died two years later. In 2019 the Will Hay Appreciation Society unveiled a plaque to Moffatt at the Swan Inn.
- IMDb mini biography by: David McGillivray