- Born
- Died
- Birth nameGordon Irving Kaye
- Height5′ 10½″ (1.79 m)
- His real name is Gordon but when he applied to join Equity their reply was addressed to Gorden and soon after he was in hospital with a stone in his kidney. When he came round after the operation he noticed his name on his chart was Gorden so he stuck to it. He was born in Huddersfield to a Scottish mother who was married to a local man who was an engineer. On leaving school he became a sales clerk in a textile company then in the early 60's he ran a radio show on hospital radio and used to interview pop stars at the local theatre. A friend in the local amateur theatre company asked him to help paint some scenery and do some other odd jobs then when the friend had to drop out of a play Gorden stood in for him and from his first moment on stage he realised that was what he wanted to do. He was spotted by Alan Ayckbourn who gave him advice which led to him going to the Octogon Theatre in Bolton for 13 months. His first part in 68 was playing an old man of 80. He then made his television debut in Coronation Street for 50+ episodes as Bernard, Elsie Tanner's nephew. He then did episodes of 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Are You Being Served, both by David Croft who said that he'd write a larger part for him and in 1982 created Rene and 'Allo Allo.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tonyman 5
- He had a dent in his forehead that was caused when a plank of wood went through his car window during an exceptionally severe gale in January 1990. He recovered from the accident, but he could not ever remember anything about it afterwards.
- On 'Allo 'Allo! (1982), his character René always called Edith (Carmen Silvera) "you stupid woman" but in real-life, the actors were best friends.
- The creators of 'Allo 'Allo had initially planned to have the character of René speak like Jacques Clouseau, but decided in the end to make his French accent less impenetrable so audiences would more quickly 'get the joke'.
- He suffered from dementia and lived in a care home for the last two years of his life.
- Gorden Kaye with an E is attributed to a spelling mistake in a hospital. According to his autobiography 'Rene and Me', he looked at the information index at the end of his bed, and it read 'Gorden' with an E.
- It's the sign of a misspelt youth. [Joking about the unusual spelling of his first name]
- It's hard to imagine life without René. I'm from Yorkshire, and in rehearsals I would say in my own voice things like "oh 'eck!" - and that has got into the script. René actually says "oh 'eck!" because as in France, like Yorkshire, they don't pronounce their "H's".
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