RoyCASTLEBorn in the Holme Valley, Roy, who was the only son of Mr & Mrs Hubert Castle, gave his first stage performance at the age of 3. He began his dancing career with Miss Nora Bray of Huddersfield, and gained stage experience from Miss Mildred Crossley of Elland.
At 15 Roy made the decision which was to mark the start of his rise to fame. He left school to turn professional and joined a theatre company doing a summer season at the Queen s Theatre, Cleveleys. That first £10 per week pay packet could not have contrasted more than with the £45,000 he later turned down for a 3 year engagement in Las Vegas a decision he never regretted. In 1992 Roy became an OBE.
Roy s song and dance routines, instrument playing, and impersonations won the royal seal of approval when he gave his first Royal Variety show performance at the London Coliseum in 1958. This successful appearance led to further Royal Variety performances during his career.
Family life always remained at the forefront of Roy s mind, despite the pressures of his show business lifestyle. He was introduced to his wife Fiona Dickson, (who was in the Sound of Music) in 1963 by comedian Eric Morecambe. They celebrated their Pearl wedding anniversary on July 29th 1993 along with their 4 children, Daniel, Julie, Antonia and Benjamin.
The trumpet playing which began Roy s career was to become his trade mark, but Roy was an accomplished musician and was also at home playing trombone, piano, drums, bagpipes, flute, guitar and xylophone. On one occasion he rose to a challenge by a plumber and even managed to get a tune out of a copper cistern!
Roy was diagnosed with lung cancer in January 1992, and underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy before going into remission in the autumn of that year. On 26 November 1993, Castle announced that his illness had returned, and once again underwent treatment in hope of overcoming it. Several months later, he carried out the high profile Tour of Hope to raise funds for Cancer Research, and formed the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, which was - and still is - the only British charity entirely dedicated to defeating lung cancer.
He died on 2 September 1994, two days after his 62nd birthday.
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