Norman Joseph Wisdom was born in Marylebone on 4 February 1915. The family lived at 91 Fernhead Road, Maida Vale, London W9, where they slept in one room. Wisdom quipped, "I was born in very sorry circumstances. Both of my parents were very sorry."

After a period in a children’s home in Deal, Kent, Wisdom ran away when he was 11 but returned to become an errand boy in a grocer’s shop on leaving school at 13. Having been kicked out of his home by his father and become homeless, in 1929 he walked (by his own account) to Cardiff, Wales, where he became a cabin boy in the Merchant Navy. He later also worked as a coal miner, waiter and page boy.

He enlisted as a drummer boy in the 10th Royal Hussars of the British Army. In 1930 he was posted to Lucknow, in the United Provinces of British India, as a bandsman. There he gained an education certificate, rode horses, became the flyweight boxing champion of the British Army in India and learned to play the trumpet and clarinet.

Whilst performing a shadow boxing routine in an army gym during the Second World War, Wisdom discovered he had a talent for entertainment, and began to develop his skills as a musician and stage entertainer.

After being demobilised in 1946, Wisdom made his debut as a professional entertainer at the age of 31; his rise to the top was phenomenally fast. Initially the straight man to the magician David Nixon, he had already adopted the costume that would remain his trademark: tweed flat cap askew, with peak turned up; a suit at least two sizes too tight; a crumpled collar and a mangled tie. The character that went with this costume—known as "the Gump"— was to dominate Wisdom’s film career. A West End theatre star within two years, he honed his performance skills mainly between theatres in London and Brighton. Wisdom made his TV debut the same year and was soon commanding enormous audiences.

Wisdom made a series of low-budget star-vehicle comedies for the Rank Organisation, beginning with Trouble in Store in 1953. This film earned him a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Film in 1954 and exhibitors voted him the tenth biggest star at the British box office the same year. His films’ cheerful, unpretentious appeal make them the direct descendants of those made a generation earlier by George Formby.] Never highly thought of by the critics, they were very popular with domestic audiences and Wisdom’s films were among Britain’s biggest box office successes of their day. They were also successful in some unlikely overseas markets, helping Rank stay afloat financially when their more expensive film projects were unsuccessful.

After a career lull, Wisdom became prominent again in the 1990s, helped by the young comedian Lee Evans, whose act was often compared to Wisdom’s work. His classic Rank films were playing to new audiences on television screens and DVD, with a growing number of new young fans in the United Kingdom and abroad. The high point of this new popularity was the knighthood he was awarded, for services to entertainment, in the 2000 New Year’s honours list. During the ceremony, once he had received his knighthood, he walked away and again performed his trademark trip, at which the Queen smiled and laughed.

From 1995 until 2004 he appeared in the recurring role of Billy Ingleton in the long-running BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine. The role was originally a one-off appearance, but proved so popular that he returned as the character on a number of occasions. In 1996, he received a Special Achievement Award from the London Film Critics.

Wisdom announced his retirement from the entertainment industry on his 90th birthday (4 February 2005). He announced that he intended to spend more time with his family, playing golf and driving around the Isle of Man, where he was living.

He died on 4 October 2010 at Abbotswood nursing home on the Isle of Man at the age of 95.

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Main source:	Norman Wisdom - Wikipedia
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