Ronnie Barker Ronnie Barker Ronald William George Barker, (25 September 1929 – 3 October 2005) was an English actor, comedian and writer. He was known for roles in British comedy television series such as "Porridge", "The Two Ronnies", and "Open All Hours". Barker began acting in repertory theatre and decided he was best suited to comic roles. He had his first success at the Oxford Playhouse and in roles in the West End including Tom Stoppard's "The Real Inspector Hound". During this period, he was in the cast of BBC radio and television comedies such as "The Navy Lark". He got his
Ronnie Barker Maxine Peake and Sam Kelly. In Barker's home town of Oxford, a Wetherspoons pub on George Street is named after his Four Candles sketch. A bronze statue of Barker sculpted by Martin Jennings, and showing him in character as Norman Stanley Fletcher, was unveiled at the entrance of the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre in September 2010 by his widow Joy, David Jason, and Ronnie Corbett. In 2015, the Ronnie Barker Comedy Lecture (also referred to as The Ronnie Barker Talk) was commissioned by the BBC at the instigation of the head of comedy commissioning, Shane Allen. The first lecture was given