Elton Hayes

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Elton Hayes (1915–2001) was a British actor and guitarist. He was born in Bletchley, England, to two actors and first stepped on stage at age nine. He learned violin and ukulele and won a drama scholarship to the Fay Compton School of Dramatic Arts. His first job was helping backstage with the Old Stagers' Company at Canterbury Theatre, and he sang in local clubs in his spare time. He started playing guitar just before World War II after getting one as security from a friend who owed him money. The guitar would later bring him fame as he sang old English folk songs and ballads.

He volunteered for the army in 1939, serving in the Royal West Kent Regiment and was sent to India. After Japan surrendered, he hitch-hiked to Bombay and became Officer Commanding ENSA in Rawalpindi. Rheumatic fever left his fingers stiff, but he kept playing. Back in Britain, he visited the BBC in uniform and was asked to write and perform musical versions of Edward Lear’s nonsense verses. In 1946 he had a regular slot on the BBC radio show In Town Tonight, and he later appeared frequently on radio and TV in Britain. An eight-week North American tour brought him 113 appearances.

As an actor, he performed in The Beaux’ Stratagem at the Lyric Theatre for about 18 months starting in 1949. He gained wider fame as Alan-a-Dale, the minstrel in Disney’s 1952 film The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, where he sang "Whistle, my Love." His own Robin Hood ballads were later used in the Disney film Enchanted. His recording of Edward Lear’s "The Owl and the Pussycat" became popular, issued as a Parlophone 10-inch single in 1953 and often heard on Children’s Favourites, along with "The Whistling Gypsy." He recorded six Lear nonsense verses, released on a Parlophone EP in 1955.

Hayes also hosted TV shows such as "Elton Hayes – He Sings to a Small Guitar," "Close Your Eyes," and "Tinker's Tales." He had a small role in The Black Knight (1954) as a minstrel who sang. Nervous about live performances, he left show business in the 1960s. He bought a thatched cottage near the Essex–Suffolk border, studied farming, and became a breeder of pedigree animals. He enjoyed carriage driving and joined the British Driving Society.

He married Betty Inman in 1942; she died in 1982. After a stroke in 1995 he stopped farming and moved to Bury St Edmunds to live with friends, who cared for him until his death in 2001.