Rex Jameson

Rex Jameson, né Coster, (11 June 1924 – 5 March 1983) was a comedian and female impersonator known for his creation and stage persona Mrs Shufflewick. After radio and television success in the 1950s and early 1960s, his career declined sharply because of his alcohol abuse. He returned to a niche celebrity in the 1970s in his drag act at The Black Cap, Camden Town, London.

Life and career

Jameson born at Southend-on-Sea on 11 June 1924 of unknown parentage. He was fostered by a Mrs Coster whose surname he adopted.[1] During the Second World War he was in a military concert party in the Middle East. After leaving the armed forces he joined a theatre company in Harrow but was dismissed for drunkenness.[1] He changed his name to Rex Jameson – his biographer Jonathan Cecil suggests that he chose the name of a well known brand of whiskey – and joined the resident revue team at the Windmill Theatre, London.[1]

He performed as Mrs Shufflewick on BBC radio and television, and became well known. In the theatre he appeared in variety and summer shows and was a popular pantomime dame. His career stalled in the late 1960s because of his addiction to alcohol, and he was no longer booked for broadcasts or major theatre dates.[1]

Jameson never again achieved success on television or radio, but from 1972 he had a manager, Patrick Newley, who helped organise a career, principally at The Black Cap, Camden Town, London.[1] The pub's regular clientele was gay, but the popularity of Mrs Shufflewick's act there drew many heterosexual fans to join them. Among his fans among fellow comics were Barry Cryer and Roy Hudd.[2]

In a 2013 study of British comedy, John Fisher suggests that Jameson's Mrs Shufflewick kept alive the tragi-comic spirit of the music hall starr Nellie Wallace. For Fisher, Mrs Shufflewick was:

Terribly refined and yet, in her own words, "broadminded to the point of obscenity", she resided in Wimbledon, "all cut glass and tennis balls". Clutching her handbag and wearing drop-pearl earrings, red gloves, damson velvet coat, a hat fashioned from wax fruit and feathers and the obligatory skimpy fur ("known in the trade as untouched pussy, which is unobtainable in London at the moment"), her slightly baffled appearance distilled [a] shabbily genteel world.[3]

Jameson collapsed with a heart attack while walking between gigs, and died in the Royal Free Hospital on 5 March 1983, at the age of 58.[1]

References and sources

References
  1. Cecil, Jonathan. "Jameson (formerly Coster), Rex (performing name Mrs Shufflewick) (1924–1983), comedian and female impersonator", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 6 July 2020 (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  2. "A Sincere Tribute", The Stage, 5 May 1983, p. 5
  3. Fisher, p. 250

Sources
  • Fisher, John (2013). Funny Way to Be a Hero. London: Preface Books. ISBN 978-1-84809-313-3.
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