Britain's clown queen of comedy during the 1980s, Marti Caine's brand
of humour combined an appealing dizziness with an endearing
vunerability. Often compared to America's
Phyllis Diller, she paved the way
for women working in British light entertainment, both in nightclubs
and in television.
Born Lynn Shepherd in Sheffield, Caine attended several schools in
Yorkshire before working as a model, croupier and petrol pump
attendant. At 18, she made her first professional appearance as a
comedienne in a club in Rotheram and spent the next 15 years playing
the Northern working men's club circuit.
She became an overnight household name at the age of 30 on the TV
talent show, New Faces (1973).
Viewers loved her gawky figure and glamorous looks and she went on to
star in her own BBC2 TV show,
The Marti Caine Show (1979),
throughout the eighties.
In 1982, Caine spent 18 months starring in a stage show in South Africa
which caused uproar from anti-apartheid demonstrators and, for a time,
she was blacklisted by the United Nations.
During the latter part of her career, she combined TV work with stage
shows in Britain and, for 3 years from 1986, was a judge on Central
TV's New Faces (1973). She was
popular in pantomime and made the part of the "Red Queen" in "Snow
White and The 7 Dwarfs" her own, playing in Cambridge, Bath,
Bournemouth and London.
A gifted and talented comedienne, Caine was an incisive and intelligent
performer who often surprised her critics with her depth as an actress.
