SHOWBIZ legend Glen Michael may be approaching his 99th birthday, but he is already looking ahead to next year and reaching 100 years old.
To get there the entertainer, who presented the kids show Cartoon Cavalcade on STV for over a quarter of a century, has already faced being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Glen Michael was a household name in Scotland for decades, is just about to turn 99.[/caption]
But with his birthday on May 16, Glen reckons he is good for his telegram from The King.
Glen says: “I’ll be trying my best to make it to 100 now, I tell you that. I may as well because I’ve already come this far.”
Despite his incredible vintage, Glen still looks like the man half the country grew up with, watching Cartoon Cavalcade every Sunday on STV from 1966 to 1992.
He is still incredibly sharp and even renewed his driving licence last year. Glen says proudly: “It’s valid until I’m 101 — at this rate I may even outlive my car.”
Born Cecil Edward Buckland in Paignton, Devon, Glen had an unconventional childhood as the son of a society butler, where he was raised on country estates.
His education suffered as he moved from school to school with his father’s job, but he found his calling at 14 when he caught the acting bug.
When he was called up for his National Service in the RAF medical corps, his fear of blood saw him transferred to their Entertainment National Service Association.
He says: “My commanding officer was Frank Thornton who went on to play Truly in Last of the Summer Wine.
“The first thing he told me was not to salute him, then he introduced me to the other recruits including Peter Sellers who had just joined too.
“Peter would go on to find great fame and fortune in the Pink Panther movies, but back then he was just starting out like me.”
On a tour of Burma, Egypt and India with the RAF he met his future wife Beryl, an actress and dancer with film-star looks, who he went on to marry in 1946.
Glen then tried his hand as a serious actor, appearing as a trainee police officer in the classic Brit flick The Blue Lamp with Jack Warner and Dirk Bogarde in 1950.
He recalls: “The director said he could get me an agent who could get me £450. I said, ‘per month?’ and he replied, ‘per day’. That was an incredible amount of money back then.” But a bout of the mumps cut short his flourishing acting career.
He says: “I was sick for 18 months and when I was well enough I needed to earn a crust so I turned to variety as a stand-up comedian.”
However, the biggest turning point of his career was when his wife suggested they visit Scotland as they both had never been.
Glen laughs: “I came here for five weeks and that was 73 years ago.”
He forged a new career in Scotland working alongside Stanley Baxter, Jimmy Logan, Rikki Fulton and Jack Milroy in the Five Past Eight Show, the biggest variety show in the country at the time.
He also became Milroy and Fulton’s comedy foil in their STV series Francie and Josie in the mid-60s.
He says: “I was in all four series, but no one ever remembers me. In their wisdom, someone decided to wipe the tapes to reuse them for something else, which is what they did back then.”
But in 1966 he became a name in his own right with the launch of Cartoon Cavalcade which brought Scots a weekly dose of Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry. He chuckles: “The controller of STV once told me that Cartoon Cavalcade got more viewers than when Celtic won the European Cup in 1967.”
It also earned him an army of fans, including future comic book writer Mark Millar, from Coatbridge, who became hooked on superheroes after seeing the Spider-Man cartoon on Glen’s show.
Glen says: “I was the first to introduce Spider-Man to Scotland, no one had heard of him before that.”
As a thank you, Mark even gave Glen a cameo role in his 2010 Hollywood movie Kick-Ass as a hotdog salesman opposite Nicolas Cage, Chloe Grace Moretz and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
He says: “Mark invited me to the premiere of his film Wanted with Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy.
“He told me how he and James would both talk for hours in Los Angeles about Cartoon Cavalcade. So I said, ‘That’s great, how about a part in your next movie then?’.”
Sadly his Kick-Ass scene hit the cutting room floor, but Glen wasn’t bothered. He adds: “It gave me a chance to return to Pinewood Studios, where I hadn’t been since I filmed The Blue Lamp.”
Glen now lives alone in a beautiful cottage on the Ayrshire coast, after the devastating loss of wife Beryl a decade ago.
But he has regular visits from his children, former journalist Yonnie, 74, who is now a guide at King Charles’s Dumfries House, and award-winning film editor son Chris Buckland, 66, who has worked on high profile shows including Outlander.
He says: “They worry about me and have asked if I would prefer to go into a care home, but I’m fine being a one-man band.”
Glen maintains he’s never lonely with regular trips to the supermarket. He says: “I never use the self-service checkouts as I’ve always loved talking to people. I seem to get recognised more now than even during the Cavalcade days.”
His main concern is not his own health but does worry for his son Chris, who has been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease.
Glen says: “The doctor told me my prostate cancer wasn’t a problem for me at my age, but MND is a horrible disease as there’s nothing they can do about it.
“Chris isn’t after any sympathy and is just getting on with it.
“He’s also raising money for MND Scotland by having open days at his house in Port Ann.”
Glen says although he has no plans to celebrate his 99th birthday, he does have something in mind for his 100th milestone. He jokes: “That’s easy — by then I will be happy just to live another day.”
*Glen’s son Chris Buckland will be raising money for MND Scotland during May and August through Scotland’s Garden Scheme.
