Despite the Carry On franchise being one of the most fondly remembered comedy series in British history, it turns out the cast was notoriously underpaid.
Sparking an epic 31 different films – the first being 1958’s Carry On Sergeant, and the last Carry On Columbus in 1992 – along with festive specials, a TV series and stage shows, the films clearly hit a spot with people in the UK and beyond. But even over the decades, wages remained low.
Kenneth Williams made just £900 from the 1960 flick Carry On Constable, while Kenneth Connor received £1,250 and Charles Hawtrey made £1,000. 1962’s Carry On Cruising saw Lance Percival earn just £600 for his efforts in the movie.
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Two decades later and the franchise’s 30th film, Carry On Emmannuelle, saw Williams make £5,750m while Connor made only £3,500 for his main cast appearance. And the low budget films meant that beaches had to stand in for desert sets, and costumes were often ill-fitting.
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That’s not to say there wasn’t a fortune to be made from the franchise. A bikini worn by Barbara Windsor in Carry On Camping sold at auction 50 years after the film for an incredible £9,500 – more than most stars were paid for appearing in the films. It’s reported that the female actors were paid around half the amount their male counterparts received.
And co-creator Peter Rogers raked in a multimillion pound net worth after admitting he would “do anything for my actors except pay them”. He left £3.5million in his will to a charity that helped out-of-work actors when he died at the age of 95.
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Rogers claimed he could make an entire movie out of the budget other filmmakers spent on a single set. He said: “I was brought up not to waste money. There were no long breaks between scenes, no fancy dressing rooms and none of this doing scenes over and over again.”
Speaking of Kenneth Williams, he remarked: “Kenneth was worth taking care of, because while he cost very little, he made a very great deal of money for the franchise.” Rogers was paid three times more than his actors, and took a third of the profits from the Carry On films.
(Image: Getty Images)
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He used the earnings to splash out on a new Rolls-Royce every year. Director Gerald Thomas, meanwhile, made £15,000 per film and a third of the profits, while actors were refused any share in the royalties from the films.
In a headline-grabbing move, Rogers once sacked actor Charles Hawtrey when he asked for top billing – and replaced him with the much cheaper Lance Percival rather than give his stalwart actor his due.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
