Gorden Kaye
Gorden Kaye (b. Gordon Kaye on
7 April 1941 in
Huddersfield) is most famous in the
UK for his work on television sitcom
'Allo 'Allo!, where he played the character of
René Artois. He has worked on television, radio, film and on the stage. The unusual spelling of the name Gorden is due to an
Equity typing error. However, his autobiography
Rene & Me attributes the unusual spelling to an incident while in hospital, where his name was misspelled on his medical charts.
He studied at King James's Grammar School in Almondbury.
Gorden is the author of a 1989 autobiography,
Rene & Me: A Sort of Autobiography (with Hilary Bonner, ISBN 0283999659) in which he describes his experiences as a shy, gay, overweight youth.
Gorden suffered serious head injuries in a car accident in
1990 (see also
Burns' Day storm). Although he cannot remember any details of the incident, he still has a dent in his forehead from a piece of wood that smashed through the car window.
Shortly prior to the car accident, the tabloid media had run an article referring to Gorden's supposed homosexuality. This he happily admitted, prior to the publication of photographic evidence of the "story", thus robbing the scandal-mongers of their scoop.
