Background
She had a younger brother, Henry Richard Webb, also an actor, and two elder identical twin half-brothers, Leslie and Gordon Durlacher, from her mother"s first marriage to Samuel Durlacher.
She had a younger brother, Henry Richard Webb, also an actor, and two elder identical twin half-brothers, Leslie and Gordon Durlacher, from her mother"s first marriage to Samuel Durlacher.
She was the eldest child of Henry Augustus Webb (1880-1926) and Rose Jeannette Keysor. A half-brother was the actor George Webb. Born in Willesden, Middlesex, England, she is best known for her appearances as a stooge for Benny Hill in his long-running Thames Television series.
At under five feet tall, with a booming voice and dyed flame-red hair, she was often cast as a blowsey mother-in-law or Cockney type character.
Her vital statistics were 48 inch bust, 46 inch waist, 52 inch hips, 4" 10" inches in height and 15 stone (approx 210 lbs) in weight. She was called "Podge" by Jeffie and was proud that she still had all her own teeth.
She signed her letters: "Dame Rita Webb" and had refused to be on the This is Your Life television show. In the 1960s she made a number of television appearances with Billy Cotton and alongside Arthur Haynes.
Her many television credits include several appearances in Spike Milligan"s Q series, Dixon of Dock Green, Till Death Us Do Participant, Sykes, Up Pompeii! She also appeared in supporting roles in many films including To Sir, with Love (1967), The Magic Christian (1969), Alfred Hitchcock"s Frenzy (1972), Confessions of a People’s Performer (1975) and Come Play with Maine (1977).
In 1968 she appeared, in a cameo role, as a wrestling referee, in the Dave Clark television production Hold On, lieutenant"s the Dave Clark Five. Rita Webb died in 1981, aged 77 and her funeral was held at Street Paul"s Church, Covent Garden, the Actors" Church, after which she was cremated and her ashes scattered in the Garden of Remembrance.