Gorden Kaye born 7 April 1941Gorden Kaye - born 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 (usually spelt Gordon) 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.
Kaye is the author of a 1989 autobiography, Rene & Me: A Sort of Autobiography (with Hilary Bonner) in which he describes his experiences as a shy, gay, overweight youth.
Kaye suffered serious head injuries in a car accident in 1990 when part of a billboard was blown through the windcsreen of his car during a hurricane force 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.
While recovering in hospital from emergency brain surgery to treat injuries sustained in the accident, Kaye was photographed and 'interviewed' by Sunday Sport journalist Roger Ordish. The Sunday Sport was sued by Kaye, but despite clearly being unable to give consent to such behaviour, the British Court of Appeal held that his privacy had not been invaded — a decision often said to be the low point of British privacy law.
Gorden Kaye returned as Rene Artois in a 2007 one-off television revival of 'Allo 'Allo! and in a stage show in Brisbane, Australia in June and July, alongside Sue Hodge as Mimi Labonq and Guy Siner as Lieutenant Gruber. The other characters were portrayed by various famous Australian actors.
Since 'Allo 'Allo! his career has mostly been in theatre and on radio.