Jess Conrad OBE, posing for a publicity picture at the Cinema Museum, Kennington.
Jess Conrad OBE (born Gerald Arthur James on 24 February 1936) is an actor and singer from England. As a boy he was nicknamed "Jesse" after American outlaw Jesse James; as there was already an actor named "Gerald James" in Actors Equity, a dramatics teacher who was a fan of Joseph Conrad suggested the stage name of "Jess Conrad" Having started his career as a repertory actor and film extra, Jess Conrad was cast in a television play Bye, Bye Barney as a pop singer. He was noticed by Jack Good, who included him in his TV series Oh, Boy, and then was signed to Decca Records and had a number of chart hits, including "Cherry Pie", "This Pullover", "Mystery Girl" and "Pretty Jenny"; also recording for Columbia, Pye President and EMI. Between the late 1950s and mid-1960s Conrad appeared in a number of films such as Serious Charge (uncredited), The Boys, Rag Doll, (filmed in 1960, and released in 1961); 1 and Konga as well as Michael Powell's The Queen's Guards. During the 1970s he spent some time in the stage shows Godspell and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and also featured in a cameo role in the Sex Pistols film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle. In 1977, no fewer than 7 of Jess Conrad's singles were included in the 'World's Worst Record' list, chosen by listeners to Capital FM DJ Kenny Everett's show, and "This Pullover", voted 6th worst song ever, later featured on an LP dedicated to the songs voted for, together with two other Conrad recordings "Cherry Pie" and "Why Am I Living?" Conrad also appeared in the 1984 TV series of Miss Marple in the episode entitled The Body in the Library as Raymond Starr. He also starred in the 1993 film, The Punk and the Princess. In the '90s Conrad made regular cameo appearances on Jim Davidson's revived version of The Generation Game on BBC1. Also in 1992 Jess Conrad appeared in the Christmas Special of Big Break, also presented by Davidson and John Virgo.
Size: 3744px × 5616px
Location: The Cinema Museum, 2 Dugard Way (off Renfrew Road), London SE11 4TH
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1999, actor, boys, carol!, cherry, conrad, cool, film, great, jess, joe, konga, marple, meek, obe, pie, pullover, rock, roll, run, series, singer, space, story, swindle, telstar:, theatre, tv, wife
