David Jason

His first acting role was as a monkey in a primary school play at the age of 9, but his first lead role was in a Cromwellian play, Wayside War as a 17th Century Cavalier at the age of 14. He was forced to volunteer by the headmaster and wound up enjoying it. He then joined amateur theatre not long after and left it at the age of 25 - he joined just to pick up girls. The name of the acting troupe was "The Incognito Players", and he went on to be the most successful member; he was later asked to be a patron, which he accepted.

In 2005, he was knighted in the Queen Elizabeth II's Birthday Honours. He collected the award from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on 1 December 2005, having secretly married his long-term partner Gill Hinchcliffe at the Dorchester Hotel in London the day before.

He lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife, Gill Hinchcliffe and their daughter, Sophie Mae, who was born in 2001. His hobbies are a little DIY and gardening.

He has not really concentrated on films, although he was very impressive in the TV film All the King's Men (1999), playing Frank Beck, the Commander of the Sandringham Company who mysteriously disappeared whilst in action in The Great War campaign in Gallipoli in 1915.

He has managed to combine the comedy aspect of his career with rather more serious roles, such as that of Jack Frost in the highly-rated detective series A Touch of Frost (1992) and has proved that he is a man of many talents.

Sadly, in 1990, he spent time away from work to nurse Myfanwy Talog, the Welsh actress who was his long time partner, before she died of cancer at the age of 49. He has come a long way from his days as an electrician and has won numerous awards for his work.

He has become one of Britain's most famous, versatile and respected actors, who is most famous for his role in Only Fools and Horses (1981) as Del Boy.

He made his debut in the series in 1981 and was still playing the same role up to the Christmas special in 2002.

He had an on-off relationship with Phil Collins's older sister, which began when Collins was still living at home with his parents. As a result, the first rock concert Jason actually went to was Genesis with Collins on drums and Peter Gabriel on vocals at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in 1974.

He once owned a treasured autograph of Spike Milligan. Later, Milligan wrote the Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town for The Two Ronnies (1971), and Jason provided them (which he claims to be a master at).

In the mid 1970s, he performed as Blanco, an elderly prisoner, in episodes of Porridge (1974) with Ronnie Barker. He has also done voice work in children's TV.

He was considered for the role of Corporal Jones in the BBC series Dad's Army (1968), which eventually went to Clive Dunn.

His big break came in the 1967 children's comedy show Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967) starring alongside members of the Monty Python team: Terry Jones; Eric Idle, and Michael Palin.

He first appeared on television in a BBC pantomime, Mother Goose (1965) on Boxing Day.

He didn't do any televised drama until he was 26, when he had a recurring role on Crossroads (1964). Although the show has a bad reputation, he's defended it. After doing a guest spot, he was asked to become a regular but he declined because he didn't want to be tied down to playing just one character at this stage in his career.

After discovering that there was already a "David White" registered with Equity, he took the name "David Jason". It has long and popularly been rumoured that the name "Jason" came from his twin brother who had died in infancy. This is incorrect. His twin brother died without being named, and he chose "David Jason" as his stage name from his favourite book at school Jason and the Argonauts (1963).

Bob Monkhouse was enthusiastic about David Jason's comic potential and attempted to put together a pilot film for him called "Jason" in the late 1960s-early 1970s.

David Jason was born in Edmonton, London, in 1940.