Talk:James Beck

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On 8 May 2024, it was proposed that this article be moved to James Beck (actor). The result of the discussion was not moved.

School

Much of the material in this article can be found on other web sites (see, e.g., those listed at the bottom of the main article). It is not clear to me which articles have priority. Nonetheless, an oft'-repeated claim is that James Beck attended "Popham Elementary School." This seemed strange to me because the British tend not to use the term "Elementary" in their school names. A little digging showed that this was most likely Popham Road Primary School, which was renamed Charles Lamb Primary School around 1949 ^[1] This school was closed in September 2004 and subsequently demolished. Apparently the New North Community School will be built on the same site.^[2] Tm19 08:02, 8 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

^ Patricia Croot, 'Islington: Education', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes (1985), pp. 117-35. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=9063. Date accessed: 08 March 2007.
^ Nicola Quinn, 'New North Community School a model in education!,' Islington Council, Press Release 13-Sep-05. URL: http://www.islington.gov.uk/Council/CouncilNews/PressOffice/2005/09/2168.asp. Date accessed: 08 March 2007.

Elementary School was in fairly familiar usage at least in the Manchester area prior to WW2, as was High School. I have exercise books from that time which reflect that nomenclature. I have no idea whether it is the correct nomenclature in this instance, but certainly it is possible. Sitush 00:08, 30 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

More personal details

It would be good to have more details regarding James Beck's parents, siblings if any, wife, children, place of death, cause of death. Perhaps this will get it out of the "Start" rating. Tm19 08:02, 8 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In a documentary on BBC on 02.08.2008 one of the writers stated that he died aged 39. The article says 44 - which is correct? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.194.38.137 (talk) 21:07, 2 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It should also be noted that according to the BBC documentary he was a heavy drinker, and that it was this that caused his death.—Preceding unsigned comment added by MrTAToad (talk • contribs) 19:19, 2 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the drinking should be mentioned. David Croft, in the documentary, attributes his death to drink, as does Bill Pertwee in his "Dad's Army" book. I've also seen perforated ulcer/s (i.e. peritonitis/sepsis) as his cause of death before, rather than "pancreatitis". I see the COD has no reference, which is naughty. Sambda (talk) 18:51, 27 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Croft appears to be the only source of this assertion. Purple (Raynaud's disease) skin coloring is not caused by drinking. Heavy smoking will do it and particularly in the lower limbs. Tonic water is well known to cause cancer of the pancreas. Beck suffered from pancreatitis, which can be caused by chronic alcohol abuse or by a bacterial infection. At such a stage of abuse Beck should have been showing other outward symptoms. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 14.202.184.103 (talk) 22:37, 29 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

According to Clive Dunn, Beck drank gin and tonic. Persistent quinine intake is fatally toxic for the pancreas. Alcoholics who drink g&t usually die from pancreatitis or pancreatic cancer well before their liver packs up. Purple legs are more symptomatic of heavy smoking and little activity.61.68.71.253 (talk) 22:37, 3 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Acute pancreatitis fits with Beck's short fatal illness. Alcoholism is a well known risk. I'm a fan of Dad's army who missed his presence in the show terribly. 2403:6200:8853:2BCD:30C7:3686:5CF6:FE52 (talk) 12:10, 10 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Personal details

Bbb 2A02:C7D:1616:C100:4CBB:9212:E964:AD14 (talk) 20:39, 1 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Unreferenced material moved from main article

The following unreferenced material was moved from main article to Talk, so as to clean off the tag. Please feel free to reinsert this info as soon as good references can be found to back it up.

His childhood was hard, with his father frequently unemployed and his mother making artificial flowers to provide a small income.
While successful in the role, Beck yearned for the challenge of other roles.
He was cremated at Putney Vale Cemetery, where a tree was planted in his memory, with a marker bearing his name.
In the sixth series, during the episode "Things that Go Bump in the Night", Walker is present only in the location scenes in the second half of the episode, as these were filmed weeks earlier than the studio scenes. In one of the videotaped sequences filmed while Beck was in hospital, the platoon is aboard Corporal Jones's van when Captain Mainwaring tells Sergeant Wilson to "take Private Walker's name". Wilson writes the name "Walker" in the condensation on the window.
This was the last time the character was mentioned.
In the radio adaptations of Dad's Army, Graham Stark stood in until Larry Martyn portrayed Walker in subsequent shows. John Bardon played Walker in the stage production in 1976.—Preceding unsigned comment added by James Kevin McMahon (talk • contribs) 09:20, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 8 May 2024

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. Arguments are clear that the English actor seems to hold the primary topic for now by current usage and historical significance, if we base the latter off of the mass views which goes back to 2015, barring any additional data it will be hard to see this otherwise. (closed by non-admin page mover) ASUKITE 15:05, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

James Beck → James Beck (actor)
James Beck (disambiguation) → James Beck

– There are eight men listed upon the James Beck (disambiguation) page, with little likelihood that the supporting actor, who died more than half a century ago, has continued to retain such renown that it overshadows the combined notability of the remaining seven men. — Roman Spinner (talk • contribs) 04:38, 8 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, I think we need the long-term significance argument fleshed out, because usage seems pretty decisively in favor of status quo.

WikiNav (clickstreams for March) doesn't even show the hatnote, and searching the meta:Research:Wikipedia clickstream archive for the last 10 months found 21 identified clicks in February, 11 in October and 13 in August, all other seven months it's likely below the anonymization threshold. At an article with thousands of views and outgoing clickstreams, that's not a lot.

In February, the traffic spiked[1] and so the ratio is even worse, ~0.04% of 50059 incoming views and ~0.2% of 10729 identified outgoing clickstreams. In October, it was ~0.1% of 10102 incoming views and ~0.4% of 2607 outgoing clickstreams. We've got precedent to move even in such cases, but the case needs to be strong.

All-time mass views for the whole list is pretty slanted, about 492 : 25, that's almost 20 : 1. --Joy (talk) 09:34, 8 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose. My intuition is with you on this one, Roman Spinner, but the numbers don't lie: the actor makes up over 90% of all pageviews. If it's only 60%, then as a general rule I might be inclined to support a primary topic in the case of someone super-famous and no primary topic otherwise, but this is not even close. And the actor isn't that obscure; he gets about 25% the pageviews of Jimmy Wales. -- King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 04:32, 9 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose by usage ([2]). James Beck is orders of magnitude more popular than any other page. Shhhnotsoloud (talk) 10:42, 12 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

[1] Patricia Croot, 'Islington: Education', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes (1985), pp. 117-35. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=9063. Date accessed: 08 March 2007.

[2] Nicola Quinn, 'New North Community School a model in education!,' Islington Council, Press Release 13-Sep-05. URL: http://www.islington.gov.uk/Council/CouncilNews/PressOffice/2005/09/2168.asp. Date accessed: 08 March 2007.

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