Gordon Irving Kaye (7 April 194123 January 2017), known professionally as Gorden Kaye, was an English actor, best known for playing womanising café owner René Artois in the television comedy series 'Allo 'Allo!. Early life Kaye was born on 7 April 1941 in Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire, the only child of Harold and Gracie Kaye; Gracie was 42 when she gave birth. Harold Kaye was a lorry driver in the ARP during the Second World War, and at other times worked as an engineer in a tractor factory. When young, Kaye played rugby league for Moldgreen ARLFC before studying at King James's Grammar School, Almondbury, Huddersfield. He worked in hospital radio in Huddersfield (interviewing Ken Dodd and then the Beatles in 1963 when they played the Ritz in the town), and worked in textile mills, a wine factory, and a tractor factory. Career Kaye had appeared in a radio play directed by Alan Ayckbourn and also in a television play from Manchester. Ayckbourn suggested that he audition for the Bolton Octagon Theatre; he was offered a contract and his roles there included Pishchik in The Cherry Orchard followed by roles in The Homecoming, The Imaginary Invalid, Luther, and a double-bill of Oedipus and Cyclops. He made his TV debut as a railway guard in the BBC's Yorkshire mill drama Champion House (1968) and played small roles in such films as The Party's Over (1965), starring Oliver Reed. Having been seen by Pat Phoenix in Little Malcolm by David Halliwell at Bolton, he was cast as Bernard Butler, the nephew of Elsie Tanner (Phoenix), in the soap opera Coronation Street in 1969. He later made an impression on producer/writer David Croft following guest roles in It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Come Back Mrs. Noah. He appeared in the 1978 comedy short The Waterloo Bridge Handicap, starring Leonard Rossiter, and featured as Dines in the feature film version of Porridge (1979) alongside Ronnie Barker. He also appeared in the drama series All Creatures Great and Small and in the private detective series Shoestring. In 1981, Kaye appeared as Frank Broadhurst in the children's drama serial Codename Icarus. Kaye appeared in three episodes of Croft's British department store sitcom Are You Being Served? and was later offered the lead role in a series he had written called Oh Happy Band!, but Kaye was unavailable and the part went to Harry Worth.