Jethro (1948-2021)
Alias:
Geoffrey Rowe
Birthplace:
St Buryan
Born:
March 12, 1948
Died:
December 14, 2021
Geoffrey Rowe known by his stage name Jethro, was a British stand-up comedian and singer, born in Cornwall. He was born in St Buryan, Cornwall, the son of a farmer, and after leaving school apprenticed as a carpenter and worked in the Levant tin mine. He joined the local operatic society in St Just, as a bass singer, and then started touring pubs and clubs in Cornwall, singing traditional songs and developing his comedy act. From 1967 he also played rugby as a prop forward in over 100 matches for Penzance & Newlyn RFC, which later became the Cornish Pirates. The name 'Jethro' came from his real name, Geoff Rowe, influenced by the character Jethro in The Beverly Hillbillies television show. After his popularity grew in Cornwall and Devon through the 1980s, he made his first national television performance in 1990 on the Des O'Connor Show, making several subsequent appearances. He also appeared on Jim Davidson's programmes, and on regional television, though much of his material was considered unsuitable for a television audience. He produced his first video, A Portion of Jethro, in 1993, followed by several others. He has also claimed that, during the height of his popularity, he sold some 250,000 theatre seats a year. In 2001, he appeared in a Royal Variety Performance. He lived for some time at Lewdown, in Devon close to the Cornwall border, where he bred horses and owned a comedy club which closed in 2012. In 1995, he walked from Land's End to Lewdown and raised £20,000 for a cancer scanner appeal. In February 2020 he announced that he was retiring from public performances at the end of the year. He died in Plymouth on 14 December 2021, at the age of 73. An official notice said that he had contracted COVID-19 in the time leading up to his death.