Famous Like Me > Actor > C > Tony Christie
Profile of Tony Christie
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| Name: |
Tony Christie |
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| Date of Birth: |
25th April 1943 |
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| Place of Birth: |
Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, England, UK |
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| Profession: |
Actor |
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From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Tony Christie (born Antony Fitzgerald in 25 April, 1943) is a British male singer from Conisborough, South Yorkshire.
Born with the real name Anthony Fitzgerald on 25 April 1943, he had two top twenty hits in the UK charts in 1971 with "I Did What I Did For Maria" and "Is This The Way To Amarillo". He also had a minor hit with "Avenues and Alleyways", the theme to the television series The Protectors.
He played the role of Magaldi in the original 1976 album recording of the musical Evita and sought to represent the UK in the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest but came third in the national contest to select an entrant behind eventual contest winners Brotherhood of Man.
Although his popularity waned in his native Britain through most of the 1980s and 1990s, he maintained a successful singing career in continental Europe in this period.
In 1999 he was the vocalist on the Jarvis Cocker-penned UK top ten hit "Walk Like A Panther" by the Sheffield band All Seeing I.
In 2002 "Is This the Way to Amarillo" was used in the comedy series Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, leading to a resurgence in his popularity. The song was re-released on 14 March 2005 to raise money for the Comic Relief charity and reached number one in the charts (outselling all the first release's chart run put together), led to the biggest sales for a #1 single for the year with 7 weeks at number 1 and became the longest running chart-topper since Cher's "Believe", almost 7 years earlier. The single was credited as "featuring Peter Kay", though Kay only appeared in the video; the audio track was identical to the original 1971 issue. His album, The Definitive Collection also climbed to the #1 spot the following week breaking all records when he also came in at number one on the downloads chart. In 2005 covered the Dutch singer Albert West his single. This single became the 25th posision in the Dutch hit parade [[Top 40]].
Following the song's success he was awarded the freedom of Amarillo, Texas, and a guest appearance on the Yorkshire-based British soap opera Emmerdale.
A few months later he re-released another single "Avenues & Alleyways", as a follow-up to the success of "Amarillo". Though this only reached #26 on the UK Singles Chart, it once again outperformed the original release, which reached #37 in 1973.
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