Editing Max Wall (section)

===Early career===
Wall auditioned for a part with a touring theatre company, and made his stage début at the age of 14 as Jack in ''[[Mother Goose]]'' with a travelling [[pantomime]] company in [[Devon]] and [[Cornwall]] featuring [[Pantomime dame|George Lacey]]. In 1925 he was a speciality dancer in the London Revue at the [[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum]].  He became determined not to rely on his father's name, so abbreviated Maxwell to Max, and his stepfather's name Wallace, to Wall.<ref name=voices>{{cite web|url=http://voices-of-variety.com/max-wall/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140112192922/http://voices-of-variety.com/max-wall/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=12 January 2014 |title=Max Wall |publisher=Voices of Variety |access-date=27 May 2014}}</ref>

He is best remembered for his ludicrously attired and hilariously strutting ''Professor Wallofski''. [[John Cleese]] has acknowledged Wall's influence on his own "[[Ministry of Silly Walks]]" sketch for ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-23-mn-33-story.html|title=Max Wall; British Dancer-Comedian Gained Fame in Beckett Plays|date=23 May 1990|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> After appearing in many [[Musical theatre|musical]]s and stage comedies in the 1930s, Wall's career went into decline, and he was reduced to working in obscure [[nightclub]]s. He then joined the [[Royal Air Force]] during [[World War II]] and served for three years until he was invalided out in 1943.<ref name=voices/>

Wall married dancer Marion Pola and the couple had five children. In an interview with the family in the mid-1950s, ''[[Tit-Bits]]'' magazine wrote: "The kind of private jokes you find in all the nicest families flourish with the Walls. After Max and his wife, Marion, had their first son, Michael, it seemed kind of natural to make a corner in names beginning with 'M', and there are now Melvyn (aged nine), Martin (nearly five) and the four-month-old twins Meredith and Maxine. ... In the same way, because the Walls, like other couples married during the war, were eventually thrilled when they found a house with four walls of their own, they decided to call it just that, only Martin arrived and made it 'Five Walls'."<ref name=voices/>

In a rare outing to the musical stage he played Hines in the original London production of ''[[The Pajama Game]]'', which opened at the [[London Coliseum]] in October 1955 and ran for 588 performances. In that year he began an affair with Jennifer Chimes, the 1955 [[Miss Great Britain]]. He divorced his wife and married Jennifer in 1956. The relationship attracted widespread press condemnation. In 1957 Wall experienced mental health issues that affected his work. Jennifer and Max divorced in 1962.<ref name=voices/>