Josef Locke

Josef Locke, the celebrated tenor whose career provided the basis for the 1992 motion picture Hear My Song, entered the world as Joseph McLaughlin on March 23, 1917, in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Church performances began for him at the age of seven, yet by sixteen he had joined the Irish Guards; overseas duty with the Palestine Police followed before he came back to Ireland and enlisted with the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Local variety-club appearances soon earned McLaughlin the sobriquet “The Singing Bobby.” Although his initial programs featured operatic arias, tenor John McCormack encouraged a shift toward lighter fare, while impresario Jack Hylton supplied the stage name Josef Locke.

His debut commercial release, “Santa Lucia,” appeared in 1947; later the same year he issued “Hear My Song, Violetta,” the performance that remained his trademark. Subsequent recordings ranged across traditional Irish ballads such as “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen” and “Galway Bay,” operatic pieces including “My Heart and I” and “Goodbye,” and Italian successes like “Come Back to Sorrento” and “Cara Mia.” A pair of British comedy films, Holidays with Pay in 1948 and What a Carry On the following year, also featured him. Nineteen successive summers found Locke on the bill at the seaside resort of Blackpool.

Tax difficulties prompted his abrupt departure from England in 1958 at the height of his popularity; nearly ten years elapsed before he returned, taking up residence in County Kildare. During the absence, the lookalike vocalist Erik Ellison, billed by audiences as “Mr. X,” performed Locke’s material onstage—an impersonation that continued to create confusion for both men. Thereafter Locke restricted himself to charity events until the 1992 release of Hear My Song, the comic fantasy in which Ned Beatty portrayed a character drawn from the singer’s life, restored public attention. He died on October 15, 1999.