Reg Smythe (10 July 1917 - 13 June 1998; Hartlepool, UK)
Born in Hartlepool, County Durham, the son of a boat builder, Reg Smythe was a British cartoonist who created the popular, long-running Andy Capp comic strip.

With his father chronically unemployed, he grew up in poverty, and often referred to himself as a "canvas shoes kid." He attended Galley's Field School on the Hartlepool Headland but left at fourteen to take a job as a butcher's errand boy. In 1936, after a period of unemployment, he joined the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers and was posted to Egypt. His father died during his service.

He served during the Second World War in the North African Campaign, and was assigned to a tank demolition team. Promoted to sergeant, he was demoted to corporal for a minor disciplinary offence, and was ultimately medically discharged for a stomach ulcer after a stint in an Edinburgh hospital in 1945. He was awarded the 1939-1945 Star, the Africa Star, the Defence Medal and the War Medal 1939-1945, for his service. During this time he developed his talent for drawing, designing posters for amateur dramatic productions and selling cartoons to Cairo magazines.

He worked as a post office telephone clerk before freelancing as a cartoonist for the Daily Mirror in 1954. Influenced by his mentor Leslie Harding ("Styx") he produced a regular feature Laughter at Work before creating Andy Capp in 1957.

Capp is thought to have been based on Smythe's father, although Smythe never confirmed that, perhaps because in one early cartoon he depicted Andy as a wife-beater, something he later regretted. Smythe's mother recognised her late husband in Andy, although she insisted Richard was not a violent man. Capp's headgear was inspired by a fellow spectator at a football match Smythe had attended when young, who took off his cap when it started to rain, because he didn't want to wear a wet cap at home that evening.

Originally commissioned for the Mirror's northern edition, Andy Capp was soon appearing in all editions nationwide. The first collection of Andy Capp cartoons was published in 1958. The strip became internationally popular, appearing in at least 700 newspapers in 34 countries, including the Chicago Sun-Times in the USA. While in America the title became "Andy Capp - Our English Cousin," the punning resisted translation: in Sweden it was titled "Tuffa Viktor", in Germany "Willi Wacker", in Austria "Charlie Kappl", in Italy "Carlo e Alice" (instead of Andy and Flo), in The Netherlands "Jan met de Pet", in France "André Chapeau", in Turkey "Güngörmez Dursun", in Iceland "Siggi sixpensari" and in Denmark "Kasket Karl". Later he was called "Linke Loetje" when published in the "Volkskrant" newspaper.

Smythe returned to his hometown of Hartlepool in 1976, living a reclusive life on a large estate. His first wife, Vera, died in 1997, and in 1998 he married Jean Marie Glynn Barry, but later the same year he died of lung cancer, aged 80. He had left a stockpile of more than a year's worth of Andy Capp cartoons. His contract with the Daily Mirror had required him to train a replacement, but he had not done so. After the stockpile had been published, the strip was continued by writer Roger Kettle and artist Roger Mahoney.

In 1982 an Andy Capp musical was produced, starring Tom Courtenay with music by Alan Price, first in Manchester, later in London, and then to great success in Finland. A TV series aired on ITV in 1988, written by Keith Waterhouse and starring James Bolam, but ratings were poor and a second series was cancelled.

Syndicated worldwide to 1400 newspapers in 31 countries, read by 175 million people in 13 languages, the Andy Capp strip based on the flat-capped Northerner has become an institution.