Lawrence Hilton, the talent behind one of SPAR’s most successful advertising campaigns, has passed away in the UK at the age of 63 after a brief battle with cancer. The campaign won for SPAR and Hilton, the Grand Prix Loerie Award for Best Campaign.
Hilton hailed from East London, studied Speech and Drama at Rhodes University in the 1980s and worked in South Africa before moving to the UK over thirty years ago where he carved out an impressive career in the industry. His ability to improvise and entertain off the cuff was remarkable.
His partner of 34 years, Pierre Jaques De Villiers, wrote on Facebook.
“It is with great sadness that I am posting today to notify you that our dear Lawrence Hilton has passed away peacefully after a brief bout with lung cancer. He left us all far too soon and I know he will be sorely missed. I was with him these past 34 years through thick and thin and held him in my arms as he breathed his last breath. He was my life partner, my friend, and my dearest love. We were inseparable, working together over the years, traveling more recently to Italy to visit the great history sites, and living happily here in the South of England”.
“Many of you know him from his days performing to the troops years ago in the SA Army, or doing Corporate gigs as Ambassador Mavis Thorndyke , or as the silly SPAR guy with his weekly specials, even here in England he worked as an English Language teacher and was adored by his students for his irreverent approaches to teaching homophones and conjunctives!”
Lawrence improvised over 550 commercials in this multi-award-winning campaign for SPAR - here are the first three in the series.
May you RIP Lawrence.
