Charles Elgerton Hyatt's widow Majorie, is being comforted by son Khary (right) at the service of thanksgiving for the late actor at the Holy Trinity Cathedral on North Street in Kingson. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

February 14, 1931:

My mother, Ruth Caroline Hyatt, laughs with joy when I step on to the stage of life. She is my first fan. My father, Herbert Hyatt, boasts to his friends that I will be a lover boy. After all, I am born on Valentine's Day.

February 1, 1956:

I have got a job at D. Henderson & Company on King Street in Kingston, as a junior salesman. I guess I am really a junior, junior salesman for their refrigerators, radiophones, electric stoves and electric fans. I do not receive a salary; just a commission from what I sell. Some days me sell nothing.

September 20, 1956:

Lloyd Reckord asks me to to be a member of the cast of the play Miss Unusual which opens tonight at the Ward Theatre. Others in the play are Phyllis Hollar, Marceline Cameron, Lola Parkinson, Tony Watson, Barbara Goodison, and Lloyd himself. I have already played in five LTM Pantomimes, and have been in the variety concerts at the Carib Theatre with Buddy Ilgner, Julien Iffla and Bunny Neil, the Christmas morning shows at the Ward, and have become a member of the Caribbean Thespians through the influence of Eric Coverley. Oh yes, there was also the play Lysistrata directed by Barry Reckord and presented at the UWI cricket field at Mona last year with Mary Reckord, Vilma Cupidon, Joyce Walker, Mitsie Townsend, Louis Marriott, John Maxwell, Ronnie Llamos, Sheila Kirkaldy, Jean Hill, and, of course, me. Ancille Gloudon did the lighting.

June 12, 1957:

The house at 19 Half-Way Tree Road, St. Andrew, belonging to journalist, actor and stage producer Vere Johns was destroyed by fire recently, and tonight I have the pleasure of producing a successful benefit concert to raise funds to help him. Over 50 artistes give their talent, including the Baba Motta and Sonny Brad-shaw orchestras, comedians Bim and Bam, and Hyacinth Clover, Wilfred Edwards, Roland Alphonso, Tony Brown and dancers Sparky and Pluggy. Me feel gooood!

June 24, 1957:

Time of Your Life which opens at the Ward Theatre tonight is the next play in which I appear. It has a cast of 27. Beautiful Barbara Lewars plays the part of Kelly a burlesque queen, and Reggia Carter is a young loafer with plenty of money to spare. Then there is Elsie Hollar, Easton Lee, Gordon Wells, Winston Tate, Winston Stona, Mona Chin, Keith Sasso and Slade Hopkinson in the cast.

June 1, 1959:

The JBC radio begins broadcasting, and Louis Marriott and I play the role of two fishermen who go fishing during Holy Week, (which is not the done thing). The boat capsizes and the two of us hold on to the boat and try to splash our way home. The play, Law of the Beach, is written by Fitzroy Fraser and produced by Robin Midgley. Musical accompaniment is by Ernest Ranglin on guitar.

June 30, 1959:

Today, Gunboat Beach on the Palisadoes strip is opened with a beach fashion show featuring bikini bath suits and other beachwear worn by four of Jamaica's most beautiful beauties, Dianne Rodgers, Betty Holtz, Ingrid Marzouca, Rosie DeSouza and yours truly, lover boy, me! The function is organised by Hartley Neita and Corina Meeks and the MC is Cynthia Wilmot.

August 19, 1959:

Me an' Lennie Chin an' Bill Raeburn, yes we three mad men, ride a Vesper Scooter from Hope Gardens to Blue Mountain peak. How? We squeeze up.

December 19, 1959:

Vera Lawrence becomes my bride at the St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Spanish Town. The ceremony is performed by Rev. Fr. Clarence Roper. My friend Baba Motta, the great pianist, is my bestman, and Vera's bridesmaid is her sister Claudette.

June 14, 1960:

George Carter and I are awarded Travel Scholarships. First time me leaving the rock. The plane ride sweet-sweet. My award is - read this an' mek you eye pop open - "for setting and maintaining an extremely high standard in comedy performance". George's scholarship is for his role "in the development of stage lighting in Jamaica".

December 26, 1960:

I get a speaking part in this year's Little Theatre Movement's pantomime, Carib Gold, and guess what? I am the lover boy my father expected. I play the part of Charles Poulette and my fiancée is the beautiful and gorgeous Judith Willoughby. Yes man, lover boy I am.

April 15, 1961:

Leonie Forbes and I leave Palisadoes Airport to go to jolly old England. I get to go through a Travel Scholarship from the Ministry of Housing and Social Welfare "for setting and maintaining a high standard of comedy performance". I also get a bursary from the British Council and I'll be studying at the Windsor Repertory Theatre, south of London. Leonie will do a two-year course at the Royal Academy of Drama.

July 29, 1962:

I am a headliner in the first of a series of Independence Roadside Concerts which have been organised to showcase Jamaica's best talents all over Jamaica. Tonight's takes place at the Trench Town Park. Other artistes who appear include the Frats Quintet, the Eddie Thomas and Ivy Baxter Dance troupes, Mapletoft Poule and his orchestra, Count Prince Miller, the West Kingston Pocomania Group, and the Kingston Kumina dancers. One of my mentors, Ranny Williams, is the MC.

June 21, 1964:

I leave London - where I have been studying drama - for Jamaica to co-star along with Hollywood great Anthony Quinn in a 20th Century Fox movie, A High Wind in Jamaica. I have just done a television show, Jezebel from the UK written by Jamaican poet, Evan Jones.

August 30, 1966:

Shore in the Sun, in which I play the main role, opens at the Cambridge Theatre in London, England. The story is about the construction of a hotel in Jamaica.

June 12, 1967:

I am one of two sons in a mixed marriage in the BBC-TV drama, The Bloodknot set in apartheid South Africa. My other brother can pass for white. I have my own problems because in trying to find a pen friend, I unwittingly write a white girl - which is absolutely taboo in South Africa.

May 31, 1968:

My wife Vera gives birth to our first daughter, Vauna, in London, England.

August 15, 1968:

Me head nearly swell with conceit when me read the comments in the London Times and The Guardian newspapers about my cameo performance at the Ambience Restaurant near Hyde Park in London in a little playlet, The Electronic, The Times says, "Charles Hyatt is admirably commanding," and The Guardian says "Hyatt overflows with confidence". Heh, heh!

November 9, 1968:

Calypso and steel band music echo in the lofty pillars of St. Paul's, when London's great Cathedral becomes the setting for a Caribbean Evening. It is organised by Hyacinth Turiff and Pam Beshoff, Jamaica's information officers and their Caribbean colleagues in the high commissions in London. They invite me to be the MC. Among the performers are the Trinidad Folk Dancers, the West Indian Students Folk Group, concert pianist Maxine Franklin and tenor David Reid. Karlene Waddell, Miss Jamaica 1968 who is in London to compete in the Miss World beauty contest, is our special guest.

February 16, 1970:

My wife Vera and I become the parents of another daughter, Charlene, in London, England.

June 12, 1970:

Singer Myrna Hague joins me and some of my friends - Buddy Pouyatt, Rupert Bent and Sonny Bradshaw - in the Celebrity Room of the Courtleigh Manor Hotel. The music sweet!

July 2, 1972:

I find myself sitting beside two beauties (lover boy, again) - Jamaican movie actress, Esther Anderson, and Hope Sealy at the premiere in England of Perry Henzell's movie The Harder They Come at the Classic Cinema in Brixton, London. Other Jamaican VIPs are Vida Menzies, tennis star Richard Russell, Louis Marriott and Cecil Collier.

September 12, 1972:

My good friend Yvonne Jones produces Smile Orange by Trevor Rhone at the Acton Court Hotel in London. It opens tonight and I share the stage with Louis Marriott, Mona Hammond, Stefan Kalifat, Trevor Thomas and Monica White.

November 16, 1972:

A son, Charles, is born to my wife, Vera and me, in London. He is not a junior, as I am not yet a senior citizen.

May 26, 1974:

William Shakespeare's Macbeth is this year's GCE 'A' level English language subject, and Hartley Neita and Sam Hillary of the JIS, along with the JBC TV mount a production of the play directed by Wycliffe Bennett on television. The cast includes Carrol Dawes, Eddie Baugh, Bobby Ghisays, Claudia Robinson, Trevor Nairne, Barbara McCalla , Stafford Harrison, and me.

June 27, 1974:

My friend of many years, Sonny Bradshaw, invites me to participate in the first Tastee Patties concert at their open-air theatre in Cross Roads, St. Andrew. Sonny has persuaded the owners of Tastee to provide Jamaican artistes with an opportunity to present their talents to the public. Incidentally, Nadine Sutherland wins the first prize in the artistes' contest. Go there, girl!

July 30, 1974:

I smile with joy when Marjorie Irons tells Rev. Phillip Robinson that she she will love me for the rest of my life. I also tell the minister that I will love her for the rest of my life. Her sister Evelyn Williams is her bridesmaid and giving me bestman support is my friend Guy Morris.

November 3, 1974:

The Impossible Takes Longer is the title of a television series which begins on the BBC-TV, and boy, I am the star! The programme will be broadcast on Mondays, Wednes-days and Fridays.

December 9, 1975:

The movie, The Marijuana Affair, in which I have a major role, has its premiere at the Carib Theatre. It is produced by promoter Lucien Chen and Hollywood producer William Marshall. The cast includes Calvin Lockhart, Carl Bradshaw, Evett Hussey, Basil Keane, Ranny Williams and attoprney and politician Dudley Thompson.

May 11, 1976:

The first in a series of dramatic stories and legends of Jamaica starts on JBC Radio and RJR. This one is the story of The Dome in Montego Bay and it is narrated by Neville Willoughby. The stories will be broadcast three times each week by the JBC and twice by RJR, and feature Leonie Forbes, me and other Jamaican actors and actresses. The programmes are directed by Slade Hopkinson and Tony Scott and produced by Hartley Neita of the Jamaica Tourist Board.

February 17, 1978:

I receive a letter from the Institue of Jamaica informing me that the board of governors have awarded me a Musgrave Silver Medal. Me, oh my!

December 12, 1981:

Winsome Samms, Keith Sasso, Karl Binger, Barbara Harriott, Karen Ford and I appear in Trevor Rhone's Old Story Time which reopens at the Way Out Theatre, Jamaica Pegasus hotel, for a brief Christmas run to give Jamaicans returning home for the holidays the opportunity to see this classic.

October 10, 1982:

Tonight, Barbara McCalla, Grace McGhie and Homer Heron bow proudly from the stage at the end of the 100th performance of Two Can Play by Trevor Rhone at the Way Out Theatre. The curtain calls are many. We bow, and we bow, and we bow.

December 12, 1989:

Me hand cramp up with the whole heap of autograph me have to sign when me book, When Me Was a Boy is published by the Institute of Jamaica Publications. In it I reflect on my life during the 1930s and 1940s.

November 13, 2000:

Our friend, John Jones, actor and singer, has died, and his friends and theatre family celebrate his life at the Little Theatre on Tom Redcam Avenue, St. Andrew. Along with me are the actors and actresses of CVM-TV's Royal Palm Estate, John McFarlane, Beverley Dexter, Peter Ashbourne, Louis Marriott, Easton Lee, Leonie Forbes, Myrna Hague and Karen Smith.

August 8, 2002:

Friends and theatre family of Eric Coverley who has died in Toronto recently get together to remember him at the Little Theatre. Among those paying tribute to this great man are Ken Mock Yen, Lois Kelly Miller, Leonie Forbes, Cecil Cooper, Jimmy Tucker and David Reid.

December 12, 2003:

The Sunday Gleaner publishes the first of a series of weekly articles by me under the title, Charlie's World.

November 25, 2005:

Once again, I have a script for the play, Hot Spot, by Basil Dawkins, which gives me great joy. The play which opens at the Little Little Theatre is directed by Buddy Pouyatt and my co-stars are Margaret Newland, Volier Johnson and a new young talent Zandria Maye. This is one of Basil's best.

January 1, 2007:

Well, it's time for your Valentine lover boy to say goodbye and thanks, thanks, thanks, for being such a great audience.

- Compiled by Hartley Neita