Stanley Unwin, 90; Comedian Gained Fame by Talking Nonsense

Stanley Unwin, 90, a comedian who turned talking nonsense into an art form of sorts, died of undisclosed causes Saturday at a hospital in Daventry, England.

Unwin, who played the chancellor in the 1968 film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” was a former BBC engineer who became affectionately known as “Professor” Unwin after achieving fame on BBC radio in the 1940s and ‘50s and later on television.

He created his own blend of malapropisms and nonsense by telling bedtime stories to his children. But his inspiration came from his mother. She once tripped while walking down the street and confusingly told her son that she had “falloloped over and grozed” her knee.

Unwin made a good living coining such verbal nonsense. Of Colonel Sanders, he once observed: “He was the fry chicky-flame with tasty jaws savoury-seeky herby blend.”