Benny Hill. Our "Boy Eternal:" Meaning. On the family gravestone of comedian and actor Benny Hill, it says: Also of Southampton's Benny Hill Born Alfred Hawthorne Hill 1924 - 1992 Comedian. Son. Brother. Friend. Our "Boy Eternal." God Bless. I was so touched by this expression, our boy eternal. It must be a term of endearment. "To be boy eternal," is a line from Shakespeare's "A Winters Tale." So maybe the expression comes from there. Benny Hill, who lived a very modest life, never married and had no children, but the entire society of Southampton adopted him as their "boy eternal." That's how I read this.