This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2012)

Thomas Frederick "Tommy" Cooper (19 March 1921 – 15 April 1984) was a popular Welsh prop comedian and magician from Caerphilly, South Wales.

Cooper was a member of The Magic Circle, and respected by traditional magicians. Famed for his red fez, his appearance was large and lumbering at 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and more than 15 stone (210 lb; 95 kg) in weight.^[5]

On 15 April 1984, Cooper collapsed and soon after died from a heart attack in front of millions of television viewers, midway through his act on the London Weekend Television variety show Live From Her Majesty's, transmitted live from Her Majesty's Theatre. His stage persona required that his act intentionally went wrong for comic purposes, leading to some initial uncertainty about whether this collapse was real.

Biography[link]

Born in Caerphilly, South Wales, at 19 Llwyn Onn Street, Trecenydd, Cooper was delivered by the woman who owned the house in which the family was lodging. His parents were Welsh-born army recruiting sergeant father Thomas H. (Tom) Cooper, and his English-born wife Gertrude (née Gertrude C. Wright) from Crediton, Devon.^[6][7] In light of the heavily polluted air and the offer of a job for his father, the family moved to Exeter, Devon, when Cooper was three and gained the West Country accent that was part of his act.^[8]

The family lived in the back of Haven Banks, where Cooper attended Mount Radford School for Boys, and helped his parents run their ice cream van, which attended fairs on the weekend. At the age of eight an aunt bought Cooper a magic set and he spent hours perfecting the tricks.^[9]

Magic ran in his family—his brother David (born 1930)^[10] opened a magic shop in the 1960s in Slough High Street (then Buckinghamshire now Berkshire) called D. & Z. Cooper's Magic Shop.^[11]

World War II[link]

After school, Cooper became a shipwright in Hythe, Hampshire, and in 1940 was called up as a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards regiment of the British Army in World War II. He served initially in Montgomery's Desert Rats in Egypt. Cooper became part of the NAAFI entertainment party and developed an act around his magic tricks interspersed with comedy. One evening in Cairo, during a sketch in which he was supposed to be in a costume which required a pith helmet, having forgotten the prop, Cooper reached out and borrowed the fez from a passing waiter which got huge laughs.^[12] It was from this incident that stemmed two of the attributes that were a hallmark of his later act: the ever-present fez hat and his aptitude for slapstick comedy.

Act development[link]

When he was demobbed after seven years of military service, Cooper took up show business on Christmas Eve, 1947—he would later add a popular monologue about his military experience as "Cooper the Trooper". Cooper worked in variety theatres around the country and at London's Windmill Theatre, where he performed 52 shows per week.^[12]

Cooper had developed his conjuring skills and was a member of The Magic Circle, but there are various versions as to where he developed his act delivery of "failed" magic tricks:^[12]

• Performing to his shipbuilding colleagues when everything went wrong. Devastated, Cooper still noted that the failed tricks got laughs.
• During his British Army career.
• At a post-war audition, at which his tricks went wrong, but which the panel thoroughly enjoyed.

To keep the audience on their toes, Cooper threw in the occasional trick that worked when it was least expected.

Career[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

In 1947 Cooper got his big break with Miff Ferrie, at that time trombonist in a band called The Jackdaws, who booked him to appear as the second spot comedian in a show starring sand dance act "Marqueeze and the Dance of the Seven Veils". Cooper then began a two-year period of arduous performing. Ir included a tour of Europe and a stintin pantomime, playing one of Cinderella's ugly sisters. The period culminated in a season long booking at the Windmill Theatre where he doubled up doing cabarets, one week performing in 52 shows. Ferrie would remain Cooper's sole agent for the next 37 years, until Cooper's death in 1984.

Cooper rapidly became a top-liner in variety with his turn as the conjurer whose tricks never succeeded, but it was his television work which raised him to national prominence. After his debut on the BBC talent show New to You in March 1948, he soon started starring in his own shows, and was popular with audiences for four decades, most notably through his work with London Weekend Television from 1968 to 1972 and with Thames Television from 1973 to 1980. Thanks to his many television shows during the mid 70s he was one of the biggest and most recognizable comedians in the world.

Cooper was a heavy drinker and smoker, and experienced a decline in health during the late 1970s, suffering a heart attack in 1977 while in Rome, where he was performing a show. Three months later he was back on television in Night Out at the London Casino. By 1980, though, his drinking meant that Thames Television would not give him another starring series, and Cooper's Half Hour was his last. He did continue to guest on other television shows, however, and worked with Eric Sykes on two Thames productions in 1982:

John Fisher writes in Cooper's biography, "Everyone agrees that he was mean. Quite simply he was acknowledged as the tightest man in show business, with a pathological dread of reaching into his pocket." One of Cooper's stunts was to pay the exact taxi fare and when leaving the cab to slip something into the taxi driver's pocket saying, "Have a drink on me." That something would turn out to be a tea bag.^[13]

By the mid-1970s, alcohol had started to erode Cooper's professionalism and club owners complained that he turned up late or rushed through his show in five minutes. In addition, he suffered chronic indigestion, lumbago, sciatica, bronchitis and severe circulation problems in his legs. When Cooper realised the extent of his injuries he cut down on his drinking and the energy and sparkle returned to his act and some of his later television performances were a revelation. However, he never stopped drinking and could be fallible: on an otherwise triumphant appearance with Parkinson he forgot to set the safety catch on the guillotine illusion into which he had cajoled Parkinson. Only a last-minute intervention by the floor manager saved Parkinson from serious injury or worse.^[14]

Death on a live television show[link]

On 15 April 1984, Cooper collapsed from a heart attack in front of millions of television viewers, midway through his act on the London Weekend Television variety show Live From Her Majesty's, transmitted live from Her Majesty's Theatre—not, as is often reported, the London Palladium.

An assistant had helped him put on a cloak for his sketch, while Jimmy Tarbuck, the host, was hiding behind the curtain waiting to pass him different props which he would then appear to pull from inside his gown.^[15] The assistant smiled at him as he collapsed, believing that it was a joke.^[16] Likewise, the audience laughed as he fell, until it became apparent he was seriously ill.^[15] At this point the show's director, Alasdair MacMillan, cued the orchestra to play music for an unscripted commercial break (noticeable by several seconds of blank screen while LWT's master control contacted regional stations to start transmitting advertisements)^[15] and Jimmy Tarbuck's manager tried to pull Cooper back through the curtains. It was decided to continue with the show. Dustin Gee and Les Dennis were the act that had to follow Tommy Cooper, and other stars proceeded to present their acts in the limited space in front of the stage. For a long time, a rumour circulated that the size 13 feet from his 6' 4" frame protruded underneath the curtains. While the show continued, efforts were being made backstage to revive Cooper, not made easier by the darkness. It was not until a second commercial break that ambulancemen were able to move his body to Westminster Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. His death wasn't officially reported until the next morning, although the incident was the lead item on the news programme that followed the show.

The video of Tommy Cooper suffering a heart attack on stage has been uploaded to numerous video sharing websites. YouTube was heavily criticised by the press when footage of the incident was posted on their website in May 2009.^[16] On 28 December 2011, segments of the Live From Her Majesty's clip, including Cooper collapsing on stage, were screened on Channel 4 in the UK, on a programme titled "The Untold Tommy Cooper".

Cooper was cremated at Mortlake Crematorium in London.^[17] He was survived by his wife, Gwen (whom he called 'Dove'), and two children, Thomas and Vicky, and a two-year-old grandchild, Tam. Cooper's son Thomas, who was an actor in his own right, changed his name for stage to Thomas Henty (his mother's maiden name). Henty said in interviews that, though he loved his dad, he needed his own identity to make a career on stage, and told very few who his famed father was, to further his dramatic acting career. Eventually son Tom travelled on the road as manager to his father. He also acted as occasional stage manager to his father, and was backstage with his father on the night he died. But like his father, son Thomas was a heavy drinker, and he died in August 1988 at Charing Cross Hospital in Fulham, London, aged 32. He died of haematemesis, following complications caused by liver failure. Doctors had attempted to pump seventy pints of new blood into his body, but the blood failed to clot, and after three days his mother took the decision to have his life support machine switched off. Thomas Henty left a son, Tam Henty.

Legacy[link]

Statue of Tommy Cooper, near the castle, in Caerphilly

A statue of Cooper was unveiled in his hometown of Caerphilly, Wales, in 2008 by fellow entertainer Sir Anthony Hopkins, who is patron of The Tommy Cooper Society. The statue was sculpted by James Done.^[18] In 2009 for Red Nose Day, a charity Red Nose was put on the statue, but the nose was stolen.^[18]

In a 2005 poll The Comedians' Comedian, Cooper was voted the sixth greatest comedy act ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. He is commonly cited as one of the best comedians of all time, with several polls placing him at number one.^{[citation needed]}

Jerome Flynn has toured with his own tribute show to Cooper called Just Like That. In February 2007, The Independent reported that Andy Harries, a producer of The Queen, was working on a dramatization about the last week of Tommy Cooper's life.^[19] Harries described Cooper's death as "extraordinary" in that the whole thing was broadcast live on national television.^[20]

dan le sac vs Scroobius Pip wrote a song entitled 'Tommy C—about Cooper's career and death—which appears on their 2008 album Angles.

Recordings[link]

• "Don't Jump Off the Roof Dad" (1961), words and muisc by Cy Coben, single, Palette Records (PG 9019) (a chart hit)
• "Country Dreaming" - 12” LP
• "Ginger" - 7” single
• "Happy Tommy"- 7" single
• "Just Like That" 7” single
• "Masters of Comedy"- CD
• "My Name Is Tommy" - 12” LP
• "No Arms Will Ever Hold You" - 7” single
• "Sweet Words Of Love" - 7" single
• "Tommy Cooper Very Best Of" - CD, DVD
• "Walkin' Home From School" - 7" single
• "We'll Meet Again" - 7" single

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Tommy Cooper Society

Francis Alick "Frankie" Howerd OBE (6 March 1917, York – 19 April 1992)^[1] was an English comedian and comic actor whose career, described by fellow comedian Barry Cryer as "a series of comebacks",^[2] spanned six decades.

Early career[link]

Howerd was born the son of a soldier, Francis Alfred William^[3] (1887–1935)^[4] and Edith Florence Howard^[5] (née Morrison, 1888–1962)^[3][4] at the City Hospital in York, England, in 1917 (not 1922 as he later claimed). He was educated at Shooters Hill Grammar School in Woolwich, London.^[6] His first stage appearance was at age 13 but his early hopes of becoming a serious actor were dashed when he failed an audition for RADA. He began to entertain during World War II service in the British Army. It was at this time that he adapted his surname to Howerd "to be different".^[1] Despite suffering from stage fright, he continued to work after the war, beginning his professional career in the summer of 1946 in a touring show called For the Fun of It.

His act was soon heard on radio, making his debut in early December 1946 on the BBC's Variety Bandbox programme with a number of other ex-servicemen. His profile rose in the immediate postwar period (aided by material written by Eric Sykes, Galton and Simpson and Johnny Speight). In 1954, he made his screen début opposite Petula Clark in The Runaway Bus, which had been written for his specific comic talents, but he never became a major film presence. The film was so low-budget that they could not afford scenery; instead they used a fog generator so that little was visible behind the action. Even so, the film was an immediate hit.

Career revival[link]

Howerd was a regular feature in the 1950s version of the comic Film Fun but when he began experimenting with different formats and contexts, including stage farces, Shakespearean comedy roles, and television sitcoms, he began to fall out of fashion. After suffering a nervous breakdown at the start of the 1960s, he began to recover his old popularity, initially with a season at Peter Cook's satirical Establishment Club in Soho in London. He was boosted further by success on That Was The Week That Was (TW3) in 1963 and on stage with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1963–1965), which led into regular television work. In 1966 and 1967, he co-hosted a 90-minute Christmas show called The Frankie and Bruce Christmas Show with Bruce Forsyth, featuring many top acts of the day.

Through the 1960s and 1970s, he was involved in shows for the BBC and Thames Television (as well as Frankie Howerd Reveals All for Yorkshire Television in 1980). Ray Galton and Alan Simpson wrote for him from 1964 to 1966 when he worked for the BBC and also for a one-off show for Thames, Frankie Howerd meets The Bee Gees, shown on 20 August 1968. He was famous for his seemingly off-the-cuff remarks to the audience, especially in the show Up Pompeii!, which was a direct follow-up from Forum. His television work was characterised by addressing himself directly to the camera and littering his monologues with verbal tics: "Oooh, no missus", "Titter ye not", and so on, but a later sale of his scripts showed that the seemingly off-the-cuff remarks were all planned. Barry Cryer said of his technique: "What he could do with a script was amazing, like all the great performers. He transformed something you'd just written - what you hoped was in a Frankie Howerd idiom - but when you heard him do it, my God, it was something else; - it was gossiping over the garden wall, the apparent waffle - he was like a tightrope walker, you thought he's going to fall off in a minute, you thought , 'Come on, Frank' , we're waiting for a laugh, and then, suddenly, Bang. He knew exactly what he was doing." ^[7] Another feature of his humour was to feign innocence about his obvious and risqué double entendres while mockingly censuring the audience for finding them funny.

In 1971 Howerd recorded, with June Whitfield, a comedy version of the song "Je t'aime", made famous by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, in which she featured as "Mavis" alongside Howerd's "Frank", and a third unexplained sleeping partner named "Arthur". The song was included in the 2004 CD re-issue of Oh! What a Carry On!.

He was awarded an OBE in 1977.

Later career[link]

Portrait by Allan Warren

In 1976, Howerd appeared in The Frankie Howerd Show on CBC Television. It received good ratings but was not renewed^[8]

In 1978, Howerd appeared in the big-budget Hollywood musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band playing Mean Mr Mustard, acting alongside musical and film talent such as Peter Frampton, The Bee Gees, George Burns, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith and Steve Martin. He was cast by producer Robert Stigwood as he was on Stigwood's record label at the time. The film was a critical and commercial flop. Since Howerd was not well known to American audiences, this may have been his biggest exposure in the U.S.

After six years without a regular television show in the United Kingdom (though he had hosted a one-off UK version of The Gong Show for Channel 4, which was critically panned and was not commissioned for a full series), Howerd returned to TV screens in 1987 in the Channel 4 show Superfrank!, scripted by Miles Tredinnick and Vince Powell. In the last years of his career, Howerd developed a following with student audiences and performed a one-man show at universities and in small theatrical venues. He was also a regular and popular guest on the late night BBC Radio 1 programme Into the Night, hosted by Nicky Campbell.

Howerd often worked with Sunny Rogers who was his accompanying pianist from 1960 onwards. She appeared in his TV and live theatre shows including his last major West End appearance—his one-man show—at the Garrick Theatre in 1990. In 1982, Howerd appeared in the televised versions of Trial by Jury (as the Learned Judge) and H.M.S. Pinafore (as Sir Joseph Porter, KCB).

Personal life[link]

Throughout his career, Howerd hid his potentially career-destroying homosexuality (acts between consenting males being illegal in England and Wales until 1967 and illegal in Scotland until 1981) from both his audience and his mother, Edith. In 1955, he met waiter Dennis Heymer, who later became his manager. Heymer was with Howerd for more than thirty years as lighting operator, manager and lover, until Howerd died.

Backstage, Howerd was notoriously bold in his advances, and was known for his promiscuity. One of Howerd's former boyfriends was comic actor Lee Young who created the TV sitcom Whoops Baghdad (1973) for him. Howerd's uncomfortable relationship with his sexuality – he once said to Cilla Black, "I wish to God I wasn't gay" – as well as his depressive mental state, led him to seek resolution through a series of different methods. Heymer would often drop Howerd off on Friday at his psychiatrist, who would ply him with LSD over the weekend.^[9]

Howerd lived for the last twenty or so years of his life in Wavering Down, a house in the village of Cross, Somerset by the Mendip Hills.^[10]

Death[link]

Having contracted a virus during a Christmas trip up the River Amazon in 1991, Howerd suffered respiratory problems at the beginning of April 1992 and was rushed to London's Harley Street clinic, but was released at Easter to enjoy his last few days at home. He collapsed and died of heart failure two weeks afterwards, on the morning of 19 April 1992. He was 75 years old.^[11] Two hours before he died, he was speaking on the telephone to his TV producer about new ideas for his next show.^[12]

Howerd died one day before fellow comedian Benny Hill. News of the two deaths broke almost simultaneously and some newspapers ran an obituary of Howerd in which Hill was quoted as regretting Howerd's passing, saying "We were great, great friends". The quote was released by Hill's agent, who was not aware that his client had died.

Legacy[link]

A BBC TV biography about Frankie Howerd — Rather You Than Me — was broadcast by BBC Four on 9 April 2008. The script was written by Peter Harness, after extensive interviews with Howerd's last boyfriend, Dennis Heymer. The comedian David Walliams was cast as Howerd.^[13]

On 15 May 2009, Dennis Heymer, Howerd's boyfriend, died in the home that he and Howerd had shared near Axbridge, Somerset. He was 80.^[14]

Howerd's home, Wavering Down, is a tourist attraction and, in the summer, hosts concerts and opens regularly as a museum of Howerd's collection of memorabilia and personal effects such as his false teeth and ill-fitting toupee to raise funds for charities.^[10] Howerd's grave is at St. Gregory's Church in Weare, Somerset.

Howerd also lived at 27 Edwardes Square, Kensington, London W8 6HH. The house bears a blue plaque erected by the Dead Comics' Society.

The Church Hall of St Barnabas Church, Eltham is called The Frankie Howerd Centre.^[15]

Works[link]

Recordings[link]

78s and singles[link]

• Nymphs and Shepherds (1940s, with Margaret Rutherford)
• Three Little Fishes (first issued as a 78 in 1940s, re-issued as a single in 1980s)
• I'm The Man Who's Deputising For The Bull (1952, Columbia Records) written by Eric Sykes, acc. by Billy Turnent and His Orchestra)
• English As She Is Spoken (1952, Columbia Records))
• Je t'aime (1971, with June Whitfield)

Albums[link]

• At The Establishment and At The BBC (1963, DECCA, scripted by Barry Took and Marty Feldman)

Television[link]

• That Was The Week That Was (1962)
• East of Howerd (1966)
• Howerd's Hour (1968)
• Carry on Christmas (1969)
• The Frankie Howerd Show (1969)
• Up Pompeii! (1969–75)
• Whoops Baghdad
• The Frankie Howerd Show (1976)
• Howerd Confessions (1976)
• Up the Convicts (1976)
• Frankie Howerd Strikes Again (1981)
• Then Churchill Said to Me (1982)
• Superfrank! (1987)
• All Change (1989)
• Frankie Howerd on Campus (1990)
• Frankie's On... (1992)

Selected filmography[link]

• The Runaway Bus (1954)
• The Ladykillers (1955)
• An Alligator Named Daisy (1955)
• Jumping for Joy (1956)
• A Touch of the Sun (1956)
• Further Up the Creek (1958)
• The Cool Mikado (1962)
• The Fast Lady (1962)
• The Mouse on the Moon (1963)
• The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966)
• Carry On Doctor (1967)
• Carry On Up the Jungle (1969)
• Up Pompeii (1971)
• Up the Chastity Belt (1971)
• Up the Front (1972)
• The House in Nightmare Park (1972)
• Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)

Selected bibliography[link]

• On the Way I Lost It by Frankie Howerd (1976). ISBN 0-491-01807-X.
• The Complete Frankie Howerd by Robert Ross (2001). ISBN 1-903111-08-0.
• Frankie Howerd: Stand-Up Comic by Graham McCann (2004). ISBN 1-84115-310-9.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Frankie Howerd

• Frankie Howerd at the Internet Movie Database
• Frankie Howerd at the Open Directory Project
• Frankie Howerd: Gay Great From Fyne Times Magazine
• Frankie Howerd Week from British Classic Comedy

Sir Michael Parkinson, CBE (born 28 March 1935) is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his interview programme, Parkinson, from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007. He has been described in The Guardian as "the great British talkshow host".^[1]

Early life[link]

Parkinson, or "Parky" as he is known, was born in the village of Cudworth, England. The son of a miner, he was educated at Barnsley Grammar School and passed two O-Levels: in Art and English Language.^{[citation needed]} He was a club cricketer, and both he and his opening partner at Barnsley Cricket Club, Dickie Bird, had trials for Yorkshire together with Geoffrey Boycott.^[2] He once kept Boycott out of the Barnsley Cricket team by scoring a century and 50 in two successive matches.^[3] Parkinson began as a journalist on local newspapers, and his Yorkshire background and accent remain part of his appeal. He worked as a features writer for the Manchester Guardian, working alongside Michael Frayn, and later on the Daily Express in London.^[4] He was also conscripted into National Service as Britain's youngest army captain^[5] and was involved in the Suez Operation in the summer of 1956.

Career[link]

Television[link]

During the 1960s, Parkinson moved into television, working on current affairs programmes for the BBC and Manchester-based Granada Television.

From 1969 he presented Granada's Cinema, a late-night film review programme,^[5] (which included his first star interview with Laurence Olivier), before in 1971 presenting his eponymous BBC series. Parkinson ran until 1982 and from 1998 until December 2007, leaving the BBC for ITV1 partway through the second run. It featured celebrities but it avoided posing the confrontational questions for which Parkinson is well known. By his own reckoning, Parkinson interviewed 2,000 of the world's most famous people.^[6] In 1985, he stood in for Barry Norman as presenter of Film 85.