Tommy Cooper

Thomas Frederick “Tommy” Cooper (19 March 1921 – 15 April 1984) was a Welsh prop comedian and magician. He was known for making an art of getting magic tricks wrong, although he was actually an accomplished magician.

Despite his purported inability to perform conjuring tricks, Cooper was a member of The Magic Circle. Famed for his red fez, his appearance was large and lumbering at 6 feet 4 inches (1.9 m) and more than 15 stone (210 lb; 95 kg) in weight.

Tommy Cooper, his magic tricks and simple style of humor!

Cooper rapidly became a top-liner in variety with his turn as the conjuror whose tricks never succeeded, but it was his television work that catapulted him to national recognition. 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.

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. However, just 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: The Eric Sykes 1990 Show and It’s Your Move.

On 15 April 1984, Cooper collapsed from a heart attack in front of millions of television viewers, midway through his act on the live London Weekend Television variety show Live From Her Majesty’s. A glamourous assistant had helped him put on a cloak for his sketch, where someone (on this evening it was host Jimmy Tarbuck) was hiding behind the curtain waiting to pass him different props which he would then appear to pull from inside his gown. The assistant smiled at him as he collapsed, believing that it was a joke.

Likewise, the audience laughed as he fell, until it became apparent he was seriously ill. 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 whilst LWT’s master control contacted regional stations to start transmitting advertisements)and Jimmy Tarbuck’s manager tried to pull Cooper back through the curtains, where he was given CPR.

For legal  and medical reasons, Cooper’s body could not be removed from the stage except by paramedics or the police. 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-foot 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.

Some Cooperisms

• Went to the paper shop – it had blown away.
• I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn’t find any.
• I bought some HP sauce the other day. It’s costing me 6p a month for the next 2 years.
• Last night I dreamed I ate a ten-pound marshmallow, and when I woke up the pillow was gone.
• Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid, the other was eating fireworks.  They charged one and let the other one off.
• A woman told her doctor, ‘I’ve got a bad back. ‘The doctor said, ‘It’s old age.’  The woman said, ‘I want a second opinion. ‘The doctor says, ‘OK. you’re ugly as well.’
• A man walked into the doctor’s, The doctor said ‘I haven’t seen you in a long time’
  The man replied, ‘I know I’ve been ill’.
• A man walked into the doctor’s, he said ‘I’ve hurt my arm in several places’.
  The doctor said ‘well don’t go there any more’.
• I’m on a whiskey diet. I’ve lost three days already.
• Went to the corner shop – bought 4 corners
• I went to the doctors the other day and I said, ‘have you got anything for wind’,
  so he gave me a kite.
• I went to the Doctors the other day, and he said, ‘Go to Bournemouth, it’s great for ‘flu.
  So I went, and I got it.’
• I was in the attic the other day with the wife. Damp and dusty………but she’s great with the kids!