Image of Tommy Cooper

Tommy Cooper

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


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Born:
Mar 19, 1921 In Caerphilly, South Wales
Movie/TV Credits:
17
First Appeared:
In the series Cooper (or Life With Tommy) 1957-03-25
Latest Project:
Movie Parkinson at 50 2021-08-28
Known For
Poster of Cooper's Half Hour
Poster of The Tommy Cooper Hour
Poster of Life With Cooper
Poster of Cooper's Capers
Filmography
Movie Parkinson at 50 Self (archive footage) 2021-08-28
Movie Tommy Cooper - The Missing Pieces himself 2006-09-04
Movie Tommy Cooper - The Very Best Of himself 2006-09-04
Movie An Audience with Joan Rivers 1984-03-17
Movie It's Your Move Big Removal Man 1982-10-18
Series Cooper's Half Hour 1980-09-02
Series An Audience with... Himself 1978-01-08
Series Cooper - Just Like That 1978-09-11
Series The Tommy Cooper Hour Self 1973-10-31
Series It's Tommy Cooper 1970-02-07
Movie The Plank Larger Workman 1967-05-18
Series Cooperama 1966-06-18
Series Life With Cooper 1966-12-31
Movie The Cool Mikado Pooh-Bah, Private Detective 1963-01-07
Movie And the Same to You Horace Hawkins 1960-02-01
Series Cooper's Capers 1958-10-31
Series Cooper (or Life With Tommy) 1957-03-25