Tommy Cooper

Known for ActingBorn 1921-03-19Died 1984-04-15Caerphilly, South Wales

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.Read more

Movies & web series

Parkinson at 50

The Cool Mikado

The Bruce Forsyth Show

It's Your Move

The Tommy Cooper Hour

Tommy Cooper: In His Own Words

Tommy Cooper - Tribute To A Comic Genius

An Audience with Joan Rivers

It's Tommy Cooper

Cooper

The Plank

Cooper - Just Like That

Life With Cooper

The Best of Tommy Cooper

And the Same to You

An Audience with...

Tommy Cooper - The Very Best Of

Tommy Cooper: The Lost Tapes

The Untold Tommy Cooper

Tommy Cooper - The Missing Pieces

Tommy Cooper - A Feztival Of Fun With Tommy Cooper

Tommy Cooper: Master Of Comedy

Tommy Cooper - The Magic Touch

Just Like That!

A Tribute to Tommy Cooper

Cooper's Half Hour

The Royal Variety Performance 1977

Cooperama

Cooper's Capers

Cooper (or Life With Tommy)

Tommy Cooper - Just Like That

Tommy Cooper at the BBC