Person
Tommy Cooper
Caerphilly, 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-b…
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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.
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
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2024
Tommy Cooper: The Lost Tapes
Movie Himself
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2021
Parkinson at 50
Movie Self (archive footage)
- 2018
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2011
The Untold Tommy Cooper
Movie Self (Archive Footage)
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2006
Tommy Cooper - The Very Best Of
Movie himself
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2006
Tommy Cooper - The Missing Pieces
Movie himself
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2004
The Best of Tommy Cooper
Movie Self
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2001
Tommy Cooper - A Feztival Of Fun With Tommy Cooper
Movie Himself
- 2000
- 1997
- 1993
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1989
Just Like That!
Movie Self (archival footage)
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1986
A Tribute to Tommy Cooper
Movie Self
- 1984
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1982
It's Your Move
Movie Big Removal Man
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1980
Cooper's Half Hour
TV show
More credits
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1978
Cooper - Just Like That
TV show
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1978
An Audience with...
TV show Self
- 1977
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1975
Cooper
TV show Self
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1973
The Tommy Cooper Hour
TV show Self
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1970
It's Tommy Cooper
TV show
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1967
The Plank
Movie Larger Workman
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1966
Life With Cooper
TV show
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1966
Cooperama
TV show
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1963
The Cool Mikado
Movie Pooh-Bah, Private Detective
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1960
And the Same to You
Movie Horace Hawkins
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1959
The Bruce Forsyth Show
TV show
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1958
Cooper's Capers
TV show
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1957
Cooper (or Life With Tommy)
TV show
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Tommy Cooper at the BBC
Movie Self (archive footage)
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