Tommy Cooper Popular Books
Tommy Cooper Biography & Facts
Thomas Frederick Cooper (19 March 1921 – 15 April 1984) was a Welsh prop comedian and magician. As an entertainer, his appearance was large and lumbering at 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m), and he habitually wore a red fez when performing. He served in the British Army for seven years, before developing his conjuring skills and becoming a member of The Magic Circle. Although he spent time on tour performing his magical act, which specialised on magic tricks that appeared to fail, he rose to international prominence when his career moved into television, with programmes for London Weekend Television and Thames Television. By the end of the 1970s, Cooper was smoking and drinking heavily, which affected his career and his health, effectively ending offers to front new programmes and relegating him to performing as a guest star on other entertainment shows. On 15 April 1984, Cooper died at the age of 63 after suffering a heart attack on live television. Early life Thomas Frederick Cooper was born on 19 March 1921 at 19, Llwyn-On Street in Caerphilly, Glamorgan. He was delivered by the woman who owned the house in which the family were lodging. His parents were Thomas H. Cooper, a Welsh recruiting sergeant in the British Army and later coal miner, and Catherine Gertrude (née Wright), Thomas's English wife from Crediton, Devon. To change from his mining role in Caerphilly, that could have had implications for his health, his father accepted the offer of a new job and the family moved to Exeter, Devon, when Cooper was three. It was in Exeter that he acquired the West Country accent that became part of his act. As an adult and on a visit to Wales to visit the house where he was born, Cooper was asked if he considered himself to be a Welshman, to which he answered, "Well yes, my father's Welsh... and my mother's from Devon. Actually I was in Caerphilly and left here when I was about a year old, I was getting very serious with a girl", much to the amusement of the BBC interviewer and himself. When he was eight years old an aunt bought him a magic set and he spent hours perfecting the tricks. In the 1960s his brother David (born 1930) opened D. & Z. Cooper's Magic Shop at 249 High Street in Slough, Buckinghamshire. The shop later moved to Eastbourne, East Sussex and was run by David's daughter Sabrina. After leaving school, Cooper became a shipwright in Southampton, Hampshire. In 1940 he was called up as a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, serving for seven years. He joined Montgomery's Desert Rats in Egypt. Cooper became a member of a Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (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 that required a pith helmet, having forgotten the prop Cooper reached out and borrowed a fez from a passing waiter, which got huge laughs. He wore a fez when performing after that, the prop later being described as "an icon of 20th-century comedy". Development of the act Cooper was demobilized after seven years of military service and took up show business on Christmas Eve 1947. He later developed a popular monologue about his military experience as "Cooper the Trooper". He worked in variety theatres around the country and at many night spots in London, performing as many as 52 shows in one week. Cooper developed his conjuring skills and became a member of The Magic Circle, but there are various stories about how and when he developed his delivery of "failed" magic tricks: He was performing to his shipbuilding colleagues when everything went wrong, but he noticed that the failed tricks got laughs. He started making "mistakes" on purpose when he was in the Army. His tricks went wrong at a post-war audition, but the panel thoroughly enjoyed them anyway. To keep the audience on their toes Cooper threw in an occasional trick that worked when it was least expected. Career Cooper was influenced by Laurel and Hardy, Will Hay, Max Miller, Bob Hope, and Robert Orben. In 1947 Cooper was booked by Miff Ferrie, a musician, to appear in a show starring the sand dance act Marqueeze and the Dance of the Seven Veils. This was followed by a European tour and work in pantomime, and concluded with a season at the Windmill Theatre. Ferrie remained Cooper's sole agent for 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 that raised him to national prominence. After his debut on the BBC talent show New to You in March 1948 he began starring in his own shows, and was popular with audiences for nearly 40 years, 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-1970s he was one of the most recognisable comedians in the world. John Fisher writes in his biography of Cooper: "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 slip something into the taxi driver's pocket, saying, "Have a drink on me." That something would turn out to be a tea bag. 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 from chronic indigestion, lumbago, sciatica, bronchitis and severe circulation problems in his legs. When Cooper realised the extent of his maladies he cut down on his drinking, and the energy and confidence returned to his act. However, he never stopped drinking and could be fallible: on an otherwise triumphant appearance with Michael Parkinson he forgot to set the safety catch on the guillotine illusion into which he had cajoled Parkinson, and only a last-minute intervention by the floor manager saved Parkinson from serious injury or worse. Cooper was a heavy cigar smoker (up to 40 a day) as well as an excessive drinker. Cooper suffered a heart attack on 22 April 1977 while performing a show in Rome. Three months later he was back on television in Night Out at the London Casino. By 1980 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 appear as a guest on other television shows, however, and worked with Eric Sykes on two Thames productions in 1982. Death On 15 April 1984, Cooper collapsed from a heart attack in front of 12 million viewers, midway through his act on the London Weekend Television variety show Live from Her Majesty's, transmitted live from Her Majesty's Theatre in Westminster, London. An assistant had helped him put on a cloak for his sketch, while Jimmy Tarbuck, the host, was hiding behin.... Discover the Tommy Cooper popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Tommy Cooper books.
Best Seller Tommy Cooper Books of 2024
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Monty
Spike MilliganVOLUME THREE OF SPIKE MILLIGAN'S LEGENDARY MEMOIRS IS A HILARIOUS, SUBVERSIVE FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF WW2'The most irreverent, hilarious book about the war that I have ever read' Sund...
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The Complete Pratt
David NobbsTHE COMPLETE PRATT compiles the first three volumes of the misadventures of Henry Pratt, beginning with a brilliantly funny evocation of a Yorkshire boyhood in SECOND FROM LAST IN ...
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Your Voice and How to Use it
Cicely BerryAnxiety about how we speak prevents many of us from expressing ourselves well. In her classic handbook, Cicely Berry, Voice Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and worldfamou...
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Undaunted
Jon GauntMillions know him as a loudmouth radio shockjock and Sun columnist. Yet, in his life Jon Gaunt has had to overcome unimaginable hardship, solitude, bankruptcy and despair. His moth...
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Cucumber Man
David NobbsIt is 1957. The Suez Crisis has been and gone. Henry Pratt has completed his National Service and is putting his unsuccessful career as Thurmarsh's cub journalist behind him. Leavi...
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The Return Of Reginald Perrin
David NobbsThis hilarious sequel to The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin follows his absurd trials and tribulations as he finds himself swept to fame and fortune.
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The Better World Of Reginald Perrin
David NobbsThis hilarious episode in the remarkable exploits of Reginald Iolanthe Perrin follows our hero on his most ambitious venture yet.Setting up a commune strictly for the middleclass a...
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The Bible According to Spike Milligan
Spike MilliganSpike Milligan's legendary war memoirs are a hilarious and subversive firsthand account of the Second World War, as well as a fascinating portrait of the formative years of this to...
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Goodbye Soldier
Spike MilliganSpike Milligan's legendary war memoirs are a hilarious and subversive firsthand account of the Second World War, as well as a fascinating portrait of the formative years of this to...
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Remembering Ronnie Barker
Richard WebberRonnie Barker was one of our most respected and bestloved comedy actors and here, in this fascinating biography, Richard Webber delves deep in to the heart of Barker's life and ca...
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Going Gently
David NobbsKate Thomas was beautiful, intelligent, witty, passionate and sexy. Now, at the ripe old age of ninetynine, she is trapped in a hospital ward of sad, mad and bad old women. She esc...
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Sex And Other Changes
David NobbsEvery time someone changes sex, there's one less freak in the worldMeet the Divots. They seem a happily married couple, in their cosy suburban home in a cosy suburban town. Then, o...
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Legacy Of Reginald Perrin
David NobbsThe fourth book of the classic comic series about the 'sweaty, charming, paunchy, sad, hilarious man' who faked his own death. First published in the late 1970s, the three ...
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The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin
David NobbsAS READ ON RADIO 4'Manages to find joy in the trivial and creates farce out of monotony . . . To say that a book has 'changed your life' has become so commonplace that it has becom...
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Peace Work
Spike MilliganSpike Milligan's legendary war memoirs are a hilarious and subversive firsthand account of the Second World War, as well as a fascinating portrait of the formative years of this to...
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The Mammoth Book of Great British Humour
Michael PowellA doorstopper of a collection of the very best of both contemporary and classic British wit and humour. From Monty Python's 'Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more . . .' to Dan An...
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Second From Last In The Sack Race
David NobbsBorn into poverty, saddled with a born loser and parrotstrangler for a dad, short sighted and ungainly, young Henry Pratt doesn't exactly have a head start in life.But in David Nob...
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Pratt a Manger
David NobbsWhen pretty young TV researcher Nicky Proctor visits Cafe Henry in London's Soho, Henry Pratt's life changes forever. He becomes an instant star of the TV food quiz, A Question of ...
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My Turn
Norman WisdomNorman Wisdom's early years could easily have come straight from the pages of a Dickens novel. Left by their frightened mother, illtreated by a brutal father, Norman and his br...
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Tommy Cooper All In One Joke Book
Tommy CooperMy wife is a magician, yesterday she turned our car into a tree.A big white horse walks into a pub. The barman says, 'we have a drink named after you.' The horse says, 'what? Eric?...
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Pratt Of The Argus
David NobbsHenry Pratt, back home from National Service, is a man at last. As eager to prove it as he is to please, he is in at the deep end in his chosen profession cub reporter on the Thur...
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The Loom of Time
KalidasaKalidasa is the major poet and dramatist of classical Sanskrit literature a manysided talent of extraordinary scope and exquisite language. His great poem, Meghadutam (The Cloud M...