Tommy
Cooper death location (19th March 1921 to 14th April
1984)
I watch comedians performing their routines
on television shows and rarely find them funny. The audience seem to though - are
they drunk or on drugs? Is laughing gas piped into the air? Tommy Cooper was
one of the funniest comedians and here I am outside theatre where he died in
the middle of a show being broadcast live to television.
He was 63 years
old but it’s surprising he lived so long (40 cigars a day didn't help.) He
drank heavily but increased his intake to help him face the anxiety of going
onstage. Towards the end of his life the booze eroded his professionalism. Club
owners complained he turned up late, didn't go on stage on time and the acts
were sometimes too short. Once on stage though his popularity and reputation usually
sustained him. Forgetting jokes and having to repeat lines he tried to stop
drinking. Booze aside he suffered from lumbago, sciatica, bronchitis chronic
indigestion and circulation problems in his legs. On top of traditional
medicines he took slimming pills and insomnia tablets - all washed down with brandy.
On Sunday 15th
April 1984 he was midway through his act on the live London Weekend Television
variety show Live From Her Majesty's [Theatre.] My mum and dad were watching
along with millions of other people. The footage is on the internet showing him
performing a trick with his assistant. She puts a gown on him and he was going
to be secretly passed various large objects which he would pull out from the
gown. Things didn't get that far. If you watch the footage he knows something
is wrong when he touches the shoulder of his assistant. She smiles at him as he
falls to the floor thinking it was a joke. The laughing audience did too but
the show's director quickly cued the orchestra to play music for an unscripted
commercial break. In darkness Tommy was given CPR but for legal and medical
reasons only paramedics or the police could move him from the stage. As the other
stars performed efforts were made to revive Tommy. He didn’t say a word, groan
or regain consciousness. Only when the second commercial break was broadcast
did an ambulance crew rush him to Westminster Hospital. Somewhere on route his heart
gave a final beat and he was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
He left behind a wife, a mistress and two sons - one who
died aged 32 from haemophilia compounded
by liver failure. Tommy was cremated and his ashes put in the family grave at Ocklynge Cemetery in Eastbourne.
While sauntering
around Covent Garden I thought I'd go and have a look at the theatre. It was
built in 1897 for Herbert Tree who established RADA (the Royal Academy of
Dramatic Art - still going today.) All the great have performed here. There're
1,216 seats over four floors and it's owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber. I found the
stage door - did Tommy go through there? If so then aside from the ambulance
doors it was probably the last door he went through alive. I did a salute and
left.
At the stage
door...
Tommy was
cremated and his ashes were interred here along with those of his his wife and son. The bigger stone relates to his in-laws
family....
