Oldfart
07-04-2012, 07:33 AM
Much-loved British comedy actor and writer Eric Sykes, recognisable by his heavy, black-rimmed glasses, has died at the age of 89.
Sykes' career spanned over 50 years during the golden age of British comedy, and widely credited with introducing an offbeat tone to mainstream British comedy.
He first came to prominence as a regular collaborator on the groundbreaking 1950s radio comedy The Goon Show, and became a leading personality after starring in his own television series, Sykes and a..., in the 1960s.
"Eric Sykes, 89, star of television, stage and film, died peacefully this morning after a short illness," his manager Norma Farnes said.
"His family were with him."
Sykes was born in Oldham, northern England, in 1923, and was introduced to showbusiness while serving as a wireless operator in the Royal Air Force.
A chance meeting with wartime friend and actor Bill Fraser in 1940s London led to a breakthrough in comedy writing and his collaboration with comedian Frankie Howerd on the successful radio show Variety Bandbox.
Further radio work followed for Sykes, including the groundbreaking 1950s Goon Show - partly to ease the workload of its co-creator Spike Milligan.
His early television projects included The Howerd Crowd and The Tony Hancock Show, but his big breakthrough came in 1960 with the launch of Sykes and a...
In that, he starred alongside Hatti Jacques in a brother-sister act that struck a chord with viewers and attracted huge TV audiences.
Sykes took on a variety of supporting roles in feature films including Heavens Above! (1963), Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines (1965) and The Spy With A Cold Nose (1966).
But he is perhaps best remembered for a virtually dialogue-free film called The Plank (1967) in which he and Tommy Cooper appeared as two workmen delivering planks to a building site.
More recently, he appeared in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
His enduring success was all the more remarkable because he was almost totally deaf since his early 30s and blind from the early 1990s.
A former head of BBC comedy has paid paid tribute to Sykes saying he was "a warm man, a kind man, a warm family man".
ABC/Reuters
Sykes' career spanned over 50 years during the golden age of British comedy, and widely credited with introducing an offbeat tone to mainstream British comedy.
He first came to prominence as a regular collaborator on the groundbreaking 1950s radio comedy The Goon Show, and became a leading personality after starring in his own television series, Sykes and a..., in the 1960s.
"Eric Sykes, 89, star of television, stage and film, died peacefully this morning after a short illness," his manager Norma Farnes said.
"His family were with him."
Sykes was born in Oldham, northern England, in 1923, and was introduced to showbusiness while serving as a wireless operator in the Royal Air Force.
A chance meeting with wartime friend and actor Bill Fraser in 1940s London led to a breakthrough in comedy writing and his collaboration with comedian Frankie Howerd on the successful radio show Variety Bandbox.
Further radio work followed for Sykes, including the groundbreaking 1950s Goon Show - partly to ease the workload of its co-creator Spike Milligan.
His early television projects included The Howerd Crowd and The Tony Hancock Show, but his big breakthrough came in 1960 with the launch of Sykes and a...
In that, he starred alongside Hatti Jacques in a brother-sister act that struck a chord with viewers and attracted huge TV audiences.
Sykes took on a variety of supporting roles in feature films including Heavens Above! (1963), Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines (1965) and The Spy With A Cold Nose (1966).
But he is perhaps best remembered for a virtually dialogue-free film called The Plank (1967) in which he and Tommy Cooper appeared as two workmen delivering planks to a building site.
More recently, he appeared in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
His enduring success was all the more remarkable because he was almost totally deaf since his early 30s and blind from the early 1990s.
A former head of BBC comedy has paid paid tribute to Sykes saying he was "a warm man, a kind man, a warm family man".
ABC/Reuters