Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995)[2] was an English comedian, actor, satirist, playwright and screenwriter. He was the leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s, and he was associated with the anti-establishment comedic movement that emerged in the United Kingdom in the late 1950s.
For other people named Peter Cook, see Peter Cook (disambiguation).
Peter Cook
St John-at-Hampstead Churchyard, Hampstead, London, England
- Comedian
- actor
- satirist
- playwright
- screenwriter
1958–1995
-
Wendy Snowden(m. 1963; div. 1971)
-
Chiew Lin Chong(m. 1989)
2
Born in Torquay, he was educated at the University of Cambridge. There he became involved with the Footlights Club, of which he later became president. After graduating, he created the comedy stage revue Beyond the Fringe, beginning a long-running partnership with Dudley Moore. In 1961, Cook opened the comedy club The Establishment in Soho. In 1965, Cook and Moore began a television career, beginning with Not Only... But Also. Cook's deadpan monologues contrasted with Moore's buffoonery.[3] They received the 1966 British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance. Following the success of the show, the duo appeared together in the films The Wrong Box (1966) and Bedazzled (1967). Cook and Moore returned to television projects continuing to the late 1970s, including co-presenting Saturday Night Live in the United States. From 1978 until his death in 1995, Cook no longer collaborated with Moore, apart from a few cameo appearances but continued to be a regular performer in British television and film.
Referred to as "the father of modern satire" by The Guardian in 2005, Cook was ranked number one in the Comedians' Comedian, a poll of more than 300 comics, comedy writers, producers and directors in the English-speaking world.[4][5]
Early life[edit]
Cook was born at his parents' house, "Shearbridge", in Middle Warberry Road, Torquay, Devon. He was the only son, and eldest of the three children, of Alexander Edward "Alec" Cook (1906–1984), a colonial civil servant and his wife Ethel Catherine Margaret (1908–1994), daughter of solicitor Charles Mayo.[6] His father served as political officer and later district officer in Nigeria, then as financial secretary to the colony of Gibraltar, followed by a return to Nigeria as Permanent Secretary of the Eastern Region based at Enugu.[7][8] Cook's grandfather, Edward Arthur Cook (1869–1914), had also been a colonial civil servant, traffic manager for the Federated Malay States Railway in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya. The stress he suffered in the lead-up to an interview regarding promotion led him to commit suicide. His wife, Minnie Jane (1869–1957), daughter of Thomas Wreford, of Thelbridge and Witheridge, Devon, and of Stratford-upon-Avon, of a prominent Devonshire family traced back to 1440,[9][10] kept this fact secret. Peter Cook only discovered the truth when later researching his family.[11]
Cook was educated at Radley College and then went up to Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read French and German. As a student, Cook initially intended to become a career diplomat like his father, but Britain "had run out of colonies", as he put it.[12] Although largely apathetic politically, particularly in later life when he displayed a deep distrust of politicians of all hues, he joined the Cambridge University Liberal Club.[13] At Pembroke, Cook performed and wrote comedy sketches as a member of the Cambridge Footlights Club, of which he became president in 1960. His hero was fellow Footlights writer and Cambridge magazine writer David Nobbs.[14]
While still at university, Cook wrote for Kenneth Williams, providing several sketches for Williams' hit West End comedy revue Pieces of Eight and much of the follow-up, One Over the Eight, before finding prominence in his own right in a four-man group satirical stage show, Beyond the Fringe, alongside Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett, and Dudley Moore.[15]
Beyond the Fringe became a great success in London after being first performed at the Edinburgh Festival and included Cook impersonating the prime minister, Harold Macmillan. This was one of the first occasions satirical political mimicry had been attempted in live theatre, and it shocked audiences. During one performance, Macmillan was in the theatre and Cook departed from his script and attacked him verbally.[16]
Personal life[edit]
Cook was married three times. He was first married to Wendy Snowden, whom he met at university, in 1963. They had two daughters, Lucy and Daisy. They divorced in 1971.[30] Cook then married his second wife, model and actress Judy Huxtable, in 1973, the marriage ending in 1989 after they had been separated for some years.[31] He married his third and final wife, Chiew Lin Chong, in 1989, to whom he remained married until his death. Cook became stepfather to Chong's daughter, Nina.[32] Following Cook's death, Chong suffered from depression, deriving both from her loss and the difficulties arising from raising Nina, who had learning difficulties.[32][33] Chong died at the age of 71 in November 2016.
Cook was an avid spectator of most sports (except Rugby league[34]) and was a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur football club,[35] though he also maintained support for his hometown team Torquay United.[36]
Cook was an admitted heavy smoker. As a regular interviewee on his friend's show, Michael Parkinson, he was usually to be seen with a lighted cigarette in his hand or mouth during their broadcast interviews.[34]
Death[edit]
Cook died in a coma on 9 January 1995 at age 57 at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London, from a gastrointestinal haemorrhage,[30][1] a complication resulting from years of heavy drinking.[1] His body was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, and his ashes were buried in an unmarked plot behind St John-at-Hampstead, not far from his home in Perrins Walk.
Dudley Moore attended Cook's memorial service at St John-at-Hampstead on 1 May 1995.[37] He and Martin Lewis presented a two-night memorial for Cook at The Improv in Los Angeles, on 15 and 16 November 1995, to mark what would have been Cook's 58th birthday.[38]
UK chart singles:
both with Dudley Moore[42]
Albums: