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Peter Cook mini-bio: Peter Cook was a much loved British thespian, most famous for his comedic work. He passed away in 1995.
Cook was born at "Shearbridge", Middle Warberry Road, Torquay, Devon, the only son and eldest of the three children of Alexander Edward Cook, a colonial civil servant, and his wife (Ethel Catherine) Margaret, née Mayo.
He was educated at Radley College and later Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read French and German. Cook meant to become a career diplomat, but unfortunately Britain "had run out of colonies", as he put it. It was at Pembroke that he performed and wrote comedy sketches as a member of the prestigious Cambridge Footlights Club, of which he became President in 1960.
While still at university, Cook wrote professionally for Kenneth Williams, for whom he created a successful West End revue show called One Over the Eight, before finding prominence in his own right as a star of the satirical stage show, Beyond the Fringe, together with Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett and Dudley Moore.
With his star in the ascendant, he opened the The Establishment Club at 18 Greek Street in Soho which gave him the opportunity to present fellow comedians in a nightclub setting, including the highly controversial American Lenny Bruce. Cook befriended and supported Australian comedian and actor Barry Humphries, who began his British solo career at the club. Humphries would comment in his autobiography My Life As Me that he found Cook's lack of interest in art and literature rather off-putting.
In 1962, the BBC commissioned a pilot for a television series of satirical sketches based on The Establishment Club, but it was not picked up straightaway and Cook and the other regulars went to New York for a year. When he returned, Cook discovered that the pilot had been refashioned in his absence as That Was The Week That Was and had made a star out of David Frost, something that Cook later admitted resenting
His comedy partnership with Dudley Moore led to the popular and critically feted television show Not Only... But Also. This was initially intended by the BBC as a vehicle for Dudley Moore's musical talents, but when Moore invited Cook to write sketches and appear with him, the show suddenly became hugely popular
In 1968, Cook and Moore briefly switched to the commercial channel ATV to produce a series of four one-hour programmes entitled Goodbye Again, based on the "Pete and Dud" characters.
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore acted in films together, beginning with The Wrong Box in 1966. Their best work in the medium was the cult comedy Bedazzled (1967), now widely regarded as a comedy classic but which was not financially successful at the time. Directed by Stanley Donen, the film's story is credited to Cook and Moore jointly, and its screenplay to Cook alone
Cook's significance to modern British comedy is immense, and persists today: he is acknowledged as the main influence on a long stream of comedians who have followed him from the amateur dramatic clubs of British universities to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and thence to the radio and television studios of the BBC. Notable fans of Cook include all the members of Monty Python and The Goodies, | VITAL STATS | | Eye color:blue | | Height: 6' 2" (1.88 m) | | Nickname(s): | | Notable feature(s): | | Education: Radley College and later Pembroke College, Cambridge | Family:parents Alexander & Margaret,
wife Lin Chong
2 children Lucy & Daisy | | Resides in:lived in Hampstead | | Religious affiliations:c of e | | Political affiliation:he hated all politicians | | Personal interests/hobbies:writing sketches/gags,impersonations,club owner | Charities/Causes:fund raiser/supporter of Amnesty International
& Comic Relief | Other:Founder and proprietor (under pseudonym Lord Gnome) of British satirical magazine 'Private Eye'
He and his third wife Lin lived in separate homes 100 yards apart in Hampstead
Voted greatest comdedian on all time in a poll of comedians. 2005. | | |
Swordfishtrombone99posted 194 days ago
