Tommy Cooper

The biographer John Fisher has in my opinion written the most definitive book on the great British comedian, so I'd heartily recommend this book. There is of course Wikipedia too which has biographical information, some of it is even true. Writing about Tommy Cooper both as a person and as an act is difficult for someone who grew up loving and admiring this giant of comedy.
Yet Cooper was not all he seemed, his personal life was something of a mess, shortly after he died it became public knowledge that for almost 20 years he had continued an affair with his personal assistant, add that to his alcoholism and excessive stinginess it is difficult to feel any warmth. Those who knew him well also admit this was the case but Cooper had an unquantifiable charm that overflowed into his performing. Even Cooper himself was often bemused as to why he got laughs at moments when he was being serious.
I was fortunate enough to see one of Tommy's live shows, the show started in total darkness with an off stage Tommy trying to find his way onto the stage, the image of him all suited and fezed up trying to work his way onto the stage, opening and closing various doors along the way, had the audience in hysterics before he even made it onto the stage. Tommy Cooper was a rare comedian who's appearance alone (and even lack of it) could raise a laugh.
His whole body was the comic, not just his voice or his eyes, his feet were hilarious, his conjuror's hands were amusing, even his hair sticking out from under the fez was funny.
As I mentioned, details of his personal life left a part of me not liking him too much and the tales of hid professional life had a similar effect. By all accounts Cooper liked to use and pay for other people's material and tricks, yet if he could manage it he would get by without paying. In his earlier days he managed to use material he had seen and heard whilst in the USA it would be difficult to imagine him getting away with that today.
Whilst I haven't any details (or even facts!) to hand I have heard tales of other performers having seen Tommy doing their material and deciding to stop doing it themselves, Cooper was doing it better and funnier. When a joke was told by Tommy Cooper, whether he had written it or not (more often not), it became a Tommy Cooper joke.
He has been immortalized in statue form in his home town of Caerphilly and below is a stamp with a Gerald Scarfe drawing of Tommy on, one of 5 comedians selected to be pictured (Eric Morecambe, Peter Cook, Les Dawson and Joyce Grenfell were the others), below that are a few videos, there are hundreds of Tommy Cooper's around. He died in 1984 and remains one of the most popular British comedians, remembered affectionately by the vast majority of the British public.