Peter Cook
| Peter Cook | |
|---|---|
Cook on Kraft Music Hall, 1969
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| Born |
17 November 1937 Torquay, Devon, UK |
| Died | 9 January 1995 (aged 57) Hampstead, London, UK |
| Occupation | Comedian, actor, satirist, writer |
| Years active | 1958–1995 |
| Spouse(s) | Wendy Snowden (1963–1971) Judy Huxtable (1973–1989) Lin Chong (1989–1995) |
Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995) was an English actor, satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in British comedy, Cook is widely regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He was closely associated with the anti-establishment comedy that emerged in the UK and the US in the late 1950s.
Called "the father of modern satire" by The Guardian, in 2005, Cook was ranked number one in the Comedians' Comedian, a poll of over 300 comics, comedy writers, producers and directors throughout the English-speaking world.
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, née Mayo (1908–1994). He was educated at Radley College and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he studied 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. Although politically largely apathetic, particularly in later life when he displayed a deep distrust of politicians of all hues, he did join the Cambridge University Liberal Club.
It was at Pembroke that 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.
Whilst 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, with Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett and Dudley Moore.
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