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The actor George Alphonsus Cooper, the Leeds born actor - someone who looked the same for the best part of 50 years (mostly because he looked a lot older than his years to begin with), died on 16th November at the age of 93.
The number of programmes and films he had appeared in during his career is probably too many to write about on here, but these are the ones that come to mind.
I have to admit that Cooper was someone that I was not too familiar with when growing up - I saw him in the 1972 feature film spin off of Bless This House (premiered on ITV on the day after I was born, but seen well over a decade later) as the boss of the Kwik Snack Café where Mike Abbott and Kate Baines worked at. According to the IMDB, his character was called Mr Wilson but was not referred to in the credits or in dialogue. I don't think that he had appeared in the series.
He was possibly the Fred Elliott of the 1960s when he had appeared in Coronation Street during that decade as butcher Willie Piggott, a role he would play sporadically until 1971. Also for Granada, he played headmaster Ted Crampton in a 1970 Sunday Night Theatre play (or Saturday Night depending on which ITV region one lived in) called Roll On Four O'clock (repeated as part of BBC 2's Granadaland theme night in December 1992). Here Crampton had to deal with the problems of young lad Peter Latimer and the difficulties young Latimer had with homophobic bullying - something which was so complex at the start of the 1970s. (Latimer reminded me of Tucker Jenkins which is ironic considering where Cooper's future school-based character would find himself).
Indeed, Cooper was still at school some 15 years later, although this time he was dressed in a beige overcoat as caretaker Eric Griffiths in Grange Hill, appearing between 1986 and 1992, and during his stint in the series, he had to put up with both Imelda Davis and Harriet the Donkey (who of course the donkey was a lot better behaved between the two). However, Griffiths outlasted headmistress McClusky, and so it was up to new head Angela Keele to dismiss him in 1992 because of his age. Cooper had worked with Anna Quayle on Grange Hill, having first worked with her in the 1967 Rita Tushingham film Smashing Time.
George A Cooper was also a regular in the 1970s sitcoms, forever playing the blunt northerner - one regular role was in the LWT sitcom Billy Liar, and he was also one of Frank Spencer's many straight men in an episode of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. Cooper had also appeared in Rising Damp ironically enough as someone called Cooper.
Prior to retirement, he appeared in Heartbeat, and then finally, a 1995 episode of Casualty where he played an elderly man called Albert Collins who had tried to gas himself with the exhaust pipe of his car because of problems he was having - not a very nice character to end a career on, but certainly one which makes people watch when they are on television.
Cooper appeared in Doctor Who, Dixon of Dock Green, Softly, Softly, The New Avengers, Danger Man, The Saint, Taggart, Terry and June, and even an episode of Morecambe and Wise. Whether it was Juliet Bravo or Mind Your Language - he guested starred in at least one episode. He played an inspector in the 1959 Stanley Baker film Violent Playground, (a favourite post-News at One film by many 1980s ITV regional schedulers).
Cooper's voice was heard voicing a 1970s cartoon PIF about gas stoves on the Charley Says video released in 1998 - he also played Father Christmas in a 1977 Rod Hull and Emu special.
I used to confuse him with a TV station Managing Director who was also called George A Cooper, and was someone who was boss of Midlands and North ITV company ABC, and later of Thames Television, although the TV boss was older than the actor as he was born in 1916 - the 2010 Who's Who listed him as still being alive, although I assume that he has since passed on as well.
George A Cooper passed away peacefully at Eastfield Nursing Home in Liss, Hampshire at the age of 93 on Friday 16th November 2018.
Cooper's career was remarkable with so many appearances in different programmes - which ones would you remember him as playing? (I think that I will remember him personally for both of his "school" characters as headmaster Ted Crampton in Roll On Four O'clock and as caretaker Eric Griffiths in Grange Hill). I suppose that he didn't get as much of a celebrity status as the actors he had worked with had done so over the years, but he is certainly up there as a supporting actor, and is there is one looks closely enough.
The number of programmes and films he had appeared in during his career is probably too many to write about on here, but these are the ones that come to mind.
I have to admit that Cooper was someone that I was not too familiar with when growing up - I saw him in the 1972 feature film spin off of Bless This House (premiered on ITV on the day after I was born, but seen well over a decade later) as the boss of the Kwik Snack Café where Mike Abbott and Kate Baines worked at. According to the IMDB, his character was called Mr Wilson but was not referred to in the credits or in dialogue. I don't think that he had appeared in the series.
He was possibly the Fred Elliott of the 1960s when he had appeared in Coronation Street during that decade as butcher Willie Piggott, a role he would play sporadically until 1971. Also for Granada, he played headmaster Ted Crampton in a 1970 Sunday Night Theatre play (or Saturday Night depending on which ITV region one lived in) called Roll On Four O'clock (repeated as part of BBC 2's Granadaland theme night in December 1992). Here Crampton had to deal with the problems of young lad Peter Latimer and the difficulties young Latimer had with homophobic bullying - something which was so complex at the start of the 1970s. (Latimer reminded me of Tucker Jenkins which is ironic considering where Cooper's future school-based character would find himself).
Indeed, Cooper was still at school some 15 years later, although this time he was dressed in a beige overcoat as caretaker Eric Griffiths in Grange Hill, appearing between 1986 and 1992, and during his stint in the series, he had to put up with both Imelda Davis and Harriet the Donkey (who of course the donkey was a lot better behaved between the two). However, Griffiths outlasted headmistress McClusky, and so it was up to new head Angela Keele to dismiss him in 1992 because of his age. Cooper had worked with Anna Quayle on Grange Hill, having first worked with her in the 1967 Rita Tushingham film Smashing Time.
George A Cooper was also a regular in the 1970s sitcoms, forever playing the blunt northerner - one regular role was in the LWT sitcom Billy Liar, and he was also one of Frank Spencer's many straight men in an episode of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. Cooper had also appeared in Rising Damp ironically enough as someone called Cooper.
Prior to retirement, he appeared in Heartbeat, and then finally, a 1995 episode of Casualty where he played an elderly man called Albert Collins who had tried to gas himself with the exhaust pipe of his car because of problems he was having - not a very nice character to end a career on, but certainly one which makes people watch when they are on television.
Cooper appeared in Doctor Who, Dixon of Dock Green, Softly, Softly, The New Avengers, Danger Man, The Saint, Taggart, Terry and June, and even an episode of Morecambe and Wise. Whether it was Juliet Bravo or Mind Your Language - he guested starred in at least one episode. He played an inspector in the 1959 Stanley Baker film Violent Playground, (a favourite post-News at One film by many 1980s ITV regional schedulers).
Cooper's voice was heard voicing a 1970s cartoon PIF about gas stoves on the Charley Says video released in 1998 - he also played Father Christmas in a 1977 Rod Hull and Emu special.
I used to confuse him with a TV station Managing Director who was also called George A Cooper, and was someone who was boss of Midlands and North ITV company ABC, and later of Thames Television, although the TV boss was older than the actor as he was born in 1916 - the 2010 Who's Who listed him as still being alive, although I assume that he has since passed on as well.
George A Cooper passed away peacefully at Eastfield Nursing Home in Liss, Hampshire at the age of 93 on Friday 16th November 2018.
Cooper's career was remarkable with so many appearances in different programmes - which ones would you remember him as playing? (I think that I will remember him personally for both of his "school" characters as headmaster Ted Crampton in Roll On Four O'clock and as caretaker Eric Griffiths in Grange Hill). I suppose that he didn't get as much of a celebrity status as the actors he had worked with had done so over the years, but he is certainly up there as a supporting actor, and is there is one looks closely enough.
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