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Thomas Frederick "Tommy" Cooper born 19 March 1921, became a British comedian and magician He was a member of The Magic Circle, and respected by traditional magicians. Famed for his red fez, his appearance was large and lumbering at 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and more than 15 stone (210 lb, 95 kg) in weight.
After school, Cooper became a shipwright in Hythe, Hampshire, and in 1940 was called up as a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards regiment of the British Army in World War II. He served initially in Montgomery's Desert Rats in Egypt. Cooper became part of the NAAFI entertainment party and developed an act around his magic tricks interspersed with comedy. One evening in Cairo, during a sketch in which he was supposed to be in a costume which required a pith helmet, having forgotten the prop, Cooper reached out and borrowed the fez from a passing waiter which got huge laughs.It was from this incident that stemmed two of the attributes that were a hall mark of his later act: the ever-present fez hat and his aptitude for slapstick comedy.
On 15 April 1984, Cooper collapsed and soon after died from a heart attack in front of millions of television viewers, midway through his act on
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