Tommy Cooper

From http://members.eisa.net.au/~johben57/tommycooper.html 

  With his red fez, face splitting grin and 'Just Like That' catchphrase, Tommy Cooper was one of Television's favourite funnymen. He didn't have to work at it - he was a born comedian. 
  His physical presence, all 6ft 4in and 15 stone of him, was magnetic. People loved to be near him, watching his disastrous conjuring tricks as he feigned an air of bemused innocence, then stared in total bewilderment as his audience rolled round the aisles in unsuppressed laughter.  Although he became famous for his inability to pull off a trick, Tommy was in actual fact a fine magician and a member of the prestigious Magic Circle. However, once he realised that people preferred things to go wrong, there was no stopping him. 
  Born in Caerphilly, Mid Glamorgan, but brought up in Exeter and Southampton, Tommy worked as an apprentice shipwright and spent seven years in the Horse Guards, before making his showbusiness debut in the forces during the Second World War. 
  It was during a NAAFI concert in Cairo that his famous Egyptian fez was introduced, by chance, when the pith helmet that Tommy had planned to wear was mislaid and he borrowed the waiter's hat instead. Demobbed in 1947, he performed in variety theatres and at London's famous Windmill Theatre, where he once did 52 shows a week. 
  In 1952, he appeared at the London Palladium for the first time, before he moved into the television shows for which he was to become best known. His first series, Cooper, in 1957, was followed by Cooper's Capers, Cooperama, Life with Cooper, Cooper at Large and Cooper King Size. 
  In 1969, he was voted ITV Personality of the Year by the Variety Club of Great Britain. 
  The 60s were the Tommy Cooper years - his popularity was at its peak and his vast following was to hold him in its affection for the next 20 years, continuing after his death in 1984, when the burly comedian suffered a heart attack on stage while appearing in the TV show Live from Her Majesty's. 
  He and his wife Gwen had two children.