Minder Actor George Cole Dies Aged 90
The star is best known for playing cockney wide boy Arthur Daley alongside Dennis Waterman in the long-running TV series.
Thursday 6 August 2015 11:28, UK
Actor George Cole, best known for playing used-car salesman Arthur Daley in the television series Minder, has died aged 90.
The British star's career spanned 70 years and also included the role of Flash Harry in the early St Trinian's films.
Cole died in hospital with his family at his side, according to agent Derek Webster, who also represents his Minder co-star Dennis Waterman.
Mr Webster said: "It is with deep regret that I have to announce the sad death of one of our most loved and respected actors.
"George Cole passed away yesterday at the Royal Berkshire Hospital after a short illness. His wife Penny and his son Toby were with him at his bedside."
Minder, which ran for 107 episodes from 1979 to 1994, brought the criminal underworld of west London to millions of homes in the UK.
Waterman played Terry McCann - the long-suffering minder of the title.
Cole's camel coat-wearing crook spent each episode dreaming up another get-rich-quick scheme while staying under the radar of the police and the never seen but often mentioned 'er indoors.
In a statement, Waterman said: "I am so sad to hear of George's death. His family must be devastated, and I am absolutely certain that anybody who ever knew him, will feel the same.
"I'm so grateful to have been a friend of this wonderful man. We worked together for many years and my boast is that we laughed all day, every day.
"He was an amazing man, a wonderful actor and besotted with his family. I had the privilege of spending Tuesday afternoon with him and Penny and, although very frail, his wit was as evident as ever. Farewell old friend."
Cole, who was adopted as a baby and grew up in a council flat in Morden, south London, started performing music hall routines on stage as a child with his parents, who were both amateur musicians.
He began acting when he left school aged 14 and got a job as an understudy in a musical in Blackpool, sharing his dressing room with the animal extras - two goats and six pigeons.
He acted opposite Laurence Olivier in The Demi-Paradise (1943) and Olivier's film version of Henry V.
But his career was interrupted by service in the RAF from 1944 to 1947.
Flash Harry was Cole's first major role, which saw him share the screen with Alastair Sim, who guided his early career and was a lifelong influence.
The pair met in theatre and Cole was taken under Sim's wing while still a teenager when he took him in as an unofficial evacuee in his Oxfordshire home during World War Two.
Cole never left - he eventually built his own home next door to Sim and his wife - and proceeded to star in a succession of stage shows and films with the Scottish star, including St Trinian's, based on the fictional girls' school created by cartoonist Ronald Searle.
Cole was made an OBE in 1992 and released his autobiography, The World Was My Lobster, in 2013.
He had recently been cast in a new horror film called Road Rage which is due for release later this year.
Sir Roger Moore said: "How sad to hear George Cole has gone to that great cutting room in the sky. A lovely actor. A gentleman".
Little Britain comic Matt Lucas said he lived in Cole's old home, writing on Twitter: "When I found out that George Cole used to live in our flat, I dug out my old Minder poster."
He added: "I was such a fan of Minder that me and my friend Nick infiltrated the set in 1991 and got ourselves onscreen!"