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Kelly Rissman
US News Reporter
Coronation Street and Carry On star Kenneth Cope has died, aged 93.
The news was confirmed by his agents in a statement on Thursday (12 September).
The actor took up his breakout role as Marty Hopkirk in the ITV supernatural detective series, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) in 1969. The show was later remade with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer in 2000, and lasted two series.
Cope went on to star in Coronation Street, as well as two Carry On Films including Carry On at Your Convenience (1971) and Carry on Matron (1972), as well as taking up an uncredited role in 1963 film, Carry On Jack.
Sandra Chalmers, of The Artists Partnership, confirmed he died surrounded by his loved ones on Wednesday (11 September) and shared a statement from his family.
“Ken passed away yesterday peacefully in his sleep with his wife and family by his side,” they wrote.
The family described Cope as “an incredible icon of British TV and film”, with a career spanning six decades that “contributed to some of the most iconic moments in British culture” as well as being “a natural comedy actor”.
Born in Liverpool in 1931, Cope starred as Jed Stone in Coronation Street in more than 100 episodes from 1961 to 1963, before briefly returning in 2008 and 2009.
He married Renny Lister, whom he worked with on Coronation Street, in 1961. The couple had two sons together, Nick and Mark, who formed a rock band called The Candyskins, They also had a daughter, Martha, who is an actor best known for her roles in Doctors and EastEnders.
The star had retired from the TV and film industry, choosing to spend the final years of his life in Southport, where he was a columnist for the Southport Visitor magazine.
His family added that Cope was “a proud native Liverpudlian and a loyal supporter of Everton Football Club”, adding they are “deeply saddened by his passing and ask that his family are given privacy at this time”.
Speaking to the PA news agency in 1994, Cope said he had “happy times” on Randall and Hopkirk.
“I used to think people liked it because they were happy times when we made it. The sun was always shining,” he said.”
“As a kid you wanted to be Superman, you wanted to be able to do things, to find the magic stone and rub it and a genie would appear.
“Randall and Hopkirk was quite escapist. There was a nice guy there who could do magical things.”
Additional reporting by agencies
