George A. Cooper

George A. Cooper

George Alphonsus Cooper was born in Leeds in 1925. After training as an electrical engineer and architect he was called up for National Service, working for the Royal Artillery in India. During that period he became interested in performing and on his discharge joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in Manchester. To avoid confusion with American actor George Cooper he used his middle initial in his stage name. His first appearance on television was in 1946. Over the next fifty years, he was a regular on the screen developing a career out of portraying slightly bumbling authoritarian characters. In 1964, he won a recurring role in ITV's Coronation Street playing businessman Willie Piggott who famously tried to bribe Ken Barlow to give his son Brian a pass on his tech exam. He had regular roles in Z-Cars and Dixon of Dock Green. In 1960, he appeared in the West End play Billy Liar playing the father of the title character, later reprising the role in the 1973 television series. He appeared in comedies such as Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Sykes and Mind Your Language. In 1985, he took on the role of no-nonsense caretaker Eric Griffiths in the incredibly successful children's drama Grange Hill, playing the role for seven years and earning a place in the hearts of a generation of children. His last TV appearance was in a 1995 episode of Casualty. He died in a nursing home in Hampshire on 16th November, 2018.

Known For: Acting

Born: Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, UK , 1925-03-07

Died: 2018-11-16

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1952	Okinawa	Yeoman	48
2	1957	The Secret Place	Harry	62
3	1957	Fortune Is a Woman	Hotel Porter	68
4	1958	Violent Playground	Chief Inspector	70
5	1958	A Night to Remember	Carpathia Purser Hughes (uncredited)	76
6	1960	Hell Is a City	Doug Savage	66
7	1962	In the Doghouse	Examiner (Uncredited)	59
8	1962	The Brain	Thomas Gabler	56
9	1963	The Cracksman	Fred	63
10	1963	Tom Jones	Mr. Fitzpatrick	59
11	1964	The Bargee	Official in Office	69
12	1964	Nightmare	John	68
13	1965	Ferry Cross the Mersey	Mr. Lumsden	61
14	1965	Life at the Top	Graffham	62
15	1966	Doctor Who: The Smugglers	Cherub	57
16	1967	In Two Minds	Mr. Winter	63
17	1967	The Confession	Albert Verdoni	0
18	1967	Smashing Time	Irishman	62
19	1968	The Strange Affair	Supt. Kingsley	44
20	1968	Dracula Has Risen from the Grave	Village Landlord	67
21	1970	Start the Revolution Without Me	Dr. Duval	59
22	1970	Don't Touch Him, He Might Resent It	Mr. Tundish	0
23	1970	The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer	Blacket	61
24	1970	I Can't See My Little Willie	Frank Palmer	0
25	1970	Roll On Four O'Clock	Ted Crampton	60
26	1971	Office Party	Manager	0
27	1972	Lifting Safely		0
28	1972	The Villa Maroc	Lionel	0
29	1972	What Became of Jack and Jill?	Trouncer	46
30	1972	Bless This House	Mr. Wilson	63
31	1972	The Bouncing Boy	Ashcroft	0
32	1975	Awkward Customers	Awkward Customer: Mr. Wart-hog	0
33	1975	Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done	The Pirate King (voice)	0
34	1976	Decorators Limited	Porter	0
35	1976	Trial by Combat	2nd Leather Jerkin	77
36	1978	A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story	Mr. Twitchell	90
37	1978	Mr and Mrs Bureaucrat	Man	0
38	1978	The Light Princess	King	70
39	1981	Somewhere More Central	Uncle Joe	0
40	1983	Red Monarch	Kaganovitch	50
41	1983	The Star Chamber	State Senator Walden	60
42	1984	Amy	Will Johnson	100
43	1984	Give Us a Break: Hustle Bustle Toil and Muscle	Alf	0
44	1989	Customers From Hell		0
45	1994	Fair Game	George	35
46	2008	The Ties That Bind Us	Cherub (archive footage)	0

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1955	Dixon of Dock Green	Topper Brown	53
2	1955	Dixon of Dock Green	Jackson	53
3	1955	Dixon of Dock Green	Monty Pitman	53
4	1958	Saturday Playhouse	George Day	0
5	1958	Saturday Playhouse	Bob Sanders	0
6	1958	Saturday Playhouse	Mr. Jackson	0
7	1958	Saturday Playhouse	Inspector Fitchitt	0
8	1959	No Hiding Place		37
9	1960	An Age of Kings	Earl of Northumberland	47
10	1960	An Age of Kings	Ancient Pistol	47
11	1961	The Avengers	Burgess	77
12	1962	Z-Cars		70
13	1962	Dr. Finlay's Casebook	Tom Farquhar	60
14	1962	The Saint	Harold Laker	73
15	1962	The Saint	Milton Ourley	73
16	1963	Espionage		0
17	1964	Sherlock Holmes		64
18	1965	Public Eye		78
19	1965	Public Eye	Alec Payton	78
20	1966	King of the River	Reverend Ackroyd	0
21	1967	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle	Mr. Fawcett	0
22	1967	Man in a Suitcase		70
23	1968	The Ronnie Barker Playhouse		0
24	1968	The First Lady		0
25	1968	The Expert	Arnold Bottomley	100
26	1970	Doomwatch	Thomas Prentice	60
27	1970	Play for Today	Ashcroft	63
28	1970	Play for Today	Lionel	63
29	1970	Play for Today	Frank Palmer	63
30	1971	Barlow		60
31	1971	The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes	Inspector Beedel	73
32	1971	Justice	Supt. George Grover	60
33	1972	Sykes	Arthur Coats	64
34	1972	Crown Court		54
35	1973	Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em		76
36	1973	Billy Liar		57
37	1975	Dawson's Weekly		0
38	1975	Two's Company	Mr. Begley	70
39	1975	Wonder Woman	Gen. Clewes	70
40	1976	The New Avengers	Burt Brandon	70
41	1977	BBC2 Play of the Week	Man	70
42	1978	All Creatures Great and Small	Mr. Crump	77
43	1978	Grange Hill	Mr. Griffiths	67
44	1979	Terry and June	Mr. Ridge	62
45	1979	Terry and June	Uncle Bob	62
46	1979	Terry and June	Eric	62
47	1986	Casualty	Albert Collins	61
48	1989	Nice Work	Mr. Wilcox Snr	65
49	1992	Heartbeat	Walter Pettigrew	71

George A. Cooper

Film

Television