Peter Cook

Peter Edward Cook, born on 17 November 1937 in Torquay, Devon, was an English comedian, actor, satirist, playwright, screenwriter, and Broadway performer whose career spanned from the early 1960s until his death on 9 January 1995. The only son of Alexander Edward Cook, a colonial civil servant who held posts in Nigeria and Gibraltar, Cook grew up in a family with deep roots in British imperial administration. His grandfather, Edward Arthur Cook, had served as traffic manager for the Federated Malay States Railway in Kuala Lumpur.

Cook was educated at Radley College before reading French and German at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he initially intended to pursue a diplomatic career. At Cambridge he joined the Footlights Club, eventually becoming its president in 1960. While still a student, he contributed sketches to Kenneth Williams's West End revues Pieces of Eight and One Over the Eight. After graduating, he co-created the satirical stage revue Beyond the Fringe in 1960 alongside Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, and Dudley Moore, a production first performed at the Edinburgh Festival before achieving success in London, where Cook's impersonation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan drew particular attention.

In 1961, Cook opened The Establishment, a members-only comedy club at 18 Greek Street in Soho, where performers including Lenny Bruce, Eleanor Bron, John Bird, and John Fortune appeared regularly. The club's status as a private venue placed it outside censorship restrictions. Cook also opened a New York branch of The Establishment in 1963 and provided financial backing for the satirical magazine Private Eye, supporting it through libel trials and soliciting investment from friends. In 1962, the BBC commissioned a pilot for a television series based on the Establishment Club, but while Cook traveled to New York to perform Beyond the Fringe on Broadway, the pilot was reworked into That Was the Week That Was.

Cook's Broadway career ran from 1962 to 1973. He appeared in Beyond the Fringe '65 and starred in Good Evening, and he received Tony Award Special Awards in both 1963 and 1974. In 1963, Cook married Wendy Snowden; the couple had two daughters, Lucy and Daisy, before the marriage ended in 1970.

Cook's television partnership with Dudley Moore produced the sketch comedy series Not Only... But Also, which ran for three series between 1965 and 1970. Originally conceived as a vehicle for Moore's music, the program grew to feature Cook's characters such as Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling and the jointly created Pete and Dud alter egos, alongside Cook's recurring character E. L. Wisty, whom he had first developed for Radley College's Marionette Society. The pair received the 1966 British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance. Of the original 22 episodes, only eight survive complete, as Cook's attempt to purchase the recordings from the BBC to prevent their erasure was declined on copyright grounds. Cook and Moore also appeared together in the films The Wrong Box in 1966 and Bedazzled in 1967. During the 1970s, the two collaborated on a final series of Not Only... But Also, stand-up tours, and the Derek and Clive series of comedy albums. After 1978, Cook no longer worked regularly with Moore, though he continued performing in British television and film.