Kenneth Cope
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| Kenneth Cope | |
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| Born | April 14, 1931  United Kingdom Liverpool, |
- For the musician, see Kenneth Cope (musician).
Kenneth Cope (born on 14 April 1931 in Liverpool) is an English actor.
He is most famous for his leading role in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969-1970) as the late private eye Marty Hopkirk opposite Mike Pratt's very much alive Jeff Randall. He had previously starred in Coronation Street as the shady Jed Stone (between 1961 and 1966), and had a regular role in the influential satirical series That Was The Week That Was (1962-1963).
He played Subutai in the 1965 film of the life of Genghis Khan, and in the same year Dateline Diamonds playing Lester Benson. He also took leading roles in two Carry On films. In Carry On At Your Convenience (1971) he played Vic Spanner, the obnoxious shop steward central to the film's trade union and industrial problems storyline and rival in the film's romantic sub plot. In Carry On Matron (1972) he took the more sympathetic role of Cyril Carter, the son of a thief who is forced to impersonate a female nurse as part of his father's attempt to rob a maternity hospital. Once there Cyril finds love with a real nurse.
He later appeared in the Doctor Who story (Warriors' Gate in 1981), and guest starred in four episodes of Casualty.
From 1999 to 2002 he starred as Ray Hilton in the Channel Four soap opera Brookside.
He married actress Renny Lister in 1961 and they have three children. They met when Renny worked on Coronation Street.
His daughter Martha Cope is also an actress, his sons Nick Cope and Mark Cope were members of the rock group The Candyskins.
He was offered a cameo role in the Vic Reeves-Bob Mortimer revival of Randall and Hopkirk, but turned it down. He did, however, provide the foreword to a Randall and Hopkirk retrospective book (by Geoff Tibballs), published in 1994.
