- Culture
- 12 Mar 18
A spokesperson for the 90-year-old comedian said this morning: "With Ken gone, the lights have been turned out in the world of variety. He was a comedy legend and genius.'
The Liverpool comedian, singer/songwriter and actor will be best remembered for his trademark unruly hair and protruding teeth, as well as how he used to carry a "tickling stick" on stage and used the catchphrase, "How tickled I am!"
Ken Dodd also created the characters of the Diddy Men.
According to wikipedia, "In the 1960s his fame in the UK was such that he rivalled the Beatles as a household name."
He mostly worked on stage, but Ken also appeared in various TV shows and movies such as 'Doctor Who' and 'Hamlet' directed by Irishman Kenneth Branagh back in 1996.
Despite being 90-years-old, the comedian was still performing live right up until the time of his death.
Two days prior to his passing, Ken married his partner of 40 years at their Liverpool home.
His publicist Robert Holmes revealed on ITV this morning: 'It's a wonderful love story. They had been together for 40 years and on Friday he suddenly asked her to marry him and she was delighted obviously.
"She got hold of the local vicar and organised the registrar to come to the house and they got married. And two days later he's passed away.
"It's not like it's a surprise he's been very ill for a long time. He's a man who was born in Liverpool, never moved from the house he was born and his last concert was at the Echo Arena in Liverpool.
"It's remarkable. I'm so delighted for Anne. He waited a lifetime to be knighted. Only last year I was at Buckingham Palace watching him be knighted."
Twitter has been flooded with tributes this morning...
Comedy flowed through him like water. RIP Sir Ken Dodd. pic.twitter.com/v0FjVJVe1n
— David Walliams (@davidwalliams) March 12, 2018
Ken Dodd, RIP. A huge figure in the life of all of us who grew in Liverpool. His shows went on for as long as five hours with theatre managers threatening to switch the lights off at 1am. In the @thetimes ‘funeral will be held on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and most of Saturday’
— Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) March 12, 2018
‘So it turns out that if you bang two halves of a horse together, it doesn’t make the sound of a coconut.’
- Sir Ken Dodd 1927-2018 pic.twitter.com/xjLlXI2AZx— Waterstones (@Waterstones) March 12, 2018
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RIP Ken Dodd, aged 90, who memorably played the Tollmaster in Delta and the Bannermen (1987). pic.twitter.com/eF1ZUDkjPY
— Doctor Who Cast and Crew ? (@DrWhoCastCrew) March 12, 2018
RIP Sir Ken Dodd, Freeman of Liverpool and comedy genius. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Anne and their friends and family at this very sad time. pic.twitter.com/5WjzhGJ2Sv
— Liverpool Council (@lpoolcouncil) March 12, 2018