Peter Cook

Peter Cook (born November 17, 1937, Torquay, Devon, England—died January 9, 1995, London, England) was a British entertainer who gained international fame in the 1960s in the hit satirical revue Beyond the Fringe (with Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, and Dudley Moore) and for his longtime comedy partnership with Moore on stage, screen, television, and comedy records. He also founded The Establishment, a London comedy club where many younger comedians got their start, and published the satirical magazine Private Eye.

Cook studied modern languages at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he began writing and performing irreverent sketches with fellow students Bennett, Miller, and Moore. The quartet’s efforts evolved into Beyond the Fringe, which they took to London’s West End in 1961 and to Broadway a year later. Cook’s tall, lean frame and droll, deadpan delivery of even the most absurd dialogue made him a perfect foil for the short, energetic Moore, and the two created a series of comic duos, notably the inane working-class philosophers Pete ’n’ Dud, on their long-running television program, Not Only . . . But Also (1965–66; 1970), and their two-man shows Behind the Fridge (1971–72) and Good Evening (1973–75). The pair’s films included the Faustian Bedazzled (1967), a spoof version of The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978) with Cook as Sherlock Holmes, and Derek and Clive (1980), a variation on the original Pete ’n’ Dud. After Moore moved to Hollywood in the 1980s, Cook concentrated on Private Eye, although he made a few more films and was a frequent guest on TV talk shows.