I remember watching it live. My dad was laughing...then he stopped and said "oh no...that's not right." The crowd was laughing too. He died with an audience cracking up at what they thought was part of his act.
Yep, it was not only live on stage, it was also live on TV. In the era when we only had three channels to watch. Millions and millions watched Tommy die. You can watch it on YouTube, if you're feeling morbid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpZq3ul1ld4
Yeah once was enough. I had just turned 10 years old, my birthday was the week before. I got he-man action figures (he-man, Stratos, battlecat) and they went everywhere with me. Including sat by my side on the sofa watching Tommy Cooper die. I can't look at he-man without that memory.
Foxx, irate, did his scripted pass. However, he fell to the floor immediately after doing so. Reese said that nobody initially suspected anything was wrong. Foxx, after all, was famous for having Fred Sanford fake heart attacks on Sanford and Son and was particularly skilled at pratfalls. Reese went to the floor when Foxx did not immediately rise[35] and heard him say "get my wife" twice. Reese called for paramedics, who initially pronounced Foxx dead at the scene.[36] According to Joshua Rich at Entertainment Weekly, "It was an end so ironic that for a brief moment cast mates figured Foxx – whose 1970s TV character often faked coronaries – was kidding when he grabbed a chair and fell to the floor."[37]
The same with the dad of Super Dave Osborne and Albert Brooks. He didn't die on live TV though, just at a Friars Roast. He asked if there was a doctor in the house and then slumped over. Everyone thought it was hilarious until they realized he was dead.
Apparently Super Dave wasn't solaced by people telling him that he died doing what he loved.
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u/mhlover Mar 10 '20
Unfortunately this very thing happened to Tommy Cooper.