Sir Ken Dodd dies aged 90, just two days after marrying longtime partner Anne Jones (standard.co.uk).
The much-loved star, famous for his epic stand-up shows, his tickling sticks and Diddy Men, died on Sunday in the home he was born in, in the Liverpool suburb of Knotty Ash.
His wife was at his bedside. … He wed Anne Jones, his partner of 40 years, on Friday and an announcement was due to go out later this week about the marriage.
Passing on at the Knotty Ash home he had lived his whole life and performing his last show just months ago just after Christmas at The Auditorium in the Liverpool Echo Arena with remaining dates having to be cancelled due to illness.
[His publicist Robert Holmes] said: “He’s not been well this year. Anne was in the process of cancelling all of his dates because when Ken goes on stage he’s up there for about four hours.”
Indeed, being rather renowned for long shows:
Over the 1960s, he entered the Guinness Book of Records for the longest joke-telling session ever—1,500 jokes in three-and-a-half hours.
With his knighthood sadly and some would say shamelessly long delayed after nine nominations and 20-year a campaign by fans including celebrities and a former Prime Minister (mirror.co.uk, Mar. 2017) likely due to a tax fraud trial for which he was acquitted:
The veteran comic was knighted in honour of his decades-long showbiz career and charity work in March last year.
He was acquitted following a five-week trial, accused of tax fraud, in 1989 and would later joke about the case, which had transformed Liverpool Crown Court into a sell-out theatre, with fellow comics Eric Sykes and Roy Hudd called as character witnesses.
And certainly a man of long commitment to comedy and in love:
His first fiancee, Anita Boutin, died of a brain tumour in 1977 aged 45, after the couple had been together for 24 years.
#RIPKenDodd (Twitter).
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