Biography
Cambridge-educated Peter Cook was, along with
Dudley Moore, David Frost and Jonathan Miller, one of the founders of the irreverent British comedy troupe "Beyond the Fringe." When the group came to Broadway (an event celebrated on a near-nightly basis on such TV programs as The Jack Paar Program and
The Ed Sullivan Show), Cook shared a Tony award with his fellow Fringers. Together with longtime collaborator
Dudley Moore, Cook split off into a two-man act. The towering Cook and diminutive Moore co-starred in such cheeky British comedies as
The Wrong Box (1968) and
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1968), usually writing all their own material. The best of their filmic collaborations was
Bedazzled, a breezily sacrilegious update of the "Faust" legend. While they remained friends, Cook and Moore eventually decided that they'd fare better as "singles." Cook continued to write for and appear in such films as
Supergirl (1984),
The Princess Bride (1986) and
Great Balls of Fire (1989), and also co-starred with
Mimi Kennedy on the 1981 American TV sitcom
The Two of Us. Peter Cook died of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage at the age of 57. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide