by John Savident, who has died at the age of 86, was a skilled, handsome, sometimes broad but always memorable actor who played one of the most popular characters on television with soap operas – the bombastic but lovable butcher Fred Elliott in the ITV series Coronation Street – for more than a year. ten years.
Fred, who first appeared in 1994 and became a regular two years later, quickly became a hit with audiences, thanks in part to the repetitive and enjoyable vocal ticking that Savident invested in him: “Ashley, I say, Ashley,” he would say. while speaking to his young nephew (later revealed to be his son), Ashley Peacock (Steven Arnold).
Savident claimed that his delivery was inspired by a combination of the Looney Tunes cartoon rooster Foghorn Leghorn, tall men whose voices could be heard booming throughout northern pubs, and factory workers in Lancashire mills who would communicate in bells and were forced to to repeat because of the. din from the looms.
Widely played and using every one of the considerable number of comedic tricks available to Savident, Fred was the perfect Coronation Street player – completely true to the character’s wider ranks. With his imposing frame and sultry voice that could be heard behind the stalls even whispering, Savident combined the show’s northern humor with masterful comedic timing. Crucially, however, he had the dramatic skills to make Fred’s emotional, sometimes vulnerable scenes seem heartfelt and quiet.
And there was plenty of emotion to be seen: Fred was married three times and Rita Sullivan (Barbara Knox) and Audrey Roberts (Sue Nicholls) rejected the proposals.
For his portrayal of Fred, Savident won the award for best comedy performance at the first British Soap Awards in 1999. The following year, he was involved in a devastating incident when a visitor to his apartment was robbed near Granada TV studios in Manchester. – whom he invited back after a charity event – and stabbed him in the neck. Savident was lucky the knife missed his artery: his attacker was jailed for seven years.
He left Coronation Street in 2006, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family, but later admitted he was disappointed his bosses didn’t try harder to keep him on. Fred died of a stroke – after a last moment of heart with Audrey – on the day he was to marry Bev Unwin (Susie Blake): unlucky in love with the last person.
Savident was born in St Peter Port, Guernsey, the only son of John, a fisherman, and his Swiss wife, Karoline (nee Pfrinder). The family escaped from the German-occupied island in 1940 and settled in Ashton-Under-Lyne, Greater Manchester. He was educated at the grammar school there (now Ashton Sixth Form College) and in 1955 joined the Manchester police as a cadet. He patrolled the east side of the city for several years and was loaned to the vice squad.
He had performed in amateur plays since childhood and when a visiting director oversaw a production of his local Prestwich Amateur Drama and Opera Society of the South Pacific, Savident jokingly asked to audition for his next show. Much to his surprise this led to his professional debut playing the Sheriff of Nottingham opposite Max Wall in the Hanley Christmas pantomime Robin Hood (1961).
Newly married – to Rona (nee Hopkinson), a teacher (later theater director), whom he met when they were amateur husband and wife in Rochdale, and married earlier that year – and recently on promoted to accident prevention officer in Manchester C. Division, Savident was wary of accepting the offer, but decided to take the chance, realizing he could always go back to policing if it didn’t work out . He never had to: he soon joined the Lincoln theater repertory and two years later was at the National Theater in London playing O’Dwyer in Trelawny of the Wells.
He won strong notices for many of his later roles at the National, including the manipulative archbishop of Rheims trials in Saint Joan (directed by Ronald Eyre), a stirring comic turn as the foolish husband Nicia in Machiavelli’s Mandragola, and – for director. Peter Hall – Cominius very much given to Ian McKellen’s Coriolanus (all 1984).
He was also Monsieur Firmin in the first production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera (Queen’s Theatre, 1987), a role he recreated with the original company in The Phantom of the Opera at the Albert Hall (2011).
After breaking into television in 1966, he eschewed regular roles in an attempt to avoid typecasting, preferring instead numerous guest appearances in all genres. That said, he tended to specialize in sardonic establishment types, austere properties and sleazy houses: the air of disdain and testimony they needed came easily to him.
He was occasionally tempted by recurring parts, such as a brilliant and eccentric intelligence officer in the children’s espionage caper Tightrope (1972), a prominent home secretary in the 1990 dystopian drama (1977), Sir Frederick “Jumbo” Stewart, who was hilariously absurd in the film. better sitcom Yes Minister (1980), and the obscure blackmailer Raffles in Middlemarch (1994).
Science fiction fans loved him with vivid turns as the preening, gloriously grotesque double Egrorian scientist in Blake’s 1981 7-episode run, and the short-lived but delightfully peevish, dyspeptic Squire in the Doctor Who series The Visitation. (1982).
On film he shared the screen with his childhood idol Laurence Olivier in Battle of Britain (1969), and worked with Stanley Kubrick on A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Richard Attenborough on Gandhi (1982). Then there was the Hollywood peak Hudson Hawk (1991), Merchant Ivory’s The Remains of the Day (1993) and Oliver Parker’s Othello (1995).
After leaving Coronation Street, Savident returned to the stage, playing Henry Hobson in Hobson’s Choice (at Chichester Festival theatre, 2007), and on television in Above Suspicion (2009), Hotel Babylon (2009) and Holby City (2012).
Rona is survived by their children, Romany and Daniel.
• John Frederick Joseph Savident, actor, born 21 January 1938; died 21 February 2024
