John Savident, best known for portraying Fred Elliott on Coronation Street, has died, his representative has said.
Savident was a fan favourite on the ITV soap, known for his booming voice.
A statement from his agent to the PA news agency said: “We are sad to announce the death of the actor John Savident who died on Wednesday February 21. He was a much-loved husband and father of two and will be sorely missed by all who knew him.”
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Arriving on the cobbles in 1994, his storylines involved his disastrous love life, including three marriages and several failed proposals.
A secret son, Ashley Peacock (Steven Arnold), also arrived on the show and the two later developed a close bond as they worked as butchers together.
Savident’s character was killed off in 2006, suffering a stroke on the day he was supposed to marry Bev Unwin (Susie Blake).
Elliott’s death also saw Audrey Roberts (Sue Nicholls) confess that she still loved him following her turning down his proposal of marriage years previously.
The butcher’s previous wives also include Maureen Holdsworth (Sherrie Hewson) and barmaid Eve Sykes (Melanie Kilburn).
Outside Coronation Street, Savident appeared in the political comedy Yes, Minister, Stanley Kubrick’s dystopian thriller A Clockwork Orange, biopic Gandhi, war film Battle Of Britain, Doctor Who and period dramas The Remains Of The Day and Middlemarch.
He was in the first staging of the musical Phantom Of The Opera, in October 1986 at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Haymarket, London, as the opera house owner Monsieur Firmin.
After leaving Coronation Street, Savident appeared on stage in productions of panto Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs and Harold Brighouse’s Hobson’s Choice.
Savident was married to theatre director Rona Hopkinson and they had two children.
