Beloved by soap fans for his role as Jack Duckworth, Bill Tarmey passed away peacefully at his holiday home in Tenerife.
Bill Tarmey
Bill with Liz Dawn
Bill joined Corrie in the 70s
Born and raised in Manchester, Bill’s family struggled to make ends meet, living in a terraced house with an outside toilet.
His dad, an ambulance driver in World War II, was killed by shellfire and his mother married their next-door neighbour.
In 1955, Bill met Alma at a youth club and the pair married in 1962.
He carved out a career as a singer in working men’s clubs and released three albums, enjoying two top 40 hits.
To supplement his income, Bill took on work as an extra on shows such as Corrie, among others.
Despite suffering a major heart attack in 1976, aged 35, and a stroke in 1977, he was eventually offered the role of Jack, who also worked as a potman in the Rovers Return.
A lifelong heavy smoker, Bill had quintuple bypass surgery in 1986.
He had a pacemaker fitted after suffering a second heart attack in 2002 and “died” twice while being treated.
But Bill refused to quit the cigarettes. He said in one interview: “I could make it easier on myself. I could give up. I could go and sit in a rocking chair. But that wouldn’t be me.”
His on-screen relationship with Vera – an amusing mix of nagging, heated rows and scraps underpinned with a genuine love for each other – had viewers enthralled.
Eleven million tuned in to watch his final scene on November 7, 2010, when Jack died in the same chair where Vera passed away two years earlier. He was last seen dancing with her ghost – after she told him off for looking scruffy.
Despite failing health, Bill was persuaded to postpone his retirement until the show’s 50th anniversary.
Bill put much of his health problems down to his time laying asphalt.
He was on a cocktail of drugs for his heart condition and suffered from severe hearing loss – a condition he blamed on years of singing with big bands.
Apart from his own health, one of the reasons Bill left Corrie was to support son Carl, who was battling back from surgery and chemotherapy after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
The star was on holiday with Alma, Carl and his wife Sandra. Alma found him dead, according to family friend Vernon Harris.
He said yesterday: “She slept on the sofa last night as Bill wasn’t well.
“She woke up this morning, couldn’t hear him and went in and he was dead. It’s such a shock.
“Bill had told me he didn’t feel well and wanted to go home.”
Bill was due to fly back to Manchester yesterday.
He had been lined up to play the part of the Ghost of Christmas Past in a Children In Need sketch featuring Scrooge and a clutch of ex-Corrie stars.
dailyrecord
