He spent spent decades as one of the best known faces in British comedy thanks to his starring roles in numerous Carry On films and hit sitcoms like Bless This House.
So much so that when Sid James suffered a massive heart attack whilst on stage on this day in 1976 (April 26) many in the audience thought he was just joking around.
However, as a the curtain quickly came down the South Africa-born 62-year-old's costars quickly realised something was terribly wrong.
The actor, best loved for his wrinkled appearance and oft-imitated dirty laugh, would be pronounced dead before the ambulance carrying him even made it to the nearby hospital.
Nevertheless, like beloved funnyman and magician Tommy Cooper, who also had a fatal coronary whilst performing, Sid went out making people laugh.
That said, while fez-wearing Welshman Cooper would collapse during a live TV broadcast watched by millions eight years later, the Carry On favourite took his final bow in the more modest surroundings of the Sunderland Empire theatre, where he'd been appearing in a revival of a popular farce called The Mating Season.
His co-star Olga Lowe, who passed away in 2013, said at the time how she first thought that Sid was messing about.
"I came on, said my first lines and he answered as normal," she recalled in a previous interview.
"Then I sat on the sofa with him, said my next line and he didn't answer. His head had slumped and his eyes had rolled back.
"I thought it was a gag. Well, you would with Sid. He was such a rascal."
But the awful truth soon became clear and the play was called to a halt.
"The doctor called the ambulance and I believe he died on the way to hospital. It was awful," added Olga.
“Ten minutes earlier he had been the same old laughing Sid."
The actor had also suffered a serious heart attack nearly a decade before, causing him to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
He'd filmed Carry On Doctor around the same time and had been given orders to rest up, which is thought to be the reason why his character in that film spent most of its screen time lying in a hospital bed.
For more of the latest showbiz news from Daily Star, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here.
Source: Read Full Article
