John Savident, actor who played Fred Elliott in Coronation Street, dies aged 86

The actor played a butcher on the ITV soap opera from 1994 to 2006

John Savident, known for playing Fred Elliott in Coronation Street, has died, his agent has said.
The 86-year-old was best known for playing a butcher on the ITV soap between 1994 and 2006.
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 21 Feb, he was a much-loved husband and father of two and will be sorely missed by all who knew him.”
In 1994, Savident arrived on the cobbles and quickly became a fan favourite.
His storylines involved his disastrous love life, including three marriages and several failed proposals.
Savident’s character was killed off in 2006, suffering a stroke on the day he was supposed to marry Bev Unwin, played by Susie Blake.
Outside Coronation Street, Savident starred in Yes, Minister, a political comedy, and A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick’s dystopian thriller. His other roles included in the biopic Gandhi, the war film Battle Of Britain, Doctor Who, the science fiction series, 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.
He returned to play the character in 2011 in the Royal Albert Hall concert film.
After leaving Coronation Street, Savident appeared on stage in pantomime productions of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs and Harold Brighouse’s Hobson’s Choice.
Savident was married to theatre director Rona Hopkinson and the couple shared two children.