Scotsman Obituaries: John Savident, actor best known as Coronation Street butcher Fred Elliot

Born in Guernsey in 1938 to a local fisherman father and a Swiss mother, Savident and his family left the Channel Islands, then under German occupation, and moved to Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, when he was three.

He started his career as a policeman in Manchester and during his six years on the beat was stabbed in the arm as he tried to break up a gang fight.

Initially pursuing his acting ambitions in amateur productions, Savident quit the force when a producer overheard him talking in a pub and offered him a part as Robin Hood in a London panto.

Savident went on to star in numerous productions in the West End and Royal National Theatre.

His early film roles included parts in Battle Of Britain, Stanley Kubrick’s controversial A Clockwork Orange – which was banned for years at the director’s insistence – and later Gandhi.

He also attracted the attention of Hollywood, with roles in the Bruce Willis film Hudson Hawk, and Loch Ness.

He took on parts as TV villains, such as the blackmailer Raffles in the BBC dramatisation Middlemarch, and was lined up to play disgraced publisher Robert Maxwell in a stage production before legal problems scuppered the show.

In 1994 he began life on the cobbles, taking on the Coronation Street role of Fred Elliott, who he played until 2006.

The butcher was known for his booming voice and saying his lines twice, broken up with the catchphrase “I say”.

“I made Fred speak like the loud Lancashire people you used to meet in pubs – you could hear them from the other side,” the actor once recalled.

“I’ve got that booming voice anyway. I’m forever getting told at home, ‘stop booming John’.” Some viewers reckoned Savident also drew vocal inspiration from classic Looney Tunes cartoon character Foghorn Leghorn.

His storylines involved his disastrous love life, including three marriages and several failed proposals.

A secret son, Ashley Peacock (Steven Arnold), arrived on the show and the two later developed a close bond as they worked as butchers together.

There was drama offscreen as well, when in 2000 Savident was stabbed in his flat near the Granada studios in Manchester. Attacker Michael Smith was later jailed for seven years for the incident, which happened after Savident met him in Manchester’s Gay Village, where he was making a personal appearance for World Aids Day, and invited him home to talk about the theatre.

The actor lost about two pints of blood after being stabbed in the neck, less than an inch away from his main artery, and later told police: “It was like a scene from Bates Motel.” He was able to call 999 and was taken to hospital.

Savident rubbed shoulders with royalty and politicians during his time on the Street, raising a pint in the Rovers Return with Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2005.

At an event in 2001 he told a teenage Prince William, as he was then known, to “wash his mouth out” after learning he watched rival soap EastEnders.

“He said he watched Neighbours as well. I couldn’t believe it. But it was all in good spirit. We had a good laugh and we had a great chat,” Savident said of the encounter.

His character, who was landlord of the Rovers for five years, was killed off in 2006, suffering a stroke on the day he was supposed to marry Bev Unwin (Susie Blake) in scenes which were watched by 11 million viewers.

Elliott’s death 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 included Maureen Holdsworth (Sherrie Hewson) and barmaid Eve Sykes (Melanie Kilburn).

Nicholls has paid tribute to her long-time co-star Savident, saying her “memories of him are a joy”.

She thanked Savident for being in her life, saying in a statement: “I am very sad to hear of John’s passing. My memories of working with you dear John on the Street are a joy, and always will be.

“God bless you and thank you for being in my life. Much love to you and your friends and family.”

A post on X, formerly Twitter, from the cast and crew of the soap, said: “Everyone at Coronation Street is deeply saddened to learn of John Savident’s death.

“As Fred Elliott, John firmly established himself in the pantheon of Coronation Street greats. His peerless comic timing, combined with a deep pathos arising from his outstanding dramatic skill, made Fred an unforgettable, iconic character that provided great joy to viewers for many years.”

Away from Coronation Street, Savident was married to theatre director Rona Hopkinson and they had two children.

After leaving his soap work, Savident appeared on stage in productions of pantomime Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs and an adaptation of Harold Brighouse’s Hobson’s Choice.

He also reprised a role as opera house owner Monsieur Firmin in the Royal Albert Hall concert film of musical Phantom Of The Opera.

In 2011, he told an interviewer he rarely watched Coronation Street since his departure.

He said: “Some of the young people just want to be on screen and have no ambition to act elsewhere – what future do they have when their contract ends?

“One of them asked me who this Laurence Olivier was I was talking about as he’d never heard of him! Olivier was my hero and I had the honour of working with him on a couple of occasions.”

Obituaries

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