Actor John Savident, who plays Fred Elliot in soap Coronation Street, accepts the top prize on behalf of the program voted Best Soap by TV viewers at Carlton TV's 1999 British Soap Awards. Photo: Getty Images
Larger-than-life actor John Savident found the perfect role when he was cast as the booming-voiced Fred Elliott in the British soap Kroningsstraat. The role of the hapless butcher suited him perfectly and allowed him to demonstrate both his perfect comic timing and his sense of pathos and drama. The Channel Islands-born actor left home with his parents in 1940, when he was two, to avoid the impending German invasion. Although never a major star, Savident's character acting skills meant he was rarely out of work. He appeared in films like A Clockwork Orange, Gandhi And Hudson Hawk, appeared regularly on stage, especially in musicals, and had a dizzying array of television credits. Savident was wrong about everything Dr Who Unpleasant Yes minister And Holby townbut it was Kor giving Savident his signature role – and a signature catchphrase by adding the words 'I say' to most sentences. Fred Elliott appeared in nearly 1,000 episodes of the series before the character's death in 2006. Savident himself died on February 21, aged 86. – Agencies