Willy Wonka Actor Tim Brooke-Taylor Dies From Coronavirus

British comedian and actor Tim Brooke-Taylor died on Sunday from COVID-19. He was 79. [...]

By Nicole Drum

British comedian and actor Tim Brooke-Taylor died on Sunday from COVID-19. He was 79. Brooke-Taylor's death was confirmed by his agent. The entertainer had a long career in entertainment and was a huge star in the U.K. in the 1970s due to his work on the series The Goodies. He also appeared as a scientist in the iconic 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

At the start of his career, Brooke-Taylor was a member of Cambridge University's Footlights revue, a group that saw the rise of several generations of British comic talent. He went on to break into both television and radio comedy alongside John Cleese and Graham Chapman, both of whom would become members of Monty Python.

Along with Graham Garden and Bill Oddie, Brooke-Taylor formed The Goodies, who in addition to the hit BBC series, also scored a hit single, "Funky Gibbon" in 1975. Outside of television work, Brooke-Taylor was also a panelist on the BBC's comic quiz show, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue for more than 40 years.

Born July 17, 1940, Brooke-Taylor also appeared in the Doctor Who audio story "The Zygon Who Fell to Earth" in 2008 with the entertainer playing Mims, a Zygon taking the shape of a human.

Brooke-Taylor was a big influence for a lot of people in entertainment. Upon the news of Brooke-Taylor's passing, various celebrities took to social media to pay tribute to Brooke-Taylor. Ant-Man co-writer and Baby Driver director Edgar Wright called the entertainer "a big comedy hero" from his childhood and shared a thread of GIFs from a classic episode of The Goodies "in tribute to his lunacy".

"I'm so so sad that a big comedy hero from my childhood, Tim Brooke-Taylor, has passed," Write wrote. "Loved his energy & go for broke, try anything silliness. He made it seem like making people laugh was the best job in the world. Please allow me to repost this thread in tribute to his lunacy."

Actor and author who appeared on I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue with him Stephen Fry also paid tribute, remembering Brooke-Taylor as a kind and funny man.

"Just heard the devastating news of the death of Tim Brooke-Taylor," Fry wrote. "A hero for as long as I can remember, and -- on a few golden occasions -- a colleague and collaborator on I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. Gentle, kind, funny, wise, warm, but piercingly witty when he chose to be. So sad."

Photo by John Stillwell - WPA Pool/Getty Images

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