George Cooke
(1807-1863)
in 'Ticklish Times'

Born in Manchester on 7 March 1807, George Boughey Cooke began his working life at the mercantile firm of Hoyle and Co. but after playing Othello in some amateur theatricals he embarked on a career in as a professional actor in March 1828. According to the Theatrical Times (24 September 1848), he was ‘in every sense of the word, a consummate artist. Free from buffoonery or stage conventionality, his reading and manner is rich, racy and humorous.’ 

In 1840 he married Elizabeth Strutt, sister of the actor Thomas Strutt. The couple appear on the 1861 census living at 39 Sloane Square in Chelsea. He gave ‘Comedian’ as his profession; Mrs Cooke was a ‘Teacher of Music’ originally from Hoxton. 

George Cooke died by suicide on 5 March 1863 at 51 Cambridge Street, his home in Pimlico.

‘SUICIDE OF MR GEORGE COOKE, THE COMEDIAN. — We regret to have to state that this much respected member of the theatrical profession died by his own hand, on Thursday morning. He had been suffering for some time from dropsical disease, the pain of which probably caused a fit of temporary insanity, and he cut his throat. He had long been an actor of old men at the Olympic theatre, where his genial natural acting made him a great favourite with the public. His impersonation of the old sailor in the drama of the Lighthouse, and many similar sketches of character, will long be remembered by playgoers’ (Daily News, 7 March 1863). 

He is seen here as Mr Bodkin, ‘a snuffy old uncle, half shrewd and half stupid,’ in Ticklish Times, a farce by J.M. Morton first produced at the Olympic Theatre in March 1858.