John Savident
Encyclopedia
John Savident is a British
actor
, best known for playing the part of Fred Elliott
in the soap opera
Coronation Street
from 1994 to 2006. And also was a frequent guest on Soccer AM alongside fellow actor Jack 'The Rigger' Spooner.
. During this time he acted with an amateur company, Prestwich Amateur Dramatic and Operatic Society (PADOS) of which he was also chairman. He made his television début in 1968, and appeared in many dramatic roles, becoming a familiar face as a result of parts in films such as A Clockwork Orange
, Waterloo, Mountains of the Moon
, Battle Of Britain
(sharing a scene with Laurence Olivier
), Brain Donors
, and The Wicked Lady
as well as television series including The Avengers
, 1990
,Yes Minister
, Jeeves and Wooster
, Budgie
, Tightrope, Blake's 7
, Private Schulz, the Doctor Who
serial "The Visitation", Middlemarch
and as Plumb in The Professionals
episode "Servant of Two Masters" and "The Saint". His stage roles include being a member of the original London
cast of The Phantom of the Opera
. Possessing a fine singing voice, Savident's many musical credits also include The Student Prince
and the Lloyd Webber–Rice Cricket
.
as the bellicose but romantic butcher
Fred Elliott
that he became a household name. He made his first appearance on the show in 1994 and his character quickly became popular with viewers.
On 1 December 2000, Savident was stabbed in the neck by Michael Smith who claimed he was acting in self-defence. Savident said at the time "I suddenly felt somebody come up behind me and whizz me round so I was face down on the bed and then I felt a prick on my throat". Savident had met Smith in a gay bar. They then went to Savident's home apparently to discuss the theatre which Smith claimed was a euphemism for sex. The next week on Coronation Street the large sticking plaster on his character's neck was explained as a "butchering accident".
In December 2005, Savident announced that he was to leave the Coronation Street citing (undisclosed) "personal reasons" for his decision. His character died of a heart attack nine months later. He later revealed that he had retired from the show "because he wanted to spend more time with his family in Hertfordshire".
Since leaving, he has been critical of the way the series is produced in a number of articles and television interviews, claiming that the programme is amongst other things "on too frequently" and "badly lit".
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
as the henchman
at Manchester Opera House
, appearing alongside Suranne Jones
, Justin Moorhouse, and the all-star seven dwarves including Warwick Davis
.
In 2007 he was touring as the lead in a production of Hobson's Choice.
He appeared on Loose Women
on 19 March 2009 to discuss his part as Sir Joseph Porter in the Gilbert and Sullivan
operetta HMS Pinafore
, which toured the United Kingdom during the spring and summer of 2009.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, best known for playing the part of Fred Elliott
Fred Elliott
Frederick Handel "Fred" Elliott is a fictional character from the British soap opera Coronation Street, played by John Savident from 1994 until 2006.-Development:...
in the soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
from 1994 to 2006. And also was a frequent guest on Soccer AM alongside fellow actor Jack 'The Rigger' Spooner.
Career
Savident is a former police officerPolice officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
. During this time he acted with an amateur company, Prestwich Amateur Dramatic and Operatic Society (PADOS) of which he was also chairman. He made his television début in 1968, and appeared in many dramatic roles, becoming a familiar face as a result of parts in films such as A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange (film)
A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 film adaptation of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name. It was written, directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick...
, Waterloo, Mountains of the Moon
Mountains of the Moon (film)
Mountains of the Moon is a 1990 theatrical film depicting the 1857-58 journey of Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke in their expedition to central Africa — the project that culminated in Speke's discovery of the source of the Nile River. The expedition led to a bitter rivalry between the...
, Battle Of Britain
Battle of Britain (film)
Battle of Britain is a 1969 Technicolor film directed by Guy Hamilton, and produced by Harry Saltzman and S. Benjamin Fisz. The film broadly relates the events of the Battle of Britain...
(sharing a scene with Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
), Brain Donors
Brain Donors
Brain Donors is an American comedy movie released by Paramount Pictures, loosely based on the Marx Brothers comedy, A Night at the Opera...
, and The Wicked Lady
The Wicked Lady
The Wicked Lady is a 1945 film starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who secretly becomes a highwayman for the excitement...
as well as television series including The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
, 1990
1990 (TV series)
1990 is a British then-futuristic political drama television series produced by the BBC and shown in 1977 and 1978.- Plot :The series is set in a dystopian future in which Britain is under the grip of the Home Office's Department of Public Control , a tyrannically oppressive bureaucracy riding...
,Yes Minister
Yes Minister
Yes Minister is a satirical British sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn that was first transmitted by BBC Television between 1980–1982 and 1984, split over three seven-episode series. The sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran from 1986 to 1988. In total there were 38 episodes—of which all but...
, Jeeves and Wooster
Jeeves and Wooster
-External links:*—An episode guide to the series, including information about which episodes were adapted from which Wodehouse stories.*—Episode guides, screenshots and quotes from the four series....
, Budgie
Budgie (TV series)
Budgie was a popular British television series starring former popstar Adam Faith which was produced by ITV company London Weekend Television and broadcast on the ITV network between 1971 and 1972....
, Tightrope, Blake's 7
Blake's 7
Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC for its BBC1 channel. The series was created by Terry Nation, a prolific television writer and creator of the Daleks for the television series Doctor Who. Four series of Blake's 7 were produced and broadcast between 1978...
, Private Schulz, the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
serial "The Visitation", Middlemarch
Middlemarch
Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Anne Evans, later Marian Evans. It is her seventh novel, begun in 1869 and then put aside during the final illness of Thornton Lewes, the son of her companion George Henry Lewes...
and as Plumb in The Professionals
The Professionals (TV series)
The Professionals was a British crime-action television drama series produced by Avengers Mk1 Productions and London Weekend Television that aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983. In all, 57 episodes were produced, filmed between 1977 and 1981. It starred Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon...
episode "Servant of Two Masters" and "The Saint". His stage roles include being a member of the original London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
cast of The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.The music was composed by Lloyd Webber, and most lyrics were written by Charles Hart, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. Alan Jay Lerner was an early collaborator,...
. Possessing a fine singing voice, Savident's many musical credits also include The Student Prince
The Student Prince
The Student Prince is an operetta in four acts with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly. It is based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's play Alt Heidelberg. The piece has elements of melodrama but lacks the swashbuckling style common to Romberg's other works...
and the Lloyd Webber–Rice Cricket
Cricket (musical)
Cricket, also called Cricket , is a short musical written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. It was commissioned for Queen Elizabeth's 60th birthday celebration, and was first performed at Windsor Castle on 18 June 1986....
.
Coronation Street
Despite his many film and TV roles, it was only during the 1990s when he joined the cast of Coronation StreetCoronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
as the bellicose but romantic butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
Fred Elliott
Fred Elliott
Frederick Handel "Fred" Elliott is a fictional character from the British soap opera Coronation Street, played by John Savident from 1994 until 2006.-Development:...
that he became a household name. He made his first appearance on the show in 1994 and his character quickly became popular with viewers.
On 1 December 2000, Savident was stabbed in the neck by Michael Smith who claimed he was acting in self-defence. Savident said at the time "I suddenly felt somebody come up behind me and whizz me round so I was face down on the bed and then I felt a prick on my throat". Savident had met Smith in a gay bar. They then went to Savident's home apparently to discuss the theatre which Smith claimed was a euphemism for sex. The next week on Coronation Street the large sticking plaster on his character's neck was explained as a "butchering accident".
In December 2005, Savident announced that he was to leave the Coronation Street citing (undisclosed) "personal reasons" for his decision. His character died of a heart attack nine months later. He later revealed that he had retired from the show "because he wanted to spend more time with his family in Hertfordshire".
Since leaving, he has been critical of the way the series is produced in a number of articles and television interviews, claiming that the programme is amongst other things "on too frequently" and "badly lit".
Recent work
He was one of the readers on the BBC's online Advent Calendar in December 2006 and starred in the 2006 pantomimePantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White
"Snow White" is a fairy tale known from many countries in Europe, the best known version being the German one collected by the Brothers Grimm...
as the henchman
Henchman
Henchman referred originally to one who attended on a horse for his employer, that is, a horse groom. Hence, like constable and marshal, also originally stable staff, henchman became the title of a subordinate official in a royal court or noble household...
at Manchester Opera House
Manchester Opera House
The Opera House in Quay Street, Manchester, England is a 1,920 seater commercial touring theatre which plays host to touring musicals, ballet, concerts and a Christmas pantomime. It is the sister to the Palace Theatre which is a similar venue in nearby Oxford Street at its junction with Whitworth...
, appearing alongside Suranne Jones
Suranne Jones
Suranne Jones is an English actress. She first rose to prominence playing the role of Karen McDonald in ITV1's soap opera Coronation Street over a period of four years...
, Justin Moorhouse, and the all-star seven dwarves including Warwick Davis
Warwick Davis
Warwick Ashley Davis is an English actor. He is most notable for playing the title characters in Willow and the Leprechaun film series, as well as for his roles in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and the Harry Potter movies. Davis currently stars in the sitcom Life's Too Short, written...
.
In 2007 he was touring as the lead in a production of Hobson's Choice.
He appeared on Loose Women
Loose Women
Loose Women is a British lunchtime television programme, first broadcast in 1999 on ITV. It consists of a panel of four women who interview celebrities and discuss topical issues, ranging from daily politics and current affairs, to celebrity gossip...
on 19 March 2009 to discuss his part as Sir Joseph Porter in the Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operetta HMS Pinafore
HMS Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
, which toured the United Kingdom during the spring and summer of 2009.