David Daker has passed away aged 90.
The Wolverhampton-born actor was best known for playing titular character Ken Boon’s best friend Harry Crawford in ITV‘s popular comedy-drama Boon.
Despite passing away on 30 April, David’s family opted to hold off on releasing news to fans until Sunday, although did not not give a cause of death.
His career originally took off with a more than 80 episode run in BBC‘s Z Cars, as PC Owen Culshaw, although David branded him ‘a rather colourless character’.
He went on to play parts in sitcoms including Only Fools And Horses and Porridge, as well as appearing in Coronation Street and Doctor Who.
David Daker has passed away aged 90 (pictured in his best known role as Harry Crawford in Boon)
The youngest of five children, David was born in Bilston to mother Olive, neé Cutler, and shoe factory worker Elijah Daker.
He revealed that his passion for performing started at infant school, recalling: I clearly remember playing a cow and falling so that its legs splayed about – and enjoying it when the others laughed and applauded.’
Despite his love of the stage, he revealed his parents wanted him to establish a steady occupation, so he trained as a draughtsman with a company making water softeners – but walked out after two years.
He said: ‘I simply came home one day and announced that I was finished with a nine-to-five job’.
News of his passing was spread across Only Fools And Horses fan pages after he starred in the beloved show in 1982 as Tommy Mackay, the violent estranged husband of a woman who is dating Nicholas Lyndhurst’s character Rodney.
David’s character gets into a fight with Del Boy, played by David Jason, when he mistakes him for his cheating wife’s lover.
David is pictured playing Gordon Lewis on Coronation Street opposite Julie Goodyear and Betty Driver
Despite passing away on 30 April, David’s family opted to hold off on releasing news to fans until Sunday, although did not not give a cause of death
He had two roles in Coronation Street, as Basil Griffin from 1968 to 69, whose wife leaves him for an uninterested Len Fairclough, and Gordon Lewis, an unpopular relief manager at the Rovers Return three times between 1981 and 1985.
In 1957, Daker married Stella Newton, with whom he had a son, Tim, and a daughter, Pippa, who had multiple sclerosis and died in 1997.
The following year Daker was found guilty of assault over a parking dispute, but, accepting he was under stress, magistrates gave him a conditional discharge.
He is survived by his second wife, Hilary, neé Voisey), their daughter, Rebecca, his son, Tim, and a sister, Hazel.
He is pictured alongside Michael Elphick in Boon
David is pictured in Crown Court in 1984
