Bella Emberg
BORN SEPTEMBER 16, 1937 - DIED JANUARY 12, 2018, AGED 80
BELLA Emberg will be best remembered for her role as Blunderwoman opposite Russ Abbot’s hapless superhero Cooperman – a mixture of Superman and Tommy Cooper – in the 1980s TV programme The Russ Abbot Show.
Emberg was not only “a huge comedy talent” according to Abbot but also “a woman of immense warmth and generosity”.
He added: “I count myself very lucky to have worked alongside her.”
Born Sybil Dyke in Brighton, Emberg grew up wanting to be an entertainer, making her professional debut in a summer season in Ryde on the Isle of Wight at 25.
She was eventually hired for small roles in TV shows including The Benny Hill Show, Z Cars, Doctor Who and Grange Hill. In 1981 she starred in Mel Brooks’s film History Of The World, Part I alongside movie heavyweights John Hurt and Orson Welles.
But her breakthrough was joining Abbot’s show, which ran from 1980 to 1996 and at its peak had 18 million viewers. The criteria for joining the cast were hardly flattering, however. “Russ said he was looking for a fat woman who could keep a straight face,” she revealed. “That was fine by me. I was a straight actress in my 40s struggling between jobs.”
But when Emberg saw what she had to wear – star-spangled hot pants and red boots – she was aghast. “The first time I saw the costume I said: ‘I am NOT wearing that!’… anyway I did and the first time I put it on I span round and my boobs fell out! I was always very careful after that,” she said.
Despite not finding work after the show ended, Emberg said she never considered Blunderwoman a curse. “They say in showbiz you get seven years of fame, well I got 16 because of her.”
Emberg had just completed filming on Idris Elba’s new Sky One comedy In The Long Run.
She is survived by her partner Rosemary.