Jack was a real comic Diamond
VETERAN Southport comedian Jack Diamond has died, aged 75. Hundreds of people attended his funeral, where fellow comedian Jimmy Cricket gave a eulogy.
Jack was born in Manchester and a role on the city’s famous soap gave him his big break.
He had a cameo role in one of the first episodes of Coronation Street, playing the captain of a visiting football team.
Soon after, he was being offered starring roles in cabaret and large theatre productions around the North West.
His career took off in Blackpool, where he opened numerous clubs and he also launched his own talent show – “Jack Diamond Discovery”.
But he never strayed too far from the Rovers Return and even had a pub, The Ox Noble, near the Weatherfield set.
In 1966 Jack bought his parents a pub behind the Granada studios in Manchester and the stars from the cobbles often enjoyed a tipple or two.
He was rated one of the finest ad-libbers in the country and through his career he appeared with such stars as Les Dawson, Eartha Kitt, Roy Orbison, The Walker Brothers, The Beatles and more.
Jack also hit the headlines back in 1972 when he became engaged to Julie Goodyear, who played Coronation Street barmaid Bet Lynch.
Speaking to the Visiter in 2014, he said: “Julie came to see a show of mine in Blackpool in the early ’70s. We started seeing each other and then got engaged. But the relationship just fizzled out and we parted on good terms.”
He eventually married Marie Ashton, who was a former Roly Poly girl with Les Dawson, the couple did not have any children.
Marie, 79, said: “He was a lovely man, throughout when I had my stroke and everything. I could not have asked for a better one.”
The couple retired and moved to Southport, where he died on May 12 after suffering heart failure.