by Isabelle Esteves

Created on: February 24, 2012

The comedic world has lost one of its stars with the death on February 22, 2012 of Northern Irish comedian Frank Carson at age 85. He died at his home in Blackpool, Lancashire after having battled cancer.  

Mr. Carson was born near the docks of Belfast, on Great Patrick Street, to a Catholic family on November 6, 1926. He developed a thick skin from a very early age in order to survive. He never forgot where he came from and his Irish roots were deep. He left school at the age of 14 and worked as a plasterer, an apprentice electrician and enlisted in the Parachute Regiment when he was 18.  He once commented that, at that time,  there were not a lot of jobs for Catholics in Belfast. With the RAF, he served in Palestine where he was wounded and admitted to killing a terrorist. Talking about this time in his life was one of the few things that could make him serious.

Even as a child, he enjoyed making people laugh and it often helped to get him through tough situations. He began his comedy career at a young age in pubs and clubs in Belfast but it wasn’t until the 1960’s that his career took off after he won ITV’s Opportunity Knocks talent show.

He was a big man in many ways both physically and in the world of comedy. He opened many doors for the comedians from Northern Ireland in England where he had moved in 1966.  He appeared on The Good Old Days music hall series and was a breath of fresh air in the rather stogy British comedy scene of the times. His fans loved his accent, his bawdy comedy and his catch phrases, among the more popular were   “it’s the way I tell em” and “it’s a cracker”. He spent his summers doing the circuit of the holiday camps and had a very active career on TV.

According to his obituary in The Guardian, in 1976 alone he was on 41 nationally networked shows. He performed all over the world and brought his brand of comedy to clubs and pubs everywhere.

One of his proudest moments came in 1987 when he was made a Knight of St. Gregory by Pope John Paul II for his charity work. Those who really knew him recognized that his bluff exterior covered a very generous heart.

He is survived by the love of his life, his wife Ruth, his three children, daughter  Majella, sons Tony and Aidan, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

It is believed that he will be buried in Belfast with the funeral at the same church where he and Ruth were married.

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