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July 2011
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Don't pass Gough
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Frank Cotolo
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My good mate, British actor Michael Gough, finally succumbed, as they say about dying. He was 94
years old and yet not a day over 12.
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Most people will remember him for playing Batman's butler in those awful movies with Michael Keaton,
George Clooney and Val Kilmer or for the British TV series Doctor Who. However, he was an
accomplished thespian and his legacy should also include serious theater pieces.
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As well, it should be known that Mikey was first and foremost the greatest prankster ever to roam
the planet. What is saddest of all about his passing is that he had planned a terrific stunt for
the Royal Wedding of Kate and Bill. It would, he confided in me without revealing details, trump
the time he got Marlon Brando to eat his own moustache or the incident he concocted where Michael
Caine was convinced he had to marry a midget fire-eater from a circus in order to stop his prostate
from growing.
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I remember being on the set for Konga. I was 11, living in Great Britain on a grant from the
Famous Monsters of Filmland Foundation. The stupid movie about a monster gorilla paid the rent for
Michael while he was performing Shakespeare at a small theater in St. John's Wood. For fun, Michael
would show up as King Lear dressed in the tacky gorilla suit, never breaking character through the
tedious dialogue.
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He took me in as his "lad" and taught me how to properly use a slingshot, as well as the finer
points of whoopee-cushion execution. "Acting," he said to me, "is a lot like wearing a clown's nose
while wearing a tuxedo." I never truly understood what he meant but I quoted him incessantly.
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When Michael met the Queen, during the shooting of Berserk in 1967, he brought along Diana
Dors, who was working in the movie, and managed to have the two tongue kiss for a photo that to
this day everyone feels was touched up when it ran in the Daily Mirror.
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Behind the scenes Michael could laugh until beverages shot out of his nostrils but in public he was
the distinguished British gentleman who no one suspected could devise a way for Prince Charles to
hang-glide using only his ears.
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Another time during my stay with Michael, he had Roger Moore believe that both of his parents
hanged themselves when they heard he had gotten the role of James Bond.
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Click here for the rest of the article.
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Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles.
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