Geoffrey Hughes

Geoffrey Hughes DL (2 February 1944 – 27 July 2012) was an English actor. Hughes rose to fame for portraying much-loved binman Eddie Yeats in the popular long-running British soap opera Coronation Street from 1974 to 1983, making a return to the show in 1987. He went on to appear in two popular British television sitcoms during the 1990s, playing loveable slob Onslow in Roy Clarke's Keeping Up Appearances (1990–1995) followed by Twiggy in Craig Cash and Caroline Aherne's The Royle Family (1998–2000), the latter of which he reprised his role for the specials in 2006 and 2008. From 2001 to 2005 he played Vernon Scripps, conman and loveable rogue, on the ITV police drama Heartbeat (2001–05), taking over as the show's main loveable rogue from Bill Maynard, and returning to the show briefly in 2007 after the character was thought dead. In the 1990s Hughes was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and in 2010 he suffered a cancer relapse which led him to retire from acting. He died from the illness, aged 68, in 2012.