FRED TRESIDDERFuneral director Fred Tresidder, who appeared on screen as undertaker at some of TV’s most dramatic deaths, died on 19 December, 2007, at the age of 81.
Mr Tresidder was a popular professional singer in the Potteries in Staffordshire, performing under his stage name John Trent, when he took his career down a different path, founding his own funeral business, FJ Tresidder and Son, based at Nantwich in Cheshire in 1977.
Thought to be the only undertaker in the country with an Equity card – the union membership needed to perform professionally on stage or screen – Mr Tresidder then began taking acting roles on TV.
He became a familiar face in the soap world, presiding over some of the most dramatic funerals in TV history, including those of Brookside’s Damon Grant and Coronation Street’s Len Fairclough, Ernie Bishop and Don Brennan.
He also drove a car at Brian and Gail Tilsley’s wedding, and appeared in dramas including Brideshead Revisited and Sherlock Holmes.
Mr Tresidder’s son Graham, who now runs his own business, Nantwich Funeral Services, said: "He came home one day and said he had been talking to someone about life after death. He knew the bloke’s face but couldn’t remember his name. The TV came on and it turned out he had been chatting with Sir Lawrence Olivier.
"Dad was a larger-than-life character who got on with everyone. He wasn’t fazed by big-name stars.
"He did a lot of TV and film work. Just the other day I was watching Sherlock Holmes on TV and I saw dad dressed in period costume.
"He was always a hard worker. As a singer he performed all over the country. He claimed to have played every club in Stoke-on-Trent. He said they were a really friendly crowd. He lived in Burslem for a while, and he loved the people in the Potteries."
Mr Tresidder’s wife Monika, 52, said: "He set up his own funeral business in 1977. When he came home from singing and performing during the summer, he would drive wedding cars and he would sing.
"Then people would start to ask for the ‘gentleman with silver hair and the beautiful voice’. He started doing a lot of funerals as well. Then, because people would ask for him, he decided to set up his own funeral service. He had such a wonderful way with people. He was so kind and caring and considerate. He was the right person to do that job.
"He carried on singing and then he went into acting. He started as an extra, and then took walk-on parts and speaking roles.
"Eventually he had to choose whether to concentrate on his acting and singing or funerals. The funerals came first because people were important to him."
Mr Tresidder, who was also survived by two children, Lynn and Graham, died at his home in Newark, Nottinghamshire, after suffering Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.
Mrs Tresidder added: "He was the most wonderful, kind and loving person, and I shall miss him so much."
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