Eric Sykes - a life in pictures

Eric Sykes 1923-2012 Photograph: Eamonn McCabe

Eric Sykes (right) and Frankie Howerd playing the piano at Howerd's home in Kensington, London. They were appearing together in the show Pantomania in 1956 Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty Images

Richard Wattis, Hattie Jacques and Eric Sykes in Sykes And A Salesman (1961)
Photograph: BBC/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

Eric Sykes in 1964 Photograph: Bob Webb/Rex Features

Eric Sykes, Terry Thomas, Stuart Whitman in Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines (1965) Photograph: Twentieth Century Fox/The Ronald Grant Archive

Tony Curtis, Terry Thomas and Eric Sykes in Monte Carlo or Bust (1969) Photograph: Moviestore Collection/Rex Features

Eric Sykes, Henry Cooper, Diana Dors, Reg Varney and Arthur Lowe pose for The Plank, 1967, directed by Eric Sykes Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

Eric Sykes as Brassett and Jimmy Edwards as Mr Spettigue in Charley's Aunt, 1977 Photograph: ITV/Rex Features

Fionnula Flanagan, Elaine Cassidy and Eric Sykes in the film The Others (2001) Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/MIRAMAX

Eric Sykes as Frank Bryce in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) Photograph: Warner Bros/The Ronald Grant Archive

Eric Sykes playing an old man who has his home ransacked in TV drama The Bill Photograph: British Film Institute

Eric Sykes after receiving his CBE from the Queen in June 2005 Photograph: Andrew Parsons/PA

Eric Sykes at his office in Bayswater in London in 2006 Photograph: Ben Smith/Rex Features

David Suchet as Hercule Poirot and Eric Sykes as Fullerton in Agatha Christie: Poirot, Halloween Party (2010) Photograph: ITV/Rex Features