1941 - 2020
Eddie Large
Edward Hugh McGinnis (25 June 1941 – 2 April 2020), better known by the stage name Eddie Large, was a Scottish comedian. He was best known as one half of the double act Little and Large, with Syd Little. His father Teddy served as a Petty Officer in the Royal Navy during World War II and after he returned from the war the family moved to a tenement in Oatlands. When he was nine years old, the family moved again to Manchester, where he attended Claremont Road Primary School and a grammar school. He played football as a schoolboy, becoming a supporter of nearby Manchester City which had its ground opposite his home and maintained a life long devotion to the club. After he left school he worked as an electrician and was a singer.
He met singer and guitarist Cyril Meed in the Stonemason's Arms pub in Wythenshawe and they formed a double act following the reaction to Eddie's comic heckling of Cyril, who switched to comedy. The duo then performed in northern clubs. As Little and Large, the two men began their TV career on the talent show Opportunity Knocks winning in 1971 and starred in many television comedy programmes, including their own series The Little and Large Show and the ITV series Who Do You Do? doing impressions and also performing as pantomime stars.
In an interview in 2010, Large said that he and Syd Little had not spoken to each other for several years. During the 2010–11 football season, football entertainment show Soccer AM produced comedy sketches with Peterborough footballer Mark Little, and Eddie Large, as the newly reformed Little and Large.
Large lived in Portishead, near Bristol, with his wife Patsy. He also had a son and two daughters and three grandchildren.
After being admitted to hospital in March 2002 due to kidney problems, he underwent a heart transplant at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge in 2003 at the age of 62, and recovered fully. Large was hospitalised for some weeks in late 2013 after tripping over a road sign near his Portishead home. Large died on 2 April 2020 at Southmead Hospital in Bristol after contracting COVID-19 while in hospital receiving treatment for heart failure. Large had suffered from kidney and heart problems for a number of years.
PANTOMIME APPEARANCES
1974 Jack and the Beanstalk - Bristol Hippodrome
1975 Jack and the Beanstalk - Wolverhampton Grand
1976 Jack and the Beanstalk – Davenport Theatre
1977 Aladdin – Empire Theatre Liverpool
1978 Aladdin - New Theatre, Oxford
1981 Aladdin – Bradford Alhambra
1982 Cinderella – Birmingham Alexandra
1983 Dick Whittington – Theatre Royal Nottingham
1984 Aladdin - Bristol Hippodrome
1985 Dick Whittington - Wolverhampton Grand
1987 Dick Whittington – Liverpool Empire
1988 Babes in the Wood - Reading Hexagon
1990 Goldilocks and the Three Bears - Darlington Civic
1991 Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood - Bristol Hippodrome
1993 Jack and the Beanstalk – Wimbledon Theatre
1994 Jack and the Beanstalk - Theatre Royal, Newcastle
1995 Goldilocks & The Three Bears - Wolverhampton Grand
1996 Robin Hood – Swansea Grand
1997 Aladdin - Cliffs Pavilion Southend
1998 Robin Hood - Regent Theatre Stoke on Trent
1999 Robin Hood - Liverpool Royal Court
2000 Robin Hood - Beck Theatre Hayes
2001 Babes in the Wood - New Theatre Hull