Geoffrey William Hughes DL (2 February 1944 – 27 July 2012) was an English actor. Hughes provided the voice of Paul McCartney in the animated film Yellow Submarine (1968), and rose to fame for portraying much-loved bin man Eddie Yeats in the long-running British soap opera Coronation Street from 1974 to 1983, making a return to the show in 1987. He is well known for playing loveable slob Onslow in the British sitcom Keeping Up Appearances (1990–1995); and 'Twiggy' in the sitcom The Royle Family, playing the part from 1998 to 2008. From 2001 to 2005 he played Vernon Scripps, conman and loveable rogue, in the ITV police drama Heartbeat, taking over as the show's main loveable rogue from Bill Maynard's Claude Greengrass, and returning to the show briefly in 2007. Hughes was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the 1990s and in 2010 he suffered a relapse which led him to retire from acting. He died from the illness, aged 68, in 2012. Life and career Hughes was born in Wallasey, Cheshire, to parents Ada (née Tulloch) and Bill. He had one younger brother, Gordon. He was brought up in Liverpool, where he attended Ranworth Square Primary School. He then went to Abbotsford Secondary Modern School in Norris Green, Liverpool. He started his career in repertory at the Victoria Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent. This was followed by his first West End production, the Lionel Bart and Alun Owen musical Maggie May. His other West End productions included the stage version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Say Goodnight to Grandma, The Secret Life of Cartoons and several seasons of Run for your Wife. He later played Pistol in an open-air production of Henry V at Barnwell Manor. He also toured extensively in Britain and abroad. Hughes' film credits included Smashing Time (1967), The Bofors Gun (1968), Till Death Us Do Part (1969), The Virgin Soldiers (1969), The Man Who Had Power Over Women (1970), Revenge (1971), Carry On at Your Convenience (1971), Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1973), Tiffany Jones (1973), Confessions of a Driving Instructor (1976), Nijinsky (1980), and Flick (2008). He was also the voice of Paul McCartney in the Beatles' 1968 cartoon film Yellow Submarine. In 1974, Hughes was cast as binman Eddie Yeats in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street. Over the next nine years he became, with Stan Ogden (as played by Bernard Youens),