deals behind the back of London textile magnate Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs) also backfired. Feast refused to sign a new contract, stating in the British national press that he didn't want to become "another Coronation Street cabbage", which some took as a tasteless reference to cast members Peter Dudley, Jack Howarth and Bernard Youens (who played Bert Tilsley, Albert Tatlock and Stan Ogden respectively), all of whom had recently died. Fred Gee last appeared in the soap in November 1984. His departure went unremarked upon, and his position at the Rovers was taken by Jack Duckworth (William Tarmey). When the character's wife Eunice (Meg Johnson) made a brief return to the show in 1999, she mentioned that Fred had died of a heart attack in the interim. Later roles After leaving Coronation Street, Feast went on to play knackerman Jeff Mallock in a three-year stint in the BBC1 series All Creatures Great and Small, taking over from Frank Birch. Dogged by ill health for most of the 1990s, he made a short-lived comeback starting in 1996 when Liz Dawn asked him to play the bartender in her video Liz Dawn's House Party. An appearance on the regional celebrity Yorkshire TV quiz show Cryer's Crackers followed, as did a guest role in Heartbeat in 1998. The same year he took on the small role of pigeon fancier Arthur in the hit film Little Voice, set in Scarborough and starring Brenda Blethyn, Jane Horrocks, Ewan McGregor, Michael Caine and Jim Broadbent. Feast also appeared in pantomimes, and on television chat shows during his two-year return in the public eye. Death Feast died of abdominal cancer on 25 June 1999, aged 69. This was less than six months after his character, Fred Gee, had been officially proclaimed as having died (offscreen) on Coronation Street, though the character had not been seen onscreen for almost 15 years. Filmography References External links Fred Feast at Corrie.net 1929 births 1999 deaths English male soap opera actors Actors from Scarborough, North Yorkshire Deaths from cancer in England 20th-century English male actors People educated at Scarborough High School for Boys