British comedian Ronnie Barker has died at the age of 76.

Barker died Monday after a long period of heart trouble.

Beginning his career on the West End stage and in radio, Barker moved onto his much credited comedy act, ?The Two Ronnies.”

1971 Barker met Ronnie Corbett and decided to create ?The Two Ronnies.” Their program ran for a dozen series over 16 years, and at its peak was watched by 17 million viewers.

Each show ended with Corbett bidding the audience “goodnight from me,” to which Barker would add “and it’s goodnight from him.”

Barker played a plethora of different roles throughout his career: a stuttering shopkeeper in another popular sitcom, “Open All Hours,” Winston Churchill’s servant in “The Gathering Storm,” a sarcastic prison inmate in 1970s sitcom “Porridge” and its sequel, “Going Straight,? among other roles.

In the late 1980s, Barker retired from show business and opened up an antique shop.

Barker made his final showbiz appearance in ?The Two Ronnies? reunion program in 1999.

This past year, Barker and Corbett presented a series of their greatest hits, “The Two Ronnies Sketchbook,” for one last chuckle.






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