Philip Stephen Hancock was born on November 24, 1925, and died on November 1, 2015.

He was a British television and stage actor.

Stephen was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham and attended the Chorister School, Durham and the Darlington Grammar School before reading music at Durham University as a mature student.

He was best known for his role as Ernest Bishop in Coronation Street.

Introduced as wedding photographer Gordon Bishop in a 1967 episode dedicated to one of Elsie Tanner’s marriages, he later re-emerged as the regular character Ernie and played the character from 1969 until being written out in a fatal shooting during a burglary at Mike Baldwin’s factory in 1978.

His brother was the late Christopher Hancock, who played Charlie Cotton in EastEnders.

In 2011 Stephen appeared in a Coronation Street tribute programme.

Stephen passed away at age 89 in November 2015.