Editing Eric Sykes (section)

== Personal life ==
{{More citations needed section|date=April 2024}}
Sykes became partially [[Deafness|deaf]] as an adult. His hearing started to deteriorate in the Second World War, and he had an operation in 1952 followed by another two years later. Recovering from the second procedure he discovered he was [[profoundly deaf]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Traynor |first1=Robert |title=The Genius of Eric Sykes – An International Comedian |url=https://hearinghealthmatters.org/hearinginternational/2012/the-genius-of-eric-sykes/ |website=Hearing Health Matters |access-date=6 March 2022 |date=28 August 2012}}</ref> His spectacles contained no lenses but were a [[bone conduction|bone-conducting]] [[hearing aid]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cottontown.org/page.cfm?language=eng&pageID=5104 |title=Eric Sykes Biography |access-date=6 December 2017 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130414125850/http://www.cottontown.org/page.cfm?language=eng&pageID=5104 |archive-date=14 April 2013 |work=Cotton Town}}<br />- {{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18703602|title = Obituary:Eric Sykes | work=BBC News | date=4 July 2012}}<br />- {{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/nice-one-eric-1277920.html|title = Nice One Eric! |work=The Independent | location=London | first=Jasper|last=Rees|date=10 February 1997}}</ref> Disciform [[macular degeneration]], brought about by age and possibly smoking, left Sykes partially sighted, and he was registered as [[Blindness|blind]]. He was a patron of the [[Macular Disease Society]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.maculardisease.org/page.asp?section=78&sectionTitle=Finance|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110119000317/http://www.maculardisease.org/page.asp?section=78&sectionTitle=Finance|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 January 2011|title=Macular Disease Society}}</ref> He stopped smoking cigarettes in November 1966, but continued to smoke cigars until 1998. He underwent quadruple [[heart bypass]] surgery in 1997,<ref>{{cite book|last=Sykes|first=Eric|title=If I Don't Write It, Nobody Else Will|year=2005|publisher=Fourth Estate|isbn=0-00-717784-4|pages=468–472}}</ref> and experienced a stroke in 2002.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sykes|first=Eric|title=If I Don't Write It, Nobody Else Will|year=2005|publisher=Fourth Estate|isbn=0-00-717784-4|pages=481–483}}</ref>

He married Edith Eleanore Milbrandt on 14 February 1952, and they had three daughters and a son.<ref>{{cite news|author=TV and Radio |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9375340/Eric-Sykes-gentleman-of-comedy-dies.html |title=Eric Sykes dies |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date= 4 July 2012|access-date=15 July 2013 |location=London}}<br />- {{cite book |url=http://www.debretts.co.uk/people/biographies/search/results/7186/Eric+SYKES.aspx |publisher=Debretts |title=People of Today |access-date=20 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718183002/http://www.debretts.co.uk/people/biographies/search/results/7186/Eric+SYKES.aspx |archive-date=18 July 2011}}</ref> In the year Sykes died they marked their 60th wedding anniversary.

In the 1970s, Sykes and his friend [[Jimmy Edwards]] took part in a show for [[Ian Smith]] in [[Rhodesia]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/eric-sykes-actor-and-writer-who-overcame-adversity-to-become-a-leading-figure-of-british-comedy-7912538.html|title=Eric Sykes: Actor and writer who overcame adversity to become a leading figure of British comedy|author= Margolis, Jonathan|work=[[The Independent]]|date=5 July 2012|access-date=5 April 2025}}</ref>

Sykes was appointed Officer of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (OBE) in 1986 and promoted to Commander (CBE) in the [[2005 New Year Honours]]<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4135443.stm|title=Eric Sykes gets New Year's honour |work=BBC News|date=31 December 2004|access-date=4 July 2012}}</ref> for services to drama, following a petition by [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Members of Parliament]] (MPs).{{CN|date=April 2024}} Sykes was an honorary president of the [[Goon Show Preservation Society]].{{CN|date=April 2024}}

Sykes was a follower of [[Oldham Athletic A.F.C.|Oldham Athletic]] and was an honorary director of the club in the 1970s.{{CN|date=April 2024}}