final credits - jack taylor
While Jack Taylor spent his days watching videos and eating, his England town of Bradford, West Yorkshire was revealed as having the largest proportion of overweight people in a survey conducted by Men's Fitness magazine.
Taylor, who weighed more than 50 stone (320 kg or 700 pounds), rarely ventured outside for the last 30 years other than for hospital appointments. When he did go out, cars crashed as drivers gawked at the sight of someone so huge.
In 2004, a fall that broke his leg ended what little mobility he had (he was hospitalised for eight months). Neighbours in his street had long become used to the constant smell of his mother's steak and onion dinners cooked non-stop to keep up with his appetite.
When a relative found Taylor unconscious and possibly lifeless on the floor, paramedics had to call in ten firemen to lift him onto a stretcher. His coffin was one of the biggest ever seen in Britain; it was a reinforced, double-sized coffin that was specially made square to fit his outsize body. It was taken down the church aisle on a special trolley, and his cremation took place in the neighbouring city of Leeds which has special facilities to deal with larger coffins.
Taylor wore 80-inch trousers and the 6-foot 3-inch giant was a huge Elvis fan (he even fashioned a lookalike hairpiece out of black electrical tape). His town crowned him "Bradford's largest celebrity," hoping the notoriety would help the city in its bid to become European Capital of Culture in 2008. Taylor was very popular in Germany where a newspaper and TV documentary ranked him as a British icon alongside the Spice Girls and the Queen.
Taylor never quite became Britain's all-time heavy -- that record belonged to Daniel Lambert who died in 1809, weighing 330 kg (52 stone or 726 pounds). Taylor's last meal was a jumbo special fish treat. Taylor's doppleganger, Mr. Creosote, has a Bacon number of 2.
Jack Taylor died February 4th, 2006 at the age of 60 from a heart attack.
Other odd death stories can be found here.