William Cook, who died Friday from heart failure, epitomized the American entrepreneurial experience.

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The real reason for the change in jokesters' targets, according to William Cook, a comedy writer, is that audiences' tastes have changed.

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The gadget craze has created several fortunes, making billionaires of William Cook of Cook Group, who used a blowtorch to make an early catheter, and John Abele, cofounder of Boston Scientific.

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Meanwhile Mr Cook used the example of former Tory leader William Hague being censured in 1999 for failing to declare the fact he had been using Lord Archer's gym.

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