From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. David Essex OBE (born David Albert Cook on 23 July 1947) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and actor. Since the 1970s, Essex has attained nineteen Top 40 singles in the UK (including two numbers ones), and sixteen Top 40 albums. He has also had an extensive career as an actor performing on stage and screen. Description above from the Wikipedia article David Essex, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.