THE dad of actor Sacha Baron Cohen, who owned a Newport clothes shop for nearly 60 years, has died aged 83.

Gerald Baron Cohen died at his home in London surrounded by his family after suffering from a short illness.

The millionaire businessman owned clothing store Morris Cowan on Commercial Street. The shop closed in April 2012 after nearly 60 years in the city because of financial trouble, the then-director Gerald Cohen said.

Mr Cohen, with his brother Vivian and his father Morris, had built up a thriving retail company in the 1950s. A Morris Cowan shop was opened on Queen Street in Cardiff and Baron of Piccadilly in London, both of which have now closed.

The family changed its name when it set up its shops because Morris felt the name Cowan sounded better than Cohen.

Melissa Jones, a former reporter at the Argus, said she interviewed him about the Newport clothes shop closing. She called him a “lovely man, so grateful and unassuming”.