Daniels was born on April 6, 1938, at South Bank, Middlesbrough, the son of Handel Newton Daniels and Nancy Lloyd. After school he worked as a clerk, did national service, trained as an accountant and went into the grocery trade, before turning his boyhood dream of becoming a magician into reality.
Daniels' interest in magic began at the age of 11 when he read a book called How to Entertain at Parties. "From that moment, I can safely say that all I ever wanted to do in life was to become a professional magician," he later recalled.
At one point he worked with his first wife Jackie under the name of The Eldanis, an anagram of Daniels. It was while working the clubs that he developed what would become his long-running catchphrase, "You'll like this . . . not a lot, but you'll like it."
A major turning point in Daniels' career came in 1969 when he was offered a summer season at English seaside resort Newquay. He decided to sell his grocery business and try magic as a full-time career and made his television debut on the long-running ITV talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1970, and came second.
In 1978 ITV gave Daniels his own Sunday night show Paul Daniels' Blackpool Bonanza, and this led to Daniels presenting The Paul Daniels Magic Show on BBC1, which lasted from 1979 until 1994. The knock-on effect on his live shows made his something of a superstar.
It was also in 1979 that he started working with Debbie McGee as his assistant, and they married in 1988.
Daniels and his wife Debbie
Daniels hosted a number of other television series during the 1980s and 1990s, including Odd One Out, Every Second Counts and Wipeout, and the children's television programme Wizbit, all for the BBC.
In 2001 Daniels and McGee were the focus of one of the episodes of the 2001 BBC documentary series When Louis Met..., presented by Louis Theroux, and they subsequently made a number of one-off appearances on a variety of TV shows, before embarking on a farewell tour in 2013.
On 20 February 2016, it was revealed by Daniels' family that he had been diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour and on Sunday March 6 he decided to leave hospital and return home for his final days.
He died in the early hours of March 17 at his Berkshire home with his wife Debbie at his side.
