The RIP Famous Person Thread

[harrybarracuda]

Sorry, I was taking a much needed break. Time to catch up:

Carry On star and That Was The Week That Was stalwart Lance Percival dies aged

Comedy star rose to fame singing calypso-style songs on TV shows
He later took on film roles in Up Pompeii and Postman's Knock
Died on Tuesday following a 'long illness' his family say



He appeared in a string of comedy films including Carry On Cruising and provided one of the voices for The Beatles' cartoon film Yellow Submarine and became a regular - and witty - guest on a succession of panel shows.
A death notice in The Times said he died on Tuesday in a central London hospital after 'a long illness'.

His son Jamie told BBC News today: 'He was an amazing dad. He was involved in my life right up to the present day.

'He came to every rugby game I was in, and we watched sports together, and we held Ryder Cup parties. He was loved by all his family and will be very much missed.'
Born John Lancelot Blades in Sevenoaks, Kent in 1933, he was educated at the Sherborne School, Dorset.

He is perhaps best remembered for his role as the ship's cook in the 1962 film Carry On Cruising



The comedy saw him star alongside Kenneth Williams (right) and Kenneth Connor (left) as well as Sid James


He first hit TV screens performing calypso-style songs on shows including That Was the Week That Was.

The comedian was later given his own series, Lance at Large, in the 1960s.
His most famous film roles were as Bilius in 1971 hit comedy Up Pompeii as well as alongside Spike Milligan in Postman's Knock in 1962 and war film Darling Lili in 1970.
But he will perhaps be best remembered as the ship's cook in Carry On Cruising, where he starred alongside Sid James, Kenneth Williams and Kenneth Connor.
His funeral will be held at Putney Vale Crematorium later this month.

[harrybarracuda]

Former Cavern Club owner Ray McFall, who helped launch The Beatles' career by booking them to play at the venue, has died aged 88.



The Liverpool Echo reports that McFall, who turned the Merseybeat scene into one of the most popular musical movements in the world in the '60s, died yesterday evening (January 7) although the cause of his death is unknown.
McFall first began running The Cavern Club in 1959 with the help of compere Bob Wooler and helped improve its fortunes by changing it from a jazz venue to a club that would support rock'n'roll.
Cavern Club director Jon Keats told the BBC: "It was Ray who opened it up to those early Merseybeat sessions, which led to the whole Merseybeat explosion. It was completely his vision that moved the club forward, with what turned into the huge Merseybeat explosion and The Beatles' success and Gerry and the Pacemakers and all the main bands. He changed The Cavern completely and allowed the rock'n'roll into the club."
The Beatles first played at The Cavern Club for a lunchtime session on February 21, 1961 – although he later revealed that the scheduled gig had almost never taken place due to to the strict dress code he enforced which prevented punters from wearing jeans. George Harrison arrived for the show wearing denim, but convinced the doorman to let them perform anyway.
"The Beatles were sensational and I was smitten," said McFall later. "Completely, Absolutely, Instantly. I stood at the side, between the pillars, about halfway up the hall, and as soon as they started playing I was captivated by them.
"From that very first day, there was no stopping them," he added. "I said to Bob: 'What other lunchtimes have they got? We must have them regularly.'"
The Beatles went on to play at the venue 292 times in total, while other groups such as The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Yardbirds also all performed at the club. The venue closed in 1973, but in 1984 a replica was built on the same site. In 2003 Cavern City Tours said they were planning to open Cavern themed venues across Europe and North America.

Read more at Cavern Club owner Ray McFall dies aged 88 - Uncut.co.uk

[harrybarracuda]

You must remember this old scally, who was told he couldn't go to the D-Day celebrations but dodged the guards and went over the fence anyway.

Sadly he passed away around the turn of the year. But what you probably don't know is that his wife of 65 years hung around for a week and then joined him.

May they both have eternal bliss in the afterlife.

Bernard Jordan who absconded from care home for D-Day commemorations dies at 90
War veteran dubbed the Great Escaper after his cross-Channel adventure to attend 70th anniversary commemorations in Normandy dies peacefully aged 90

By Agency1:19PM GMT 06 Jan 2015
A war veteran who absconded from his care home to attend the 70th anniversary D-Day commemorations in France has died aged 90.
Bernard Jordan - dubbed the Great Escaper after his cross-Channel adventure last year - died peacefully in hospital.
His death was announced in a statement by Gracewell Healthcare, which runs The Pines care home in Hove, East Sussex, where Mr Jordan, known as Bernie, lived.
Mr Jordan hit headlines globally when he disappeared from the care home to embark on a trip to the D-Day anniversary events in Normandy wearing his war medals under his grey mac.
His disappearance sparked a police search last June 5 and his whereabouts were uncovered only when a younger veteran phoned later that night to say he had met Mr Jordan and he was safe.

He was later inundated with more than 2,500 birthday cards from around the world following his adventure to Normandy.

Officials at the care home said Mr Jordan would be "much missed" by his wife and all his friends at The Pines.

Amanda Scott, managing director of Gracewell Healthcare, said: "Bernie caught the world's imagination last year when he made his 'surprise' trip to France and bought a huge amount of joy to a lot of people.

"He will be much missed by everyone here and our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife.

"Bernie was always insistent that what he did during the war was nothing unusual, and only what many thousands of others did for their country.
"That may well be true, but the little bit of excitement he gave everyone last June was typical of his no-nonsense attitude to life and is how he will be remembered by thousands of people."

A month after his escapade in France, Mr Jordan was made an honorary alderman of Brighton and Hove during a reception at Brighton Town Hall.
The honour was to mark his "exceptional contribution to the work of the newly-formed Brighton and Hove Council and the former Hove Borough Council and to the community".

He joined a select band of more than 30 men and women who have been made honorary aldermen or women of the city since 1997.
Others include Burmese democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, Olympic champion Steve Ovett and First World War hero Henry Allingham, who became the world's oldest man before his death aged 113 in 2009.

Asked at the reception why he travelled to Normandy, Mr Jordan, a former local borough councillor and mayor of Hove, said: "My thoughts were with my mates who had been killed.

"I was going across to pay my respects. I was a bit off course but I got there."
He added: "Britain is a smashing country and the people are smashing, and if you have to do something a bit special, then they are worth every effort."

8 January 2015 Last updated at 17:01 GMT
Wife of escapee D-Day veteran Bernard Jordan dies

The wife of a World War Two veteran who left his nursing home to go to France for D-Day commemorations has died just days after her husband.

Bernard Jordan sparked a police search when he left the care home in Hove to join fellow veterans in June.

Irene Jordan, 88, died on Tuesday - a week after her husband. They were married for more than 65 years.

The couple had been living at The Pines care home in Hove. A commemoration service will be held on 30 January.

Brian Fitch, mayor of Brighton and Hove, said: "They were a very close couple who will both be sadly missed.

"They were a devoted couple. After he had gone, she probably gave up the will."

Final journey
Mr Jordan died in hospital, aged 90, on 30 December.

In June, he left The Pines and travelled to the D-Day events in Normandy, wearing his war medals.

He joined British veterans, many making the final journey to visit the scene of the invasion and to commemorate their fallen comrades.

Mr Jordan was later made an honorary alderman of Brighton and Hove.

Amanda Scott, managing director of Gracewell Healthcare, which runs The Pines, said: "Irene and Bernie will both be much missed by everyone at the home and our thoughts and prayers go out to their friends and family at this sad time."

[harrybarracuda]

Ex-Gov. Mario Cuomo dies on New Year’s Day
Politicians remember Queens native, liberal icon who governed NYS at the height of Reaganomics



Posted: Thursday, January 8, 2015 10:30 am | Updated: 3:43 pm, Thu Jan 8, 2015.
by Anthony O’Reilly, Associate Editor

To many Queens elected officials, Mario Cuomo was more than a governor — he was a political inspiration.
“A native of Queens, Governor Cuomo was an inspiration to me and to many borough residents who entered public service in the hope of following his example and building on his legacy of achievement,” Borough President Melinda Katz said in a statement.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown remembered Cuomo, father of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as a “friend and advisor who greatly influenced my life and the lives of a generation of young lawyers.”
The older Cuomo had appointed Brown as an appellate judge and in 1991 made him the Queens DA after the previous one had retired in the middle of his term.
Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing) said “We’ve lost a legend in New York politics.
"Mario Cuomo was a great leader of New York State, a political icon and a key figure on the national stage,” she added. “He was also a great son of Queens.”
Cuomo, who served for three terms as a Democratic governor beginning at the height of the Reagan administration, was born and raised his family in Queens. He died on Jan. 1 just hours after his son, Andrew, took the oath of governor for the second time.
He was 82. The cause of death was heart failure, published reports state.--
As Gov. Cuomo gave his inaugural address at 1 World Trade last Thursday, his father stayed at his Manhattan apartment with a serious heart condition. He died at about 5:15 p.m., published reports state.
His son kept him in mind as he took the oath for governor for the second time.
“He couldn’t be here physically today, but my father is in this room,” the governor told a crowd of supporters. “He’s in the heart and mind of every person who is here. His inspiration and his legacy and his spirit is what has brought this day to this point.”
Several others said that the elder Cuomo took his last breath as he watched his son give a second inaugural address in Buffalo.
Mayor de Blasio has ordered that flags throughout the city remain at half-staff for 30 days. The flags have been at that position since the assassinations of NYPD Detectives Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu on Dec. 20.
Mario Cuomo was the third son of Italian immigrants and was born on June 15, 1932. His parents owned a grocery store in South Jamaica.
He played baseball as a teenager and at the age of 19 was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates and played for their minor league team, the Brunswick Pirates, in the Georgia-Florida League.
In 1952 he played in 82 games and had a .244 batting average and only hit one home run, according to baseball-reference.com.
His career ended when he was hit in the face by a pitch, which caused him to be blind for a week.
Upon returning to Queens, he finished his undergraduate classes at St. John’s University, which he enrolled in before being drafted, and later graduated from its law school in 1956.
A spokeswoman for the university said, “Governor Mario Cuomo dedicated his life to public service and embodied the same beliefs of St. Vincent de Paul, and on which this university was founded.”
It was also at St. John’s that Mario would meet his wife, Matilda Raffa. They were married in 1954 and were together until Mario’s death.
The two had five children together — Andrew, Maria, Margaret, Madeline and Chris, a news anchor at CNN.
The two raised their family in Holliswood.
He practiced law in Queens for many years before getting into politics.
His biggest case came in 1972, when he acted as a mediator between a developer who sought to place a low-income housing complex in Forest Hills and residents who opposed it.
The project was very controversial, according to former Borough President Claire Shulman, a longtime friend of Cuomo’s.
“The city wanted to put the housing near the Horace Harding Expressway and there was a big fuss over it,” she said. “There were demonstrations and it was very controversial.”
The issue, Shulman said, was that residents did not want low-income families moving into the neighborhood.
Cuomo stepped in and negotiated a settlement by making the project a low-income co-op for veterans, seniors and area residents. The compromise also cut the size of the project in half.
“It gave people pride in their apartments and was a huge success,” Shulman said. “And it was a monumental effort on his part because no one thought it could be settled.”
Cuomo also had won a huge case years before in 1964, when he was hired by junkyard owners in Willets Point to prevent the city from seizing their property, according to several published reports.
Robert Moses, president of the 1964-65 World’s Fair, wanted the land for expanded fair and later park usage. Cuomo won the lawsuit that prohibited the use of state funds for the 67-acre expansion project.
The city eventually decided against condemning the property for parkland.
Shulman also remembered Cuomo as a good friend in addition to being a tenacious lawyer.
“I always admired him,” she added. “He had a lot of drive and was smart.”
It wasn’t until 1974 that Cuomo started his career in politics. That year he unsuccessfully ran for lieutenant governor. The next year he was appointed secretary of state by then-Gov. Hugh Carey.
In 1977, he ran for mayor on the Liberal Party line. He lost the race to Democratic candidate Ed Koch.
The next year he won the election for lieutenant governor as Carey’s running mate.
Four years later, he narrowly defeated businessman Lew Lehrman to become the 52nd governor of New York.
Cuomo took 51 percent of the popular vote and Lehrman won 48.
He dubbed the win a victory for children of immigrants everywhere.
“We have won, my friends, a chance to prove that the sons and daughters of immigrants, of simple people who came here with nothing can make this state greater still,” he said during his victory speech.
He also said a win for a Democratic governor was a statement that people were rebelling against then-Republican President Ronald Reagan.
And it was his strong presence as a Democratic politician during the time of Reaganomics that he will be remembered for, according to St. John’s University political science professor Brian Browne.
“He was one of the progressive standouts and he was a voice for his party,” Browne said. “He was a consistent governor and Democrat.”
Cuomo’s stance against the Reagan administration helped thrust him into the national spotlight during a keynote speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention, where he gave a rebuttal to the president’s idea that America was a “shining city on a hill.”
“This nation is more a ‘Tale of Two Cities,’” Cuomo said in that speech, a phrase that was frequently used by Bill de Blasio during his campaign for mayor.
The “gifted orator” was known throughout the country after that speech, Browne said.
As much as he shined behind the podium, he was unsuccesful as a governor solving financial problems.
“He certainly struggled with that,” Browne said. “The recession was going on. He was making cuts and raising fees.”
It was the state’s fiduciary problems that prevented Cuomo from making a run for president in 1992. He missed the Dec. 20, 1991 registration deadline because he was not able to reach an agreement on the state budget with the Republican-controlled state S%nate and Democratic-held Assembly. Browne said Cuomo did not sign any big bills while in Albany, but noted that he was in charge when the drinking age was raised to 21 and when New York passed the country’s first law mandating seat belts be worn while driving.
And despite the budget issues, he was also one who worked well with people on the other side of the political aisle.
“He was one of the better ones in terms of making deals,” Browne said of Cuomo’s bipartisanship.
Former Republican state Sen. Frank Padavan — who served in the Legislature during Cuomo’s time as governor and in 2010 was defeated by now-Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) — also recalled Cuomo as a Democrat willing to reach over to the right when necessary.
“I always found him to be open, available and easy to talk to and easy to express your views to,” Padavan said.
The former legislator from Jamaica Estates recalled that Cuomo was originally against raising the drinking age from 18 to 21. But he changed his mind after meeting with Padavan and other Republican lawmakers.
“After we met a lot and talked a lot, it became law,” Padavan said.
Browne also said Cuomo, unlike his successors, lived in the governor’s mansion in Albany.
Cuomo also served at a time when Queens representatives ruled over New York politics.
From Dec. 1991 to 1994, Cuomo served as governor while Saul Weprin — the father of Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Fresh Meadows) and city Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens)— served as the speaker of the Assembly and Peter Vallone Sr. — father of city Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) and former Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., now special assistant to the commissioner of the state Department of Corrections — served as speaker of the City Council.
“It was the height of Queens politics,” Browne said.
David Weprin said Cuomo’s ties to Saul Weprin went back years before he stepped foot in Albany. The two were involved in a Queens Democratic Club. The two families also lived about a mile apart from each other.
Saul Weprin told his son that Mario would one day be the first Italian-American president, the assemblyman recalled.
“I was kind of disappointed when that didn’t happen,” he said.
David Weprin also had his own ties to the former governor. He, along with his entire family, worked full-time on Cuomo’s failed attempt to run for mayor.
“I remember Christopher, who was 7 years old at the time, was raising havoc during the campaign,” he said.
Cuomo would later appoint David Weprin the deputy superintendent of banking for the state. The two remained close friends during Weprin’s stay in the department.
“He would ask for ideas for the State of the State and I’d send him suggestions,” Weprin said. “He then sent me a handwritten thank you note.”
Cuomo’s popularity as a Democrat was not enough to let him serve a fourth-consecutive term. As crime in New York became a bigger issue, he was defeated by Republican George Pataki, who pressed for the death penalty.
His son’s inauguration last week took place 20 years after Mario Cuomo left Albany for the first time as a private citizen in 12 years.
He and his wife moved to Manhattan, where they stayed until his death. He would occasionally come out for political events and was seen constantly during his son’s first and second campaigns.
Elected officials remembered him as an unwavering force for all New Yorkers.
City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) said in a statement, “Mario Cuomo was an extraordinary public servant who devoted his life to the betterment of all New Yorkers.”
Assemblyman Francisco Moya (D-Jackson Heights) said Cuomo “dedicated his life to making our great state better for all, from the new immigrant to the born-and-bred New Yorker.”
De Blasio called him a “man of unwavering principle who possessed a compassion for humankind that was without equal.”

[harrybarracuda]

Samuel Goldwyn Jr. Dies at 88
JANUARY 9, 2015 | 08:52PM PT
Carmel Dagan

Samuel Goldwyn Jr., the son of a fiercely independent-minded Hollywood mogul and the producer of many independent films in his own right including “Mystic Pizza” and studio hits including “Master and Commander,” died Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 88. His son John Goldwyn told the New York Times he died of congestive heart failure.

Goldwyn Jr. received his final credit as a producer, together with son John and others, on Fox’s long-gestating remake of the Goldwyn Sr.-produced classic “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” starring and directed by Ben Stiller and released in December 2013.

The courtly and soft-spoken scion was known for shepherding independent and foreign films and got his start in documentary filmmaking, in contrast to his brash father, who made his way from a youth of poverty in Poland to a partner in MGM.

“I love it. If you don’t love this business, don’t go near it. Don’t go near it to get rich,” he told Britain’s the Independent in 2004. “And just remember, if you’re right 51 per cent of the time in this business, you’re a genius.”

As producer of the Peter Weir-directed “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” together with Weir and Duncan Henderson, Goldwyn Jr. shared that film’s Oscar nomination for best picture in 2004. (The film received a total of 10 nominations and won two Oscars.)

His Samuel Goldwyn Company was one of the most significant distributors of independent film during the period in which they flourished in the 1980s and 1990s. Among the films the company acquired and distributed were David Lynch’s Palme d’Or winner “Wild at Heart,” Jim Jarmusch’s “Stranger Than Paradise,” Bill Forsyth’s “Gregory’s Girl,” Alex Cox’s “Sid and Nancy,” Stephen Frears’ “Prick Up Your Ears,” Robert Townsend’s “Hollywood Shuffle,” Charles Burnett’s “To Sleep With Anger,” John Sayles’ “City of Hope,” Ang Lee’s “The Wedding Banquet” and Kenneth Branagh’s “Much Ado About Nothing.”

After a failed merger and lawsuit resulting from MGM’s acquisition of the distributor, Goldwyn Jr. relaunched his company as Samuel Goldwyn Films in the early 2000s. Though it was not nearly as active as the earlier incarnation, the new entity released indies such as “The Squid and the Whale,” “2 Days in Paris” and “Robot & Frank.”

In a 2004 New York Times profile, the tall, silver-haired Goldwyn was described as resembling not so much his father “as a combination of Kirk Douglas and Paul Newman.”

But Goldwyn Jr. gloried in his father’s achievements, eventually returning to live as an adult in the vast Beverly Hills estate built by his father and tending to the library of films. The films Samuel Goldwyn Sr. produced, including “The Best Years of Our Lives” and “Guys and Dolls,” are handled by the Samuel Goldwyn Jr. Family Trust and currently licensed to Warner Bros. for U.S. distribution.

Sam Goldwyn Sr. was one of the pioneers of Hollywood, and his production company, Goldwyn Pictures Corp., became part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924, but Goldwyn Sr. had no involvement with MGM and was independent of the studio system after that.

Goldwyn Jr., however, did not “trade on his father’s name,” Tom Rothman, who began his career at the Samuel Goldwyn Company, told the New York Times.

Goldwyn Jr. grew up in Los Angeles as a self-confessed “Hollywood brat” — his mother was actress Frances Howard, he attended his first Oscar ceremony at age 11 and worked in editing rooms during summer vacation. He then spent a long period away from Los Angeles, attending prep school in Colorado and the U. of Virginia. After serving in the Army, he then took a job in England working for J. Arthur Rank, where he earned his first film credit as associate producer on the British crime thriller “Good-Time Girl,” Diana Dors’ first film, in 1948. Goldwyn Jr. rejoined the military in 1950, where he produced and directed documentaries for the staff of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Back in the U.S., he worked under Edward R. Murrow at CBS News and co-produced docu series “Adventure.”

When the young Goldwyn returned to Hollywood in the mid-1950s, Goldwyn Sr.’s career was in decline. In 1955 Goldwyn Jr. launched his production company Formosa Prods. (his father’s Samuel Goldwyn Studio was located at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Formosa Avenue) and produced his first film, uncredited, the same year: the Robert Mitchum Western “Man With the Gun.”

Via Formosa Prods. he also produced “The Sharkfighters” (1956), “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1960) and, in the early 1970s, “Cotton Comes to Harlem” and “Come Back, Charleston Blue.” Goldwyn Jr. directed one film, “The Young Lovers,” starring Peter Fonda and Sharon Hugueny, in 1964.

In addition to his film work, Goldwyn Jr. produced the Academy Awards ceremony twice, in the late 1980s, winning an Emmy in 1988 for his effort.

His family’s charitable contributions are evident throughout the city: Samuel Goldwyn Foundation sponsors the yearly Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards, created the Samuel Goldwyn Foundation Children’s Center day care facility, built the Academy of Motion Pictures theater and constructed the Hollywood Public Library in memory of Frances Howard Goldwyn.

He was married twice, to writer Peggy Elliott, with whom he had two children, and to actress Jennifer Howard, with whom he had four. He is survived by three sons, producer John; actor Tony and Peter, senior VP of Samuel Goldwyn Films; and three daughters Catherine, Frances and Elizabeth; and nine grandchildren.

[harrybarracuda]

TRIPLE OLYMPIC CHAMPION RICHARD MEADE DIES AGED 76
January 9, 2015 11:24 am



Three-time Olympic eventing gold medallist Richard Meade OBE has passed away aged 76.
Meade had been receiving treatment since being diagnosed with cancer in October.
He had a spectacular riding record having won team eventing gold in Mexico 1968 before repeating the feat in Munich four years later – also adding individual gold to his collection.
As well as Olympic success, Meade was also a two-time team eventing world champion, with victories coming in 1970 and 1982, as well as silver in 1974.
Meade is also among an elite group of riders to claim victory at four-star events Badminton and Burghley – winning the former twice in both 1970 and 1982.
In 1972 the Chepstow-born rider was named as BBC Wales’ Sports Personality of the Year and two years later was appointed an OBE for services to sport.
© Sportsbeat 2015

[harrybarracuda]

Actor Taylor Negron dies at 57
Published January 11, 2015 FoxNews.com



Actor and comedian Taylor Negron, 57, has died after a long battle with cancer, his cousin Chuck Negron said in a video released Saturday.

“I want to inform you that my cousin Taylor Negron has just passed away," Chuck Negron said in the video. "His mother, his brother Alex and my brother’s wife Renee were all there with him. May he rest in peace.”

The California native got his first TV role in 1982 playing a love-struck, dancing intern in the soap opera satire, "Young Doctors in Love." Negron also made a renowned appearance in the cult classic "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" delivering pizza to Spicol, played by Sean Penn.

Negron played the villain in the movie "The Last Boy Scout" starring Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans. Negron also went on to play a role in a myriad of films like "Angels in the Outfield," "Punchline," and "Stuart Little."

In 2008, Negron wrote "The Unbearable Lightness of Being Taylor Negron- A Fusion of Story and Song." The show went on to debut at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival and played in the 2009 Best of New York Solo Festival.

Once other actors heard the news and outpouring of support flooded social media.

[Sumbitch]

^Fast Times at Ridgemont high was the epitome of the Socal upper class. RIP...
Taylor.

[Looper]

Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress and star of La Dolce Vita, dies aged 83

Swedish actress Anita Ekberg, best known for her performance in Federico Fellini's 1960 film La Dolce Vita, has died in Italy at the age of 83.
The voluptuous actress died on Sunday in hospital outside Rome, according to reports.

Ekberg had reportedly been in a wheelchair for several years after being knocked over by one of her pet Great Danes and breaking her hip.

The sixth of eight children, Ekberg was born in 1931 in the Swedish port of Malmo where her father was a dock worker.

She first attracted attention as a teenager, winning a beauty contest to become Miss Sweden in 1950.

Both her mother and her friends encouraged her to enter beauty contests, and her success quickly took her to the United States, with hopes of becoming Miss Universe.

Although she did not win, she was noticed by, among others, the cult film director Russ Meyer, the eccentric millionaire businessman and producer Howard Hughes, and actor-producer John Wayne.

She then spent most of her adult life abroad, first in the US, where she quickly emerged as one of a 1950s generation of pin-ups and starlets, and then in Italy.

Photo: Anita Ekberg died in
a hospital outside Rome after breaking her hip. (Reuters)

In addition to becoming a pin-up for magazines such as Confidential and Playboy, she appeared in a series of comedy films including Abbott And Costello Go To Mars (1953), Artists And Models (1955) and Hollywood Or Bust (1956).

In each case Ekberg's spectacular physique was made part of the plot, often to comic effect.

When in 1954 she visited a US base in Greenland with actor William Holden and comedian Bob Hope, the latter quipped that her parents had been given the Nobel prize for architecture.

It was for director King Vidor that Ekberg first arrived in Italy to act in his 1956 film of War And Peace along with Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda.
She was then noticed by Fellini, known for having an eye for beautiful women.

In the famous scene in La Dolce Vita, she cavorted in Rome's Trevi Fountain, exhibiting her curvaceous charms to an urbane Marcello Mastroianni.
The film won Fellini the Golden Palm award at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, and the fountain scene rapidly became one of the most famous images in cinema history.

Ekberg was to star in several other major Italian films, including Boccacio 70 (1962), co-directed by Fellini and Vittorio De Sica and also starring Sophia Loren, plus Fellini's circus film I Clowns (1970) and his Intervista (1987), also featuring Mastroianni.

Her many romantic liaisons reportedly included spells with Gianni Agnelli, head of the Fiat auto company, as well as with Mastroianni, Errol Flynn and Frank Sinatra.

Ekberg was married twice, firstly to British actor Anthony Steel between 1956 and 1959 and then to American actor Rik Van Nutter between 1963 and 1975. Both marriages ended in divorce and there were no children.

In 2011 the Turin daily La Stampa reported that at the age of 80, Ekberg asked for financial help from the Fellini Foundation. She lived in a residence for elderly people near to Rome after breaking her hip.

Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress and star of La Dolce Vita, dies aged 83 - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)


By coincidence just watched La Dolce Vita for the first time on Friday night. The opening scene with Jesus hanging under the helicopter flying over Rome is a classic.

I found the main character a bit irritating at first. Italian men have this camp over-emotional way of sleazing onto women.

Started to get into it after the GF bust-up scene.

By the end I thought it was a very good movie and way ahead of its time.

GF rocked up by surprise just before it finished and she recognised Marcello Mastroianni and all the cast and knew all about Fellini's work as a director. She is a constant revelation in her cultural knowledge.

[harrybarracuda]

You could have found a more flattering pic.

[Looper]

Standing in the Trevi fountain at dawn dripping water on Marcello Mastroianni's head in the classic scene from La Dolce Vita.

[harrybarracuda]

British screenwriter Brian Clemens, OBE, passed away on Saturday, sources say.



The creator of the cult 1970s LWT show The Professionals, with a string of credits to his writing career including The Avengers, The Persuaders, The Protectors, Bergerac, Diagnosis: Murder and Bugs. Clemens also created the German show Blaues Blut (Blue Blood) in the 1980s.

Brian Horace Clemens was born in Croydon in 1931, and was a weapons training instructor during his National Service. He wanted to be a journalist but began his career at J. Walter Thompson as a messenger, before becoming a copywriter. During this time a screenplay of his that he had sent to the BBC, Valid for Single Journey Only, had been accepted and produced in 1955 and starred Ernest Clark and George Colouris.

Clemens wrote for B-movies and half-hour serials made by the Danziger brothers in the mid- to late 1950s, including Mark Saber, White Hunter, The Man from Interpol and Richard the Lionheart. The Vise and Dial 999 were also from this period, with Clemens using the pseudonym Tony O’Grady around this time.

In the 1960s, Clemens’ scripts were made by various ITC shows, including The Invisible Man, Man of the World, The Sentimental Agent and The Champions, and he wrote the pilot for Danger Man. He also wrote the pilot for The Avengers, where he was script editor and associate producer, and he was responsible for casting Diana Rigg as Emma Peel. He wrote for The Baron, and he penned the pilot for The Persuaders. Some of the last ITC action series such as The Protectors and The Adventurer also saw Clemens scripts.

In the 1970s, Clemens created a sitcom, My Wife Next Door, and a US TV movie, The Woman Hunter. He also wrote the anthology series Thriller for ITV. He also wrote Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde, a 1971 Hammer horror, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad in 1973, and wrote and directed Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter in 1974.

The Avengers was revived in 1976 was The New Avengers, earning Clemens a new generation of fans. As executive producer, he had cast Joanna Lumley as Purdey. In response to Thames’s The Sweeney, Clemens created and produced The Professionals for LWT, which proved to be the series he is most associated with. A TV movie, Escapade, was made in 1978, and meant to have been a pilot for a US version of The Avengers.

In the 1980s, Clemens wrote for Remington Steele, Bergerac, Worlds Beyond, The Father Dowling Mysteries (where he served as executive story editor), and Perry Mason. In the 1990s, Clemens wrote for Diagnosis: Murder, Bugs, The Highlander TV series (he had also co-written Highlander II: the Quickening), and a revival of The Professionals, entitled CI5: the New Professionals. Attempts to revive The Professionals as a feature film were not realized, although The Avengers was shot as a Hollywood movie in 1996, starring Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman and Sean Connery.

Clemens also wrote numerous plays, beginning with a stage adaptation of The Avengers in 1971, and continued until 2012 with Murder Weapon.

Clemens and his wife, Brenda, divorced in 1966. He was with the actress Diane Enright till she committed suicide in 1976. He married his second wife Janet in 1979, and they had two children. He was awarded the OBE in 2010.

Brian Clemens was related to Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain.

Read more at http://lucire.com/insider/20150112/b...BsyKePAQ7md.99

[Necron99]

^ Talented and busy man.
The Professionals was epic stuff.
Should have left Highlander 2 alone though, it was shit.

[harrybarracuda]

‘Manhunter,’ ‘Daredevil,’ Dies at 72
JANUARY 12, 2015 | 05:15PM PT
Carmel Dagan

British-born Bernard Telvin Williams, a producer of films including “A Clockwork Orange,” “Manhunter,” “What About Bob?,” “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” and “Daredevil,” died of cancer in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., on January 4. He was 72.

Williams was associate producer not only on Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange,” but also on the director’s “Barry Lyndon.” Other producing credits include “The Bounty,” a reworking of “Mutiny on the Bounty” starring Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson; the epic “Ragtime,” based on the E.L. Doctorow novel and directed by Milos Forman; Michael Mann’s “Manhunter,” the first Hannibel Lecter film; Bill Murray comedy “What About Bob?”; Frank Oz’s Michael Caine-Steve Martin vehicle “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”; the Steve Martin-Eddie Murphy comedy “Bowfinger”; and 2003 Ben Affleck superhero movie “Daredevil.”

His final credit came on the 2006 version of “Charlotte’s Web.”

Williams was also unit production manager on a number of the films that he produced.

Williams was born in London. As a teenager he began working in the mailroom of Associated British Pictures studios and took every opportunity to gain experience and knowledge about filmmaking.

As his career in the U.K. began to blossom, opportunities arose in Hollywood, and in 1981 Williams moved to Los Angeles.

He is survived by two daughters, Dana Maginnis and Vanessa Thiemann; a son, Howard Williams; a sister, Gaye Shepard; and his ex-wife, Valerie Norman Dannels.

A memorial celebration will be held at a date to be determined.

[harrybarracuda]

Tim Drummond, bassist for Neil Young and Bob Dylan, dies aged 74



He also worked with James Brown, Miles Davis and the Beach Boys...


Tim Drummond, who played bass with Neil Young, CSNY and Bob Dylan, has died aged 74, here Rolling Stone.
Drummond played with Young from 1972 through to 1980, playing on the Harvest album, then every studio album from On The Beach up until Hawks & Doves. He also played with Young's assorted backing bands during that era, including The Shocking Pinks, the Stray Gators and the International Harvesters.
Drummond, who was born on April 20, 1940 in Canton, Illinois, also played live with CSNY on their 1974 tour. He reunited with Young for Harvest Moon and MTV Unplugged in 1992 and 1993.
He was also an integral part of Bob Dylan's band between 1979 and 1981, playing on Dylan's trilogy of Gospel albums, Slow Train Coming, Saved and Shot Of Love. He co-wrote the title track for Saved with Dylan.
But Drummond was also an in-demand session bassist who played with Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Joe Cocker, Miles Davis and James Brown among many others.
His death follows on swiftly from that of Rick Rosas, another long-serving bassist with Neil Young who passed away two months ago.


Read more at Tim Drummond, bassist for Neil Young and Bob Dylan, dies aged 74 - Uncut.co.uk

[harrybarracuda]

Robert Kinoshita, Designer of ‘Lost in Space’ Robot, Dies at 100
JANUARY 13, 2015 | 05:14PM PT
Kevin Noonan




Film and television production designer and art director Robert Kinoshita, best known for designing the robot from the 1960s cult hit sci-fi series “Lost in Space” and its ancestor, Robby the Robot from the film “Forbidden Planet,” died Dec. 9 at age 100.

The robot from “Lost in Space” was famous for declaring, in a mechanical but definitely somewhat panicked tone, “Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!”

Kinoshita worked on his first film in 1937, “100 Men and a Girl,” but his film career was temporarily derailed when he and his wife were forced into a Japanese internment camp in Arizona during World War II.

He eventually returned to Hollywood to work on the 1956 sci-fi classic “Forbidden Planet” as a robot builder, including work on the film’s Robby the Robot.

Kinoshita continued to work in film and television as an art director through the 1980s, and in 2004 he was honored with a career retrospective by Hollywood Heritage; he was also inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame by the Carnegie-Mellon Institute.

Kinoshita was born in Los Angeles and graduated from the USC School of Architecture.

He is survived by his daughter, Pat Aoki.

[harrybarracuda]

Much-loved '60s star Dozy dies aged 70

First published in Devizes
Last updated
by Bruno Clements, Social media and web editor





Trevor Ward-Davies, best known as Dozy, from the '60s pop group Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, has died aged 70.

Mr Ward-Davies, the bass guitarist and founder member of the band, lived in Patney, near Devizes.

He died in hospital on Tuesday following a short illness.

The quintet, taking their name from the five friends' nicknames, got together in Salisbury in 1961 and between 1965 and 1969, the group spent more weeks in the UK singles charts than the Beatles.

They first entered the UK charts in December 1965 with You Make it Move followed by Hold Tight!, Bend It! and Save Me and a 1968 UK number one single with the Legend of Xanadu.

Ian Amey, better known as Tich from the band, said: "He was very good fun to be with, a very good friend for many, many years and he will be terribly missed.

"It was his band. It all started off with Dozy before it ever got to Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich."

In December 2012 Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich - Dave Dee having died in 2009 - made a much-called for return to Devizes after a gig in March at the Ceres Hall when many were left disappointed as tickets quickly sold out.

Businessman Bruce Hopkins, a friend of Dozy, organised both events and even before the tickets went on sale, 140 of the 260 available had been sold.

And Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich kicked off the 2013 fundraising Concert at the Kings.

[Happy As Larry]

Kim Fowley, LA music legend, dies aged 75

The man who brought the Runaways together, and worked with Ariel Pink last year, has passed away after nearly 60 years in rock’n’roll.

One of rock’s most notorious, charismatic and peculiar figures – the producer, songwriter, musician, manager and impresario Kim Fowley – has died. Fowley, who was 75, had been undergoing treatment for cancer, though the cause of his death has not been announced.

In a career lasting nearly 60 years, Fowley worked with a roll call of rock legends, including Gene Vincent, Warren Zevon, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Leon Russell and Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. As late as last year he collaborated with Ariel Pink on Pink’s Pom Pom album.

He is best known, however, as the svengali behind the all-girl rock band the Runaways. He recruited the group, which included Joan Jett and Lita Ford, by placing an advertisement in the Los Angeles fanzine Who Put the Bomp. “I didn’t put the Runaways together, I had an idea, they had ideas, we all met, there was combustion and out of five different versions of that group came the five girls who were the ones that people liked,” Fowley later said. He and the group parted ways in 1977 amid disagreements about money.

Fowley had been receiving treatment for his cancer in hospital in his hometown of Los Angeles, but last year moved to the home of former Runaways singer Cherie Currie. “I love Kim. I really do,” she said at that time. “After everything I went through as a kid with him, I ended up becoming a mom and realized it was difficult for a man in his 30s to deal with five teenage girls. He’s a friend I admire who needed help, and I could be there for him.”
Fowley had his first big hit as far back as 1960, when he recorded the novelty song Alley Opp with Gary S Paxton under the name the Hollywood Argyles. It was a US No 1. Two years later he scored a UK No 1 as the writer of Nut Rocker for B Bumble and the Stingers. In the mid-60s he latched on to the psychedelic movement, recording a cult single called The Trip in 1965, dabbled in bubblegum pop, then went glam in the 70s, as both songwriter and recording artist. He has songwriting credits on Kiss’s smash hit album Destroyer.

“Kim Fowley is a big loss to me,” said Steven van Zandt of the E Street Band. “A good friend. One of a kind. He’d been everywhere, done everything, knew everybody. He was working in the Underground Garage [Van Zandt’s online radio station] until last week. We should all have as full a life. I wanted DJs that could tell stories first person. He was the ultimate realization of that concept. Rock Gypsy DNA. Reinventing himself whenever he felt restless. Which was always. One of the great characters of all time. Irreplaceable.”

“Kim was a great and often misunderstood individual,” said Blondie’s Clem Burke. “When Blondie first came to Hollywood, Kim was one of the legends we wanted to meet. We did meet him at the Tropicana motel and became friends. I had the privilege of sitting next to Kim at a screening at SXSW of the Runaways film. When it ended, I turned to Kim and told him he was the hero of the film. He seemed happy to hear that.”

Former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham described Fowley as “a leader of that American brigade and a forever part of American music”.

[harrybarracuda]

Dorothy Thomas, "Mother" of Bone Marrow Transplant, Dies
SEATTLE — Jan 10, 2015, 8:02 PM ET
Associated Press


Dorothy Thomas and her husband, Dr. E. Donnall Thomas.

Dorothy "Dottie" Thomas, the research partner and wife of the Nobel laureate who pioneered the bone marrow transplant, has died in her Seattle-area home at 92.

Her death Friday was announced by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Her husband, the late Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, had directed its clinical research division.

Dottie Thomas was known as "the mother of bone marrow transplantation" because of the years she spent working with her husband.

The center says the couple worked as a team and proved that bone marrow transplantation could treat leukemia and other blood cancers.

Fred Hutchinson president Dr. Gary Gilliland said in a statement that Dottie Thomas had a profound impact on numerous patients, and that she and her husband were amazing together.

[harrybarracuda]

18 December 2014 Last updated at 09:44 ET

Virna Lisi, Italian film star, dies aged 78





Italian screen actress Virna Lisi, famed in the 1960s for appearing opposite stars including Frank Sinatra, has died at the age of 78.

Lisi, feted for her beauty and blonde locks, carved out a successful career in Hollywood, starring in films such as How To Murder Your Wife.

She was a force in European cinema, winning best actress at Cannes for 1994 French historical epic La Reine Margot.

The last of her movies was made in her native Italy in 2002.

However, Lisi had been due to make a return to the screen in Italian comedy Latin Lover, which is due to be released next year.

Lisi's love affair with Hollywood ended with a fear that she was being typecast as the dumb blonde, leading her to terminate her contract with Paramount film studios in the late 1960s.

The actress won awards for playing Catherine de Medici in La Reine Margot
Her role in comedy How To Murder Your Wife, opposite Jack Lemmon, saw her pop out of a wedding cake clad in a bikini in one famous scene.

Lisi also appeared in Assault on a Queen opposite Sinatra in 1966 and performed alongside Tony Curtis in Not With My Wife, You Don't in the same year.

She turned down the role in director Roger Vadim's classic Barbarella, eventually filled by Jane Fonda, leading to a break from acting during the early 1970s.

Later on in her career, she was awarded an honorary Italian Golden Globe award in 2004 in recognition of her cinematic achievements.

The actress was regularly lauded in her homeland for her work, winning seven David di Donatella awards in the 1980s and 90s, culminating in a special honour in 2009.

She had begun her film career as a teenager in the early 1950s with a string of roles in Italian movies.

Lisi is survived by a son, Corrado, and three grandchildren. Her husband of 53 years, Italian architect Franco Pesci, died last year.

[harrybarracuda]

This bloke has a lot to answer for.....

Tony Verna, television producer and director who invented instant replay 51 years ago, dies
Article by: Associated Press Updated: January 18, 2015 - 10:25 PM



PALM DESERT, Calif. — Tony Verna, a television director and producer who invented instant replay for live sports 51 years ago, has died. He was 81.

Verna died Sunday at his Palm Desert home after battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia, daughter Tracy Soiseth said.

CBS used instant replay for the first time in the Dec. 7, 1963 Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, after Verna developed a method to cue the tape to pinpoint the play he wanted to immediately air again. He said he was looking for a way to fill those boring gaps between plays during a football telecast.

The concept was so new that when Army quarterback Rollie Stichweh scored a touchdown, announcer Lindsey Nelson had to warn viewers: "This is not live! Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again!"

Instant replay quickly became a staple of sports broadcasting, and Verna's innovation gave fans a new way to look at the games.

"Not many things you can do in life where you can change the way things were happening before," Verna told The Associated Press in 2008.

Verna would go on to produce or direct five Super Bowls, the Olympics, the Kentucky Derby and even "Live Aid."

His lasting legacy, though, is pulling back the curtain on sports and revealing what really goes on.

Verna is survived by his wife of 45 years, Carol, daughters Tracy Soiseth and Jenny Axelrod, son Eric Verna and three grandchildren.

[kmart]

Deidre Barlow dies.

Coronation Street star Anne Kirkbride, who played the character Deirdre Barlow in the long-running television soap, has died aged 60 after a short illness.
ITV said the actress, who was in the show for 42 years, passed away peacefully in a Manchester hospital.
Her husband David Beckett and the programme's cast and crew were said to be "heartbroken and deeply saddened".

BBC News - Anne Kirkbride, Coronation Street's Deirdre Barlow, dies aged 60

[harrybarracuda]

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has died at the age of 90, and will be succeeded by his 79-year-old half-brother, Prince Salman.



The death was announced on Saudi state TV by a presenter who said the king died at 1am local time.

Prince Salman was King Abdullah’s crown prince and had recently taken on some of the ailing king’s responsibilities.

Prince Muqrin, 69, a former head of intelligence in Saudi Arabia and half-brother to both Prince Salman and King Abdullah, was announced as the kingdom’s crown prince.

King Abdullah was selected as crown prince in 1982 on the day his half-brother Fahd ascended to the throne.

The decision was challenged by a full brother of King Fahd, Prince Sultan, who wanted the title for himself. But the family eventually closed ranks behind him to prevent splits.

He became de facto ruler in 1995 when a stroke incapacitated King Fahd, and rose to throne when King Fahd died in 2005.

King Abdullah had more than 30 children from around a dozen wives.

He was a powerful US ally who joined Washington’s fight against al Qaida and sought to modernise the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom with incremental but significant reforms, including nudging open greater opportunities for women.

More than his guarded and hidebound predecessors, he threw his oil-rich nation’s weight behind trying to shape the Middle East.

His priority was to counter the influence of rival, mainly Shiite Iran wherever it tried to make advances. He and fellow Sunni Arab monarchs also staunchly opposed the Middle East’s wave of pro-democracy uprisings, seeing them as a threat to stability and their own rule.

He backed Sunni Muslim factions against Tehran’s allies in several countries, but in Lebanon for example, the policy failed to stop Iranian-backed Hezbollah from gaining the upper hand.

And Tehran and Riyadh’s colliding ambitions stoked proxy conflicts around the region that enflamed Sunni-Shiite hatreds – most horrifically in Syria’s civil war, where the two countries backed opposing sides.

Those conflicts in turn increased Sunni militancy that returned to threaten Saudi Arabia.

And while the king maintained the historically close alliance with Washington, there were frictions as he sought to put those relations on Saudi Arabia’s terms.

King Abdullah was constantly frustrated by Washington’s failure to broker a settlement to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

He also pushed the Obama administration to take a tougher stand against Iran and to more strongly back the mainly Sunni rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian president Bashar Assad.

He was born in Riyadh in 1924, one of the dozens of sons of Saudi Arabia’s founder, King Abdul-Aziz Al Saud. Like all the sons, he had only rudimentary education.

Tall and heavyset, he felt more at home in the Nejd, the kingdom’s desert heartland, riding stallions and hunting with falcons.

His strict upbringing was exemplified by three days he spent in prison as a young man as punishment by his father for failing to give his seat to a visitor, a violation of Bedouin hospitality.

President Barack Obama expressed condolences and offered sympathy to the people of Saudi Arabia upon the death of the king.

Mr Obama, who visited the ailing king in his desert compound last March, praised him for taking “bold steps” in advancing the Arab Peace Initiative.

The president credited the king for being dedicated to the education of his people and greater outreach to the international community, and said one of his legacies was the strength of the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia.

He said he “valued King Abdullah’s perspective and appreciated our genuine and warm friendship” and added that his advice was always candid.

King Abdullah was believed to have long rankled at the closeness of the alliance with the US, and as regent he pressed Washington to withdraw the troops it had deployed in the kingdom since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The US finally did so in 2003.

His aim at home was to modernise the kingdom to face the future. One of the world’s largest oil exporters, Saudi Arabia is fabulously wealthy, but there are deep disparities in wealth and a burgeoning youth population in need of jobs, housing and education.

More than half the current population of 20 million is under the age of 25. He was a strong supporter of education, building universities at home and increasing scholarships abroad for Saudi students.

King Abdullah for the first time gave women seats on the Shura Council, an unelected body that advises the king and government.

He promised women would be able to vote and run in 2015 elections for municipal councils, the only elections held in the country. He appointed the first female deputy minister in 2009. Two Saudi female athletes competed in the Olympics for the first time in 2012, and a small handful of women were granted licenses to work as lawyers during his rule.

But he moved carefully in the face of the ultraconservative Wahhabi clerics who hold near total sway over society and, in return, give the Al Saud family’s rule religious legitimacy.

After the September 11, 2001 terror attacks took place in the US, King Abdullah had to steer his country’s alliance with Washington through the resulting criticism.

The kingdom was home to 15 of the 19 hijackers, and many pointed out that the baseline ideology for al Qaida and other groups stemmed from Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi interpretation of Islam.

When al Qaida militants in 2003 began a wave of violence in the kingdom aimed at toppling the monarchy, King Abdullah cracked down hard.

For the next three years, security forces fought militants, finally forcing them to flee to neighbouring Yemen. There, they created a new al Qaida branch, and Saudi Arabia has played a behind-the-scenes role in fighting it.



Read more: Saudi King Abdullah dies aged 90 | Western Morning News
Follow us: @WMNNews on Twitter | westernmorningnews on Facebook

[harrybarracuda]

Looks like the paedo got away with it, but now they can at least out the fucker.

Top Thatcher minister Leon Brittan dies at 75
Christopher Hope
PUBLISHED
23/01/2015 | 02:300



Former UK Home Secretary Leon Brittan has died after a long battle with cancer, his family said.

Friends say Mr Brittan (pictured), who was recently caught up in a row over allegations that he failed to act on evidence of child abuse by senior figures in Westminster in the 1980s, is understood to have died in his sleep on Wednesday night.

The 75-year-old was last in hospital at Christmas 2013 for treatment for cancer and heart trouble.

British Prime Minister David Cameron was among the first to pay tribute. He said: "Leon Brittan was a dedicated and fiercely intelligent public servant.

"As a central figure in Margaret Thatcher's government, he helped her transform our country for the better by giving distinguished service as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Home Secretary, and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

"He went on to play a leading role at the European Commission where he did so much to promote free trade in Europe and across the world. More recently, he made an active contribution to the House of Lords."

Mr Brittan was thrust into the headlines in July last year by questions over his handling of a dossier handed to him as home secretary in 1983 by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens, alleging the existence of a paedophile ring at Westminster.

The former home secretary confirmed that he had a meeting with Mr Dickens and was given a file, which he passed on to officials, adding: "I do not recall being contacted further about these matters by Home Office officials or by Mr Dickens or by anyone else."

However, the department later released an extract of a letter Mr Brittan sent to Mr Dickens the following March explaining that the material had been assessed as worth pursuing by the DPP. (© Daily Telegraph, London)

[harrybarracuda]

Reginald Perrin actress Pauline Yates dies, aged 85
By Tom Eames
Thursday, Jan 22 2015, 11:39am EST
Actress Pauline Yates has died, aged 85.



The British star was best known for her starring role in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin from 1976 to 1979, as the title character's wife Elizabeth Perrin opposite Leonard Rossiter.

She also played the wife of comic-strip artist Dudley Rush (Robert Gillespie) in Keep It In the Family, and starred in Bachelor Father.

Yates's family have said that she "died peacefully in her sleep" yesterday (January 21) in Denville Hall nursing home in Northwood, Middlesex.

During a career that spanned six decades, Yates became a regular performer in 1960s TV series, including Armchair Theatre, Dixon of Dock Green, Z-Cars, Gideon's Way, Nightingale's Boys, The Human Jungle and The Ronnie Barker Playhouse.

She returned as Elizabeth Perrin for The Legacy of Reginald Perrin in 1996, and continued to perform on stage. Her most recent roles were in Rose and Maloney and Doctors in the early 2000s.

Yates was married to actor Donald Churchill from 1960 until his death in 1991. She is survived by their daughters Jemma and Polly.

In a statement, the actress's family said: "Her best role, and the one she considered most important, was as a dedicated mother to her two daughters, Jemma and Polly, and loving grandmother to Marlon, Dylan and Adelaide."


Read more: Reginald Perrin actress Pauline Yates dies, aged 85 - TV News - Digital Spy
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