The RIP Famous Person Thread

[bobo746]

[Loy Toy]

Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor were great together.

[kmart]

Brilliantly funny in most of his films. With Mel Brooks or Richard Pryor, he was a real masterclass in comic acting. Shy, modest guy away from the screen as well.

RIP Gene Wilder

[misskit]

Young Frankenstein is my favorite movie starring Gene Wilder.


Young Frankenstein in Five Minutes

[Cold Pizza]

Love Story had to be one of the worst movies ever made. Squeaky voiced Ryan and Ali, who couldn't act if her life depended on it. She made Sondra Locke look talented.

I saw Love Story for the first time last year.

I thought it was a good movie, but don't comprehend the elevated status of the film.

Ali McGraw was pretty prolific back then (and in films with McQueen).

[Cold Pizza]

RIP Gene Wilder.

Loved your movies growing up.

[billy the kid]

Loy Toy.

That vid brought a tear to my eye. Funny as funny can be.

[snakeeyes]

[BaitongBoy]

^ Done on the last page...The Wrath of Dawg ensues...

[snakeeyes]

^
Oh fook ,

[harrybarracuda]

Oh man, that's really put a downer on my vibe.

It's the end of an era....



Gilli Smyth, co-founder of psychedelic space-rock legends Gong, died last Monday (22nd August) at Byron Bay Hospital in Australia after a battle with pulmonary pneumonia. The news was reported on Facebook by her son Orlando Allen. She was 83.

Gilli Smyth took on the name Shakti Yoni, while Allen became Bert Camembert (or sometimes Sri Cappuccino Longfellow), and Malherbe insisted that he be known as Bloomdido Bad De Grasse.

Smyth performed poetry with jazz-rock group Soft Machine alongside Daevid Allen before they went on to found Gong together in 1967 in Paris. Smyth co-wrote a number of songs featured on their first six albums, helping to develop their early sound with her spoken word “spacewhisper” vocals.

After the completion of their ‘Radio Gnome Invisible‘ trilogy with ‘You’ in 1974, Smyth departed the band to pursue a solo career. But rather than spell the end for Gong, individual band members formed their own offshoots which included Planet Gong, Pierre Moerlen’s Gong and New York Gong.

Smyth‘s own incarnation, Mother Gong, was formed after she released her debut solo album ‘Mother’ in 1978. Mother Gong would perform on the main stage at Glastonbury twice in 1979 and 1981 and would also open for Bob Dylan.

Smyth reunited with part of the original Gong line-up in 1994 to celebrate its 25th birthday, embarking on a number of tours over subsequent years. Her final appearance with the band came in 2012.

News of Smyth’s death comes just under a year and a half after her former partner and Gong co-founder Daevid Allen died of cancer at the age of 77. They had two sons together.

A message on the Planet Gong website commemorating the life of Smyth stated:

“Her unique stage presence and vocals manifested and determinedly represented a vital, deeply fundamental feminine principle within the Gong universe… We will miss her. Love to the Good Witch and all who feel her loss.“

As per the wishes of Daevid Allen, the remaining members of Gong are scheduled to release a new album on 16th September. ‘Rejoice! I’m Dead!‘ will be available via Snapper Records and followed by a short UK tour.

GIGsoup | GIGsoup.co.uk ? The latest music news, music videos, tickets, album and EP reviews

[billy the kid]

many a pleasant moment in early 70s listening to Gong.

ayee dropping off like flies now.

compl. vid arry.

good innings 83 yrs.

[harrybarracuda]

Jon Polito, Actor Who Was a Coen Brothers Regular, Dies at 65
Beatrice Verhoeven | September 2, 2016 @ 7:30 AM



Actor Jon Polito, a Coen brothers regular with roles in films including “The Big Lebowski” and “Miller’s Crossing,” has died. He was 65.

Film director John McNaughton shared the news on Friday morning on Facebook. “Very sad to learn that my dear friend and collaborator, Jon Polito has passed away,” he wrote.

“He appeared in over 100 films, countless TV episodes and on Broadway,” McNaughton added. “Jon was a born actor and will be deeply missed by his legion of friends, fans, family and of course his long time partner, Darryl Armbruster to whom I send my condolences. R.I.P. old pal.”

According to TMZ, the actor died Thursday after being taken off life support. The publication reports Polito was diagnosed with melanoma in 2008, and was also suffering from arthritis, as well as an infection from a recent surgery. He reportedly slipped into a coma last Sunday.

Polito’s representatives were not immediately available for comment.

The actor, who played a bumbling private eye in “The Big Lebowski,” most recently landed a role in “The Maestro,” which is currently in pre-production. His most recent roles include “Gangster Squad” and “Locker 13,” and he also starred in three “Modern Family” episodes and one episode of “Major Crimes.”


Also Read: Juan Gabriel, Mexican Superstar, Dies at 66

Overall, Polito has 217 credits listed on IMDb.

Polito was born in Philadelphia in 1950. The actor won an OBIE award in 1980 for his theater performances off Broadway. For his lifetime of work in film and TV, he won the Maverick Spirit Event Award at Cinequest Film Festival in 2005. In 2012, he received the “Best Actor in a Short Film” award at Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival.

Jon Polito, 'Big Lebowski' Actor, Dies at 65

[bobo746]

Richard Neville: Oz magazine co-founder dies aged 74

Australian author and social commentator Richard Neville has died at the age of 74 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
Neville made a splash in Australia and the United Kingdom in the 1960s as the co-founder of counterculture magazine Oz, which was known for its use of satire and pop art alongside serious journalism.
He shot to fame in 1963 when he published the magazine, in partnership with his friends artist Martin Sharp and editor Richard Walsh, which specialised in dissent and was known for pushing boundaries
Published on April Fool's Day, the first issue of the magazine sold 6,000 copies by lunchtime on the first day it hit the streets.
The 16-page issue of Oz included a lengthy feature on backyard abortions — a practice that was, at the time, both illegal and taboo.
The magazine took aim at the White Australia policy, the treatment of Indigenous people, homosexuality, police brutality and Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War.
Neville, Walsh and Sharp had only published three issues of the magazine before being charged for distributing an obscene publication — to which they pleaded guilty.




Richard Neville: Oz magazine co-founder dies aged 74 - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[Chittychangchang]

The king is dead, long live the king!



Jamaican musician who helped pioneer ska music in the 60s and who provided inspiration for a subsequent generation of British musicians including Madness.



It was boxing ability as much as musical talent that helped Prince Buster become a key figure in the birth of Jamaican ska music. During the mid-1950s Buster, who has died aged 78, sang in a number of small-time bands in the island’s capital, Kingston. But he also had a promising career as a street fighting boxer, and it was his reputation as a quick-witted and assertive gang leader that brought him to the attention of the legendary Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, operator of the famous Downbeat sound system that travelled the country playing the latest dance records from the United States.

Coxsone took Buster on as a security guard-cum-personal helper, and the young man used the experience to learn all he could about the fledgling Jamaican music business.

Propitiously, he had been born – as Cecil Campbell, the son of a railway worker – in Orange Street, the central commercial street in Kingston that was to become the heart of the island’s music scene. Known as Buster in his gang-oriented youth because of his middle name Bustamante (after the Jamaican Labour Party leader Sir Alexander Bustamante), he later took on the nickname Prince for his boxing exploits, and had a natural entrepreneurial flair as well as musical talent and street sense. He left Dodd in the late 1950s to set up a record store, Buster’s Record Shack, and then his own sound system, the Voice of the People.

While both ventures were successful, it was his next move – into the recording studio – that really left its mark. In 1960 he embarked on a couple of marathon recording sessions with various artists at the studios of the local radio station RJR that were to shift the island’s musical axis away from the all pervasive influence of America. Among those early recordings was a Buster-produced song by the Folkes Brothers called Oh Carolina that became an instant hit in Jamaica. In a typically bold and unheard-of move that was to characterise Buster’s innovative career, he used the Rastafarian percussionist Count Ossie for the backing track. But more importantly he also asked the guitarist, Jah Jerry, to emphasize the afterbeat instead of the downbeat. The same radical syncopation was used on many of the other tracks, including classics such as Little Honey, Humpty Dumpty, They Got to Go and Thirty Pieces of Silver. Ska had been born.

Most of the singles from those sessions were hits in his homeland, and Buster never looked back. Over an eight-year period he released hundreds of productions on various labels, many of them chronicling the gun happy “rude boy” activities of an increasingly violent, newly independent Jamaica. He became rich, living the high life of sharp suits and fast cars, though remaining an aggressive champion of the underdog.

As ska slowed down in the mid 60s and turned into rocksteady – a transition Buster did much to nurture – he set Jamaica alight with a series of records featuring his mythical character Judge Dread, a super-tough magistrate who handed out ridiculously long sentences to recalcitrant rude boys.

But his influence went far beyond Jamaica. Many of his own compositions, as well as those he produced, were released on the seminal Blue Beat label in the UK, where ska became the music of choice for many mods and skinheads.

He was the first Jamaican to have a top 20 hit in Britain – with Al Capone in 1965 – toured the country regularly to sell-out crowds, and appeared on Ready Steady Go in 1964. It was also in Britain that he converted to Islam and changed his name to Mohammed Yusef Ali after a meeting with the boxer Muhammad Ali.

As the 60s drew to a close, Buster moved with the times to produce records for some of the new breed of Jamaican DJs, including Big Youth, and continued to work with well-known artists such as Dennis Brown. He even ventured into early dub music.

But by the early 1970s, when rock steady was transmogrifying into roots reggae, Buster’s influence and interest began to wane – partly because as a Muslim he found it difficult to move along with the Rasta-influenced tide. He moved to Miami to pursue various business interests, including the running of a jukebox company he had set up.

His influence did, however, resurface in the late 1970s, when his music was the key inspiration for the ska revival in Britain. In 1978 a London band called Morris and the Minors renamed themselves Madness after Buster’s classic song Madness is Gladness, and in 1978 their first single, The Prince, went straight into the top 20. The band later reached number seven with a reworking of the Buster song One Step Beyond.

Their hero resisted a comeback then, but did reappear onstage in the late 1980s and 1990s, and toured Japan with ska legends the Skatalites as his backing group. He even recorded again in 1992, and in 1998 re-entered the British charts for the first time in 31 years with a new version of an old song, Whine and Grind. Essentially, though, his comeback was low key.

In 2001 Buster was awarded the Order of Distinction in Jamaica for his contribution to the development of the country’s music industry. He had long since received countless accolades from his peers, but it was nonetheless fitting recognition for a man whose self-proclaimed title as King of Ska was never seriously disputed.

Prince Buster, musician, born 24 May 1938; died 8 September 2016

[misskit]

I'm crushed. She was both lovely and funny.

Lady Chablis, Star of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Has Sashayed Away



The Lady Chablis, a Savannah, Georgia–based performer best known for her appearance as herself in the 1997 Clint Eastwood film adaptation of John Berendt’s best-selling nonfiction novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, died on Thursday.* During her long career, she was perhaps second only to RuPaul in the national consciousness for her work in drag and nightlife entertainment, which she practiced primarily in the South. Though she personally abjured labels related to gender identity and sexual orientation (preferring to be known simply as Chablis or “the doll”), she should be counted as a pioneer for the queer community, particularly in her insistence on expressing gender as she saw fit.

Savannah’s Club One reported Chablis’ passing, noting that, while her bravery inspired many others to follow in her heel tracks, “no one … could outshine the Grand Empress herself.” The Facebook notice continued:

With the success of “The Book,” Chablis shot to stardom. She was a guest on Good Morning America, and was interviewed by Oprah. She insisted to USA Today that she would play herself in the movie—or there would not be one. She’d be the first to tell you that she stole the show in Clint Eastwood’s 1997 adaptation. Since then, thousands of visitors have come to Savannah, visiting the locations in The Book, and crowding into Club One to see her.

For readers who have senselessly denied themselves the pleasure of Chablis’ singular performance in Midnight, here’s a choice scene:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2...ead_at_59.html

Berendt recalled Chablis’ toughness in a statement: “Chablis could be playful and ironic, but she had a tough inner core. ‘Don’t be fooled by this dress I’m wearing,’ she’d say with a hint of danger in her voice.”

Chablis’ hilarious memoir, Hiding My Candy, detailed her path from a childhood in Florida to the stage, as well as a few of her favorite recipes for soul food (would that all memoirists were so thoughtful). In addition to her work in entertainment, Chablis was heavily involved in charity work, especially for diabetes and LGBTQ causes. While a cause of death has not yet been reported, recent profiles indicated her health had been in decline. According to some sources, she was 59.

Not that she would want anyone to mourn her passing too much: As her famous catchphrase about pain and hardship succinctly put it: “Two tears in a bucket, motherfuck it.”

*Update, Sept. 9, 2016: This post has been updated to clarify that Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a nonfiction novel.

Lady Chablis, star of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, dead at 59.

[harrybarracuda]

Curtis Hanson dies aged 71
20 September, 2016



The director of L.A. Confidential was found dead at his Los Angeles home on Tuesday of what police say was natural causes.

Hanson vaulted to international fame after he directed the 1997 crime noir L.A. Confidential and shared with Brian Helgeland the adapted screenplay Academy Award.

His take on James Ellroy’s novel also made an international star out of Russell Crowe – already a rising force in Australia with Romper Stomper – and garnered a supporting actress Oscar win for Kim Basinger.

After early life as a journalist, Hanson began writing screenplays in the 1970s and eventually moved into directing.

He built up a varied body of work that included 8 Mile, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, The River Wild, Wonder Boys and HBO’s Too Big To Fail.

Curtis Hanson dies aged 71 | News | Screen

[harrybarracuda]

Bill Nunn, Radio Raheem in Spike Lee's 'Do the Right Thing,' Dies at 62
by ASSOCIATED PRESS



Bill Nunn, a veteran character actor whose credits ranged from the "Spider-Man" movie franchise to the Spike Lee films "Do the Right Thing" and "He Got Game," has died.

His wife, Donna, said Nunn died Saturday at his home in Pittsburgh. He was 62 and had been battling cancer.

A longtime Pittsburgh resident and graduate of Morehouse College, Lee's alma mater, Nunn broke through in movies in the late 1980s, first in Lee's "School Daze," then in the Oscar-nominated "Do the Right Thing," as the ill-fated Radio Raheem, who dies when choked by police during a street brawl in Brooklyn.

"Radio Raheem is now resting in power," Lee wrote on Instagram, also calling Nunn "My Dear Friend" and "My Dear Morehouse Brother."

25th Anniversary Screening Of "Do The Right Thing" Arrivals - 2014 BAMcinemaFest
Bill Nunn attends a 25th anniversary screening of "Do The Right Thing" in June 2014 in Brooklyn, New York. Ilya S. Savenok / Getty Images
"Radio Raheem will always be fighting da powers dat be. May God watch over Bill Nunn."

Nunn, who stood well over 6 feet tall, went on to appear in dozens of films and TV programs, including "New Jack City," Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy and "Sirens."

Nunn was the son of a prominent Pittsburgh Steelers scout, also named Bill Nunn, and befriended future Steelers president Art Rooney II while both worked as ballboys for the NFL team. They would long savor a youthful prank, stealing the car of star defensive tackle "Mean" Joe Greene.

"Joe showed up in a beautiful, green Lincoln Continental," Rooney explained last year. "Me and Bill Nunn were ballboys and somehow Bill got the keys one night and we decided to take it for a ride.

Bill Nunn, Radio Raheem in Spike Lee's 'Do the Right Thing,' Dies at 62 - NBC News

[BaitongBoy]

^ Got a nice smile, that guy...Funny how sometimes you don't really remember the person except through what his "playlist" reads...

That prank about borrowing Mean Joe Greene's car was good...Fooked if they were caught at it...RIP...

[harrybarracuda]

Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres dies at 93
By Shawn Price | Sept. 27, 2016 at 11:06 PM



JERUSALEM, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, a Nobel peace prize laureate who suffered a stroke two weeks ago, has died at age 93, the Israel News Agency said.

Peres had been on a respirator in a Tel Aviv hospital after the stroke on Sept. 13, but had seriously deteriorated in a recent days.

Peres' crowning achievement was as one of the key players in the Oslo peace accords, in which he won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with then Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat.

Former Israeli PM Shimon Peres dies - UPI.com

[harrybarracuda]

Creator of All My Children, Agnes Nixon, dies aged 93

THE creator of All My Children and One Life To Live, Agnes Nixon has passed away at the age of 93.

By HELEN KELLY
PUBLISHED: 04:15, Thu, Sep 29, 2016 | UPDATED: 06:19, Thu, Sep 29, 2016



The "queen of soap opera" died at a retirement community in Haverford, Pennsylvania on Wednesday, her family confirmed.

Her son, Bob Nixon, explained that she had checked herself into the facility to regain her strength for a planned book tour for her memoir My Life To Live.

He added that the cause of death was not immediately known.

Speaking about his mother, he said: "She was a really great wife, mother and human being – but above all, a writer. She was writing up until last night."

Agnes created two of the longest-running soap operas in the history of American television as well as Guiding Light and As the World Turns.

She received six Daytime Emmy Awards, fiver Writers Guild of America prizes and was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Television Hall of Game.

Following the news of Agnes' death, many of those who worked with her throughout her career were quick to pay tribute to the star.

Disney CEO Bob Igor told USA Today: "It is with a heavy heart I mourn the passing of television pioneer Agnes Nixon, someone I was proud to call a friend.

"Agnes' impact on daytime television and pop culture is undeniable. She was the first to champion socially relevant topics, and the towns and characters Agnes brought to life leave an indelible imprint on television that will be remembered forever."

All My Children star Aiden Turner tweeted: "Sad to hear of the passing of #agnesnixon. It was an honour to be "one of her children" thank you for all the memories."

Cameron Mathison shared: "RIP Agnes Nixon. It was such a pleasure to know you and be part of your Pine Valley family."

Creator of All My Children, Agnes Nixon, dies aged 93 | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV | Daily Express

[harrybarracuda]

Thank you for your service old chap. RIP.

Last surviving WWII Dunkirk evacuation 'beach master' dies, aged 99, after meeting Hollywood filmmaker
20:45, 30 SEP 2016 UPDATED 21:01, 30 SEP 2016
BY STEPHEN JONES



The last surviving "beach master" involved in the Royal Navy ’s legendary World War 2 Dunkirk evacuation has died, aged 99.

Vic Viner - who spent six days and nights under fire on the beaches during the perilous 1940 rescue mission - died on Thursday, his family have revealed.

He had recently met with a Hollywood filmmaker to discuss his personal experiences of the beach evacuation - which was seen as a something of a victory despite the huge losses.

Vic, who served with the Navy between 1933 and 1947, was in charge of organising soldiers on the beach during the evacuations.

It involved marshalling troops off the sand and onto the many small vessels which had been sequestered to rescue every last soldier from the UK.

Ian Gilbert, former commodore of the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships (ADLS), today paid tribute to Mr Viner.

He said: “He was very significant for us as he was the last survivor of what was known as the Royal Naval beach masters.

“They were landed by the Royal Navy on the beaches of Dunkirk and their job was to marshal the troops in an orderly fashion to get them onto the boats.

"He’s certainly the last Royal Navy veteran that I know that took part in Operation Dynamo.”

Vic's older brother, Albert, was one of 300 men who died on MV Crested Eagle on May 29 when it was bombed by German planes during the rescue mission.

Vic, who was 23 at the time, was on the beach when the Thames paddle steamer was hit.

He watched as flames tore through the vessel, killing all on board, and later discovered that his 25-year-old brother had been one of those who had died.

Speaking at a service to remember those who lost their lives on the vessel last year, Vic said: “It’s a great honour to be here, and I am very proud.

“I have only got a year and 303 days to go before I am 100.

"Bert, up there, he is probably looking down saying, ‘Go on brother, keep going!’”

The day before Operation Dynamo began on May 27, Vic had been ordered aboard a destroyer and told to take one of its small boats and pick up soldiers from the beaches.

He recalled: “When I got back on my fourth trip my colleague beside me said, ‘You have got blood on your hands’.

"I looked down and there was blood all the way down - we had sweated blood!"

Vic was then sent to the beaches and instructed by Captain William Tennant - who oversaw the Dunkirk evacuations - to make “order out of chaos”.

He was stationed at the Bray-Dunes, just north of Dunkirk, for nearly a week during the operation.

“It was terrible, course it was - being bombed every day, no food, no water, stinking like mad,” he said.

“You can’t tell anybody what it was like, you had to have been there.”

The veteran recently met with film director Christopher Nolan - famous for blockbusters like Interstellar, Inception and the Batman trilogy - who is making a film based on the Dunkirk evacuations, to share his personal experience.

The film is set to star former One Direction heartthrob Harry Styles.

Gilbert said: “I think it was a fairly amazing experience for Christopher - less so for Vic, who was completely unfazed by anybody."

Surrey-based Vic had two children, Michael and Elizabeth, and two grandchildren.

Patrick Viner, 43, said his grandfather, whose stock phrase was “all’s well” - believed the secret to his long life was “a glass of wine and chocolate”.

“I think he decided he had done everything he wanted to do,” Patrick said.

“His wife, Winnie, passed a few years before, and I think he was ready and happy to go and see her.”

Last surviving WWII Dunkirk evacuation 'beach master' dies, aged 99, after meeting Hollywood filmmaker - Mirror Online

[BaitongBoy]

^ Incredible experience, old feller...RIP...

[harrybarracuda]

Hanoi Hannah, Vietnam war propaganda radio presenter, dies aged 87

Agence France-Presse in Hanoi
Tuesday 4 October 2016 11.58 BST



Trinh Thi Ngo was one of the most prominent broadcasters on state-run Voice of Vietnam targeting American GIs with anti-US rhetoric

Silky-voiced propaganda broadcaster Hanoi Hannah, famous for urging American GIs to leave her country during the Vietnam war, has died at the age of 87.

The radio presenter, whose real name was Trinh Thi Ngo, was among dozens of Vietnamese journalists drafted in by the Communist regime to inundate the country with anti-US rhetoric during the conflict that ended in 1975 with the fall of Saigon and America’s defeat.

“GI, your government has abandoned you. They have ordered you to die,” she said in one of her on-air appeals in English during the war. “Don’t trust them. They lied to you, GIs, you know you cannot win this war.”

In daily broadcasts on state-run Voice of Vietnam (VOV) from the northern capital of Hanoi, Hannah would list the names of American troops killed in combat, read US newspaper articles about anti-war protests and play Joan Baez and Bob Dylan songs.

She rarely spoke of Vietnamese losses or American successes in her broadcasts, which were carefully controlled by the Communist authorities.

Hannah died on Friday at her home in Ho Chi Minh City, according to VOV.

“Hanoi Hannah was clearly one of the most prominent broadcasters we had in the history of the Voice of Vietnam and the country in general,” said Nguyen Ngoc Thuy, a former journalist at VOV’s English service.

“She will be remembered for her legendary voice in broadcasts targeting American servicemen. Her influence on Vietnam’s success against the US was huge,” Thuy added.

Hannah joined VOV from the outset of the war, recalling in her memoir a desire to make a difference to the war effort. “I thought it was time for me to do something to contribute to the revolution,” according to an excerpt reported on VOV.

Hannah went on to work for Ho Chi Minh City Television after the war and was reclusive in her final years, rarely speaking to the press.

The Vietnam war, still called the American war in the country today, ended with the fall of the southern capital more than four decades ago at the hands of Communist forces. The scity was renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the country’s independence hero who died before the war’s end.

At least 2.5 million soldiers from Vietnam’s communist North and US-allied South died in the conflict, along with 3 million civilians, according to official figures.

On the American side, more than 58,000 soldiers lost their lives, while some estimates say more Vietnam veterans killed themselves after the war than died in fighting – although the figures are disputed.

Relations between the former wartime enemies have warmed in recent years, with many English-speaking Vietnamese youngsters eagerly embracing American culture. The US president, Barack Obama, visited the country in May, lifting the wartime-era arms embargo and celebrating close ties with its former foe.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-dies-aged-87?

[Norton]

Hanoi Hannah, Vietnam war propaganda radio presenter, dies aged 87

RIP old gal. Loved your "wicked witch of the north" broadcasts.