The RIP Famous Person Thread

[Mr Lick]

John Horsley - obituary

John Horsley was the actor who played Doc Morrissey to Leonard Rossiter’s Reginald Perrin




John Horsley, the actor, who has died aged 93, was best known as Doc Morrissey, the clueless company doctor in the BBC comedy series The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976-79).

As one of several foils for Leonard Rossiter’s tragicomic title character, Doc Morrissey is a dirty old man who is always trying to palpate Sunshine Desserts’ female employees, reads adult magazines under the desk and has failed to master even the most basic medical examination methods.


Whenever Reggie arrives for a consultation, he fails to give a diagnosis, generally claiming that he suffers from it as well and wonders what it is, before giving his usual prescription of “two aspirin”. In series three he gets struck off the medical register for gross professional misconduct after failing to diagnose a case of Pink Baboon Fever.


Horsley enjoyed playing the role and observed that Doc Morrissey was popular with real-life doctors, with whom the Doc’s constant anxiety about his own health seems to have struck a chord: “I remember going to my doctor when the original series was on and as soon as I walked through the door, he smiled and said to me, 'I can’t help thinking of Doc Morrissey whenever I see you, and wonder why you’re coming to me for advice’.”

Doctor's advice - The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin - BBC - YouTube

Along with CJ’s (John Barron’s) famous catchphrase “I didn’t get where I am today ... ” and Reggie’s vision of a hippopotamus whenever his mother-in-law was mentioned, “take two aspirins” was to become one of the series' most popular refrains.

John Horsley was born at Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, on July 21 1920 and brought up in London, where he attended St Paul’s School. His mother was a singer with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, but John possibly learned some of the avuncular tricks of the medical profession from his father, himself a family doctor



By his own admission he was no scholar, and what success he did have at school was on the stage, so he decided to try to earn a living as an actor. After making his debut at the Theatre Royal in Bournemouth in 1938, he toured in repertory productions before being called up for military service in the Royal Devon Yeomanry during the Second World War. He served in Sicily and Italy, but after contracting hepatitis he joined an Army theatre troupe which entertained military units.

After the war he won small parts in a series of movies, including numerous war films such as Above Us the Waves (1955), Dunkirk (1958) and Sink the Bismarck! (1960). A role in the more enduringly successful Ben Hur (1959) was sadly uncredited.

Horsley maintained an active stage career, often portraying authority figures such as doctors, vicars or policemen. It was for his television work, however, that he became best known.

He appeared in all three series of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin in the 1970s and reprised his role in The Legacy of Reginald Perrin (1996), a rather less successful series made after Leonard Rossiter’s death, in which both Doc Morrissey and CJ attempt to obey Reggie’s posthumous instructions to do something absurd to earn their inheritance by chasing the comely executing solicitor (Patricia Hodge).

Horsley appeared in numerous comedy and adventure series, including The Avengers, The Champions, The Professionals, Hi-De-Hi!, Terry and June and Rumpole of the Bailey. He was also cast in the role of Sir Ralph Shawcross in the BBC sitcom You Rang, M’Lord? (1990–93) and as the Bishop of Tatchester in the BBC adaptation of John Masefield’s The Box of Delights (1984). His final television role was as a butler in Rebecca (1997).

John Horsley was married to the actress June Marshall, who predeceased him. They had two daughters.


John Horsley, born July 21 1920, died January 12 2014

[harrybarracuda]

Ann Carter, who was a tiny Veronica Lake lookalike, with similarly flowing blonde hair, when she appeared in two prominent supernatural-themed films of the 1940s, “Cat People” sequel “Curse of the Cat People” and Lake starrer “I Married a Witch,” before polio ended her career, died Jan. 27 in North Bend, Wash., after long bout with ovarian cancer. She was 77.

Carter made 18 films, beginning with a trio of roles, the first two uncredited, in 1941 and 1942: “Last of the Duanes”; “I Married a Witch,” the delightful comedic fantasy in which she briefly played the daughter of Lake and Fredric March; and Norway-set WWII pic “Commandos Strike at Dawn,” starring Paul Muni, for which she was appropriately Nordic-looking.

The 1944 Val Lewton horror film “Curse of the Cat People” was essentially focused on Carter’s character, and she had a substantial role as a child who befriends the dead first wife of her father.

She also appeared in the 1947 thriller “The Two Mrs. Carrolls,” starring Humphrey Bogart as a homicidal painter and Barbara Stanwyck and Alexis Smith as his two wives; in 1948 parable “The Boy With the Green Hair,” with Dean Stockwell; and in 1949 Bing Crosby vehicle “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.”

Carter contracted polio in 1948; her last onscreen appearance was uncredited role in 1952 Carson McCullers adaptation “The Member of the Wedding.”

Survivors include her husband of 56 years, Stephen; three children; and three grandchildren.

[harrybarracuda]

09 FEBRUARY 2014

Former Glamorgan cricketer Bernard Hedges has died aged 86, the club has announced.



The top-order batsman had an 18-year career in first-class cricket, during which time he amassed 17,733 runs in 422 appearances for the Welsh county, and struck 21 centuries.

He also wrote his name into the club's record books in 1963 by scoring the county's first-ever century in a one-day game with an unbeaten 103, plus taking two wickets and two catches against Somerset in their Gillette Cup match at Cardiff Arms Park.

During his outstanding career between 1950 and 1967, the right hander's first-class century total was bettered by only 11 other batsmen for the club.

He had a Championship best score of 141 against Kent at Swansea in 1961, as well as 144 against Pakistan in 1962 at the Arms Park.

He remains seventh on the club's all-time top run scorers list and he passed 1,000 runs every season between 1956 and 1963.

In 1967 - his final summer of county cricket - Hedges made a career-best 182 against Oxford University at The Parks.

Born in Pontypridd in November 1927, he joined the Glamorgan staff in 1950 after completing his National Service.

Hedges played initially in Glamorgan's middle-order, before moving up to open the batting in the late 1950s.

His first wicket stand of 181 with Gilbert Parkhouse in 1958 at the Arms Park still remains a record for that wicket against Middlesex.

He subsequently formed an outstanding partnership with left-hander Alan Jones, with his sound technique, wide array of strokes and steadfast temperament all allowing Hedges to become a heavy run scorer in Championship cricket.

His quick eye and nimble footwork also meant that Hedges was among the county's best players of spin bowling.

Many people regard his finest innings to have been the 139 he made against Nottinghamshire on a turning wicket at Stradey Park, Llanelli, in 1957 when he deftly mastered the wiles of Australian leg-spinner Bruce Dooland.

In his youth, Hedges had also been a gifted rugby player with Pontypridd RFC, with whom he played while still at school, and also for Swansea RFC.

His agility and nimbleness also made him an outstanding fielder and during his county career he took 200 catches for Glamorgan.

Hugh Morris, Glamorgan's chief executive and director of cricket, sent his condolences to Hedges' family on behalf of the club.

"Bernard will be remembered as one of Glamorgan's most outstanding batsmen and a most popular figure in the team during the 1950s and 1960s," he said.

"He will be sadly missed and our thoughts go out to his family."

[harrybarracuda]

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Gabriel Axel, director of the film "Babette's Feast" which made him the first Dane to win an Oscar for best foreign film, has died. He was 95.

His daughter, Karin Moerch, said in a statement that he died on Sunday. She did not say where he died or the cause of death.

Axel divided his time between France and Denmark, where he directed television series and movies. He also acted in several films.

Axel had his big international breakthrough in 1987 with "Babette's Feast," based on the novel of the same name by Danish author Karen Blixen. It starred French actress Stephane Audran.

Axel's wife of nearly 50 years, Lucie Axel Moerch, died in 1996. He is survived by their four children and eight grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements were not announced.

[Smug Farang Bore]

That ll be Shirley temple out at 85..,

[harrybarracuda]

Damn it, those Oscar video editors say!






WOODSIDE, Calif. (AP) -- Shirley Temple, the dimpled, curly-haired child star who sang, danced, sobbed and grinned her way into the hearts of Depression-era moviegoers, has died, according to publicist Cheryl Kagan. She was 85.

Temple, known in private life as Shirley Temple Black, died at her home near San Francisco.

A talented and ultra-adorable entertainer, Shirley Temple was America's top box-office draw from 1935 to 1938, a record no other child star has come near. She beat out such grown-ups as Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Robert Taylor, Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford.

In 1999, the American Film Institute ranking of the top 50 screen legends ranked Temple at No. 18 among the 25 actresses. She appeared in scores of movies and kept children singing "On the Good Ship Lollipop" for generations.

Temple was credited with helping save 20th Century Fox from bankruptcy with films such as "Curly Top" and "The Littlest Rebel." She even had a drink named after her, an appropriately sweet and innocent cocktail of ginger ale and grenadine, topped with a maraschino cherry.

Temple blossomed into a pretty young woman, but audiences lost interest, and she retired from films at 21. She raised a family and later became active in politics and held several diplomatic posts in Republican administrations, including ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the historic collapse of communism in 1989.

"I have one piece of advice for those of you who want to receive the lifetime achievement award. Start early," she quipped in 2006 as she was honored by the Screen Actors Guild.

But she also said that evening that her greatest roles were as wife, mother and grandmother. "There's nothing like real love. Nothing." Her husband of more than 50 years, Charles Black, had died just a few months earlier.

They lived for many years in the San Francisco suburb of Woodside.

Temple's expert singing and tap dancing in the 1934 feature "Stand Up and Cheer!" first gained her wide notice. The number she performed with future Oscar winner James Dunn, "Baby Take a Bow," became the title of one of her first starring features later that year.

Also in 1934, she starred in "Little Miss Marker," a comedy-drama based on a story by Damon Runyon that showcased her acting talent. In "Bright Eyes," Temple introduced "On the Good Ship Lollipop" and did battle with a charmingly bratty Jane Withers, launching Withers as a major child star, too.

She was "just absolutely marvelous, greatest in the world," director Allan Dwan told filmmaker-author Peter Bogdanovich in his book "Who the Devil Made It: Conversations With Legendary Film Directors." "With Shirley, you'd just tell her once and she'd remember the rest of her life," said Dwan, who directed "Heidi" and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm." "Whatever it was she was supposed to do - she'd do it. ... And if one of the actors got stuck, she'd tell him what his line was - she knew it better than he did."

Temple's mother, Gertrude, worked to keep her daughter from being spoiled by fame and was a constant presence during filming. Her daughter said years later that her mother had been furious when a director once sent her off on an errand and then got the child to cry for a scene by frightening her. "She never again left me alone on a set," she said.

Temple became a nationwide sensation. Mothers dressed their little girls like her, and a line of dolls was launched that are now highly sought-after collectables. Her immense popularity prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to say that "as long as our country has Shirley Temple, we will be all right."

"When the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time during this Depression, it is a splendid thing that for just 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles," Roosevelt said.

She followed up in the next few years with a string of hit films, most with sentimental themes and musical subplots. She often played an orphan, as in "Curly Top," where she introduced the hit "Animal Crackers in My Soup," and "Stowaway," in which she was befriended by Robert Young, later of "Father Knows Best" fame.

She teamed with the great black dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in two 1935 films with Civil War themes, "The Little Colonel" and "The Littlest Rebel." Their tap dance up the steps in "The Little Colonel" (at a time when interracial teamings were unheard-of in Hollywood) became a landmark in the history of film dance.

Some of her pictures were remakes of silent films, such as "Captain January," in which she recreated the role originally played by the silent star Baby Peggy Montgomery in 1924. "Poor Little Rich Girl" and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," done a generation earlier by Mary Pickford, were heavily rewritten for Temple, with show biz added to the plots to give her opportunities to sing.

In its review of "Rebecca," the show business publication Variety complained that a "more fitting title would be `Rebecca of Radio City.'"

She won a special Academy Award in early 1935 for her "outstanding contribution to screen entertainment" in the previous year.

"She is a legacy of a different time in motion pictures. She caught the imagination of the entire country in a way that no one had before," actor Martin Landau said when the two were honored at the Academy Awards in 1998.

Temple's fans agreed. Her fans seemed interested in every last golden curl on her head: It was once guessed that she had more than 50. Her mother was said to have done her hair in pin curls for each movie, with every hairstyle having exactly 56 curls.

On her eighth birthday - she actually was turning 9, but the studio wanted her to be younger - Temple received more than 135,000 presents from around the world, according to "The Films of Shirley Temple," a 1978 book by Robert Windeler. The gifts included a baby kangaroo from Australia and a prize Jersey calf from schoolchildren in Oregon.

"She's indelible in the history of America because she appeared at a time of great social need, and people took her to their hearts," the late Roddy McDowall, a fellow child star and friend, once said.

Although by the early 1960s, she was retired from the entertainment industry, her interest in politics soon brought her back into the spotlight.

She made an unsuccessful bid as a Republican candidate for Congress in 1967. After Richard Nixon became president in 1969, he appointed her as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations General Assembly. In the 1970s, she was U.S. ambassador to Ghana and later U.S. chief of protocol.

She then served as ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the administration of the first President Bush. A few months after she arrived in Prague in mid-1989, communist rule was overthrown in Czechoslovakia as the Iron Curtain collapsed across Eastern Europe.

"My main job (initially) was human rights, trying to keep people like future President Vaclav Havel out of jail," she said in a 1999 Associated Press interview. Within months, she was accompanying Havel, the former dissident playwright, when he came to Washington as his country's new president.

She considered her background in entertainment an asset to her political career.

"Politicians are actors too, don't you think?" she once said. "Usually if you like people and you're outgoing, not a shy little thing, you can do pretty well in politics."

Born in Santa Monica to an accountant and his wife, Temple was little more than 3 years old when she made her film debut in 1932 in the Baby Burlesks, a series of short films in which tiny performers parodied grown-up movies, sometimes with risque results.

Among the shorts were "War Babies," a parody of "What Price Glory," and "Polly Tix in Washington," with Shirley in the title role.

Her young life was free of the scandals that plagued so many other child stars - parental feuds, drug and alcohol addiction - but Temple at times hinted at a childhood she may have missed out on.

She stopped believing in Santa Claus at age 6, she once said, when "Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph."

After her years at the top, maintaining that level of stardom proved difficult for her and her producers. The proposal to have her play Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" didn't pan out. (20th Century Fox chief Darryl Zanuck refused to lend out his greatest asset.) And "The Little Princess" in 1939 and "The Blue Bird" in 1940 didn't draw big crowds, prompting Fox to let Temple go.

Among her later films were "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer," with Cary Grant, and "That Hagen Girl," with Ronald Reagan. Several, including the wartime drama "Since You Went Away," were produced by David O. Selznick. One, "Fort Apache," was directed by John Ford, who had also directed her "Wee Willie Winkie" years earlier.

Her 1942 film, "Miss Annie Rooney," included her first on-screen kiss, bestowed by another maturing child star, Dickie Moore.

After her film career effectively ended, she concentrated on raising her family and turned to television to host and act in 16 specials called "Shirley Temple's Storybook" on ABC. In 1960, she joined NBC and aired "The Shirley Temple Show."

Her 1988 autobiography, "Child Star," became a best-seller.

Temple had married Army Air Corps private John Agar, the brother of a classmate at Westlake, her exclusive L.A. girls' school, in 1945. He took up acting and the pair appeared together in two films, "Fort Apache" and "Adventure in Baltimore." She and Agar had a daughter, Susan, in 1948, but she filed for divorce the following year.

She married Black in 1950, and they had two more children, Lori and Charles. That marriage lasted until his death in 2005 at age 86.

In 1972, she underwent successful surgery for breast cancer. She issued a statement urging other women to get checked by their doctors and vowed, "I have much more to accomplish before I am through."

During a 1996 interview, she said she loved both politics and show business.

"It's certainly two different career tracks," she said, "both completely different but both very rewarding, personally."

[harrybarracuda]

Sid Caesar, the TV comedy pioneer whose rubber-faced expressions and mimicry built on the work of his dazzling team of writers that included Woody Allen and Mel Brooks, died Wednesday. He was 91.

Family spokesman Eddy Friedfeld said Caesar, who also played Coach Calhoun in the 1978 movie "Grease," died at his home in the Los Angeles area after a brief illness.

"He had not been well for a while. He was getting weak," said Friedfeld, who lives in New York and last spoke to Caesar about 10 days ago.

Friedfeld, a friend of Caesar's who wrote the 2003 biography "Caesar's Hour," learned of his death in an early morning call from Caesar's daughter, Karen.

In his two most important shows, "Your Show of Shows," 1950-54, and "Caesar's Hour," 1954-57, Caesar displayed remarkable skill in pantomime, satire, mimicry, dialect and sketch comedy. And he gathered a stable of young writers who went on to worldwide fame in their own right — including Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart ("M-A-S-H'), and Allen.

"He was one of the truly great comedians of my time and one of the finest privileges I've had in my entire career was that I was able to work for him," Allen said in a statement.

Reiner, who was a writer-performer on the breakthrough "Your Show of Shows" sketch program, said he had an ability to "connect with an audience and make them roar with laughter."

"Sid Caesar set the template for everybody," Reiner told KNX-AM in Los Angeles. "He was without a doubt, inarguably, the greatest sketch comedian-monologist that television ever produced. He could adlib. He could do anything that was necessary to make an audience laugh."

The Friars Club called Caesar the "patron saint" of sketch comedy.

"The one great star that television created and who created television was Sid Caesar," said now-deceased critic Joel Siegel on the TV documentary "Hail Sid Caesar! The Golden Age Of Comedy," which first aired in 2001.

Friedfeld said Caesar always shared the acclaim.

"Sid was an innovator, he and his team. He was very careful about never taking credit alone. He believed in his co-stars and his writers," he said. "They created the amazing vehicles for him to be creative."

While best known for his TV shows, which have been revived on DVD in recent years, he also had success on Broadway and occasional film appearances, notably in "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World."

If the typical funnyman was tubby or short and scrawny, Caesar was tall and powerful, with a clown's loose limbs and rubbery face, and a trademark mole on his left cheek.

But Caesar never went in for clowning or jokes. He wasn't interested. He insisted that the laughs come from the everyday.

"Real life is the true comedy," he said in a 2001 interview with The Associated Press. "Then everybody knows what you're talking about." Caesar brought observational comedy to TV before the term, or such latter-day practitioners as Jerry Seinfeld, were even born.

In one celebrated routine, Caesar impersonated a gumball machine; in another, a baby; in another, a ludicrously overemotional guest on a parody of "This Is Your Life."

He played an unsuspecting moviegoer getting caught between feuding lovers in a theater. He dined at a health food restaurant, where the first course was the bouquet in the vase on the table. He was interviewed as an avant-garde jazz musician who seemed happily high on something.

The son of Jewish immigrants, Caesar was a wizard at spouting melting-pot gibberish that parodied German, Russian, French and other languages. His Professor was the epitome of goofy Germanic scholarship.

Some compared him to Charlie Chaplin for his success at combining humor with touches of pathos.

"As wild an idea as you get, it won't go over unless it has a believable basis to start off with," he told The Associated Press in 1955. "The viewers have to see you basically as a person first, and after that you can go on into left field."

Caesar performed with such talents as Howard Morris and Nanette Fabray, but his most celebrated collaborator was the brilliant Imogene Coca, his "Your Show of Shows" co-star.

Coca and Caesar performed skits that satirized the everyday — marital spats, inane advertising, strangers meeting and speaking in clichés, a parody of the Western "Shane" in which the hero was "Strange." They staged a water-logged spoof of the love scene in "From Here to Eternity." ''The Hickenloopers" husband-and-wife skits became a staple.

"The chemistry was perfect, that's all," Coca, who died in 2001, once said. "We never went out together; we never see each other socially. But for years we worked together from 10 in the morning to 6 or 7 at night every day of the week. What made it work is that we found the same things funny."

Caesar worked closely with his writing staff as they found inspiration in silent movies, foreign films and the absurdities of '50s postwar prosperity.

Others who wrote for Caesar: Larry Gelbart, Simon and his brother Danny Simon, and Allen, who was providing gags to Caesar and other entertainers while still in his teens.

Carl Reiner, who wrote in addition to performing on the show, based his "Dick Van Dyke Show" — with its fictional TV writers and their temperamental star — on his experiences there. Simon's 1993 "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" and the 1982 movie "My Favorite Year" also were based on the Caesar show.

A 1996 roundtable discussion among Caesar and his writers was turned into a public television special. Said Simon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright: "None of us who've gone on to do other things could have done them without going through this show."

"This was playing for the Yankees; this was playing in Duke Ellington's band," said Gelbart, the creator of TV's "M-A-S-H" and screenwriter of "Tootsie," who died in 2009.

Increasing ratings competition from Lawrence Welk's variety show put "Caesar's Hour" off the air in 1957.

In 1962, Caesar starred on Broadway in the musical "Little Me," written by Simon, and was nominated for a Tony. He played seven different roles, from a comically perfect young man to a tyrannical movie director to a prince of an impoverished European kingdom.

"The fact that, night after night, they are also excruciatingly funny is a tribute to the astonishing talents of their portrayer," Newsweek magazine wrote. "In comedy, Caesar is still the best there is."

His and Coca's classic TV work captured a new audience with the 1973 theatrical compilation film "Ten From Your Show of Shows."

He was one of the galaxy of stars who raced to find buried treasure in the 1963 comic epic "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World," and in 1976 he put his pantomime skills to work in Brooks' "Silent Movie."

But he later looked back on those years as painful ones. He said he beat a severe, decades-long barbiturate and alcohol habit in 1978, when he was so low he considered suicide. "I had to come to terms with myself. 'Yes or no? Do you want to live or die?'" Deciding that he wanted to live, he recalled, was "the first step on a long journey."

Caesar was born in 1922 in Yonkers, N.Y., the third son of an Austrian-born restaurant owner and his Russian-born wife. His first dream was to become a musician, and he played saxophone in bands in his teens.

But as a youngster waiting tables at his father's luncheonette, he liked to observe as well as serve the diverse clientele, and recognize the humor happening before his eyes.

His talent for comedy was discovered when he was serving in the Coast Guard during World War II and got a part in a Coast Guard musical, "Tars and Spars." He also appeared in the movie version. Wrote famed columnist Hedda Hopper: "I hear the picture's good, with Sid Caesar a four-way threat. He writes, sings, dances and makes with the comedy."

That led to a few other film roles, nightclub engagements, and then his breakthrough hit, a 1948 Broadway revue called "Make Mine Manhattan."

His first TV comedy-variety show, "The Admiral Broadway Revue," premiered in February 1949. But it was off the air by June. Its fatal shortcoming: unimagined popularity. It was selling more Admiral television sets than the company could make, and Admiral, its exclusive sponsor, pulled out.

But everyone was ready for Caesar's subsequent efforts. "Your Show of Shows," which debuted in February 1950, and "Caesar's Hour" three years later reached as many as 60 million viewers weekly and earned its star $1 million annually at a time when $5, he later noted, bought a steak dinner for two.

When "Caesar's Hour" left the air in 1957, Caesar was only 34. But the unforgiving cycle of weekly television had taken a toll: His reliance on booze and pills for sleep every night so he could wake up and create more comedy.

It took decades for him to hit bottom. In 1977, he was onstage in Regina, Canada, doing Simon's "The Last of the Red Hot Lovers" when, suddenly, his mind went blank. He walked off stage, checked into a hospital and went cold turkey. Recovery had begun, with the help of wife Florence Caesar, who would be by his side for more than 60 years and helped him weather his demons.

Those demons included remorse about the flared-out superstardom of his youth — and how the pressures nearly killed him. But over time he learned to view his life philosophically.

"You think just because something good happens, THEN something bad has got to happen? Not necessarily," he said with a smile in 2003, pleased to share his hard-won wisdom: "Two good things have happened in a row."

Copyright Associated Press

[harrybarracuda]

God bless you Richard, I won a fucking packet on that game.

Danish coach Richard Moller Nielsen dies aged 76
Thursday 13 February 2014



Denmark's 1992 European Championship-winning coach Richard Moller Nielsen has died at the age of 76, the Danish Football Association has announced.

Moller Nielsen was admitted to hospital in Odense last June after becoming ill and, although he was initially discharged after a few days, later scans determined he required an operation on a brain tumour.

He underwent surgery the following month, but struggled to regain full health.

After spending much of last summer bedridden at his home in Kerteminde, he was re-admitted to hospital. Shortly before Christmas he was transferred to the Fyn Hospice, where he died early on Thursday morning.

Former Manchester United and Denmark goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, a European champion 26 years ago under Moller Nielsen, led the tributes.

He posted on Twitter: "Richard Moller Nielsen, an inspiration, my teacher and my friend. R.I.P my friend."

Moller Nielsen coached numerous Danish clubs after ending his seven-year playing career with hometown club Odense.

After then serving his international apprenticeship as Under-21 coach and first-team assistant coach, he took over the senior Denmark hotseat for what turned out to be a six-year stint in 1990.

The undoubted highlight arrived in Sweden in 1992, when Denmark - a late replacement in the competition for the former Yugoslavia - were crowned champions thanks to a 2-0 victory in the final over favourites Germany.

He went on to also take charge of the Finland and Israel national teams before retiring after a short spell with Kolding FC in 2003.

Moller Nielsen is survived by his wife Jonna, children Birgitte, Christian and Tommy and six grandchildren.

His family expressed their gratitude on DBU for all the messages of support received throughout Moller Nielsen's illness.

[harrybarracuda]

"G'Night John Boy".
"G'Night Pop"



Ralph Waite, who played the kind-and-steady patriarch of a tight-knit rural Southern family on the TV series "The Waltons," died Thursday, his manager said. He was 85.

Waite, who lived in the Palm Springs area, died at midday, manager Alan Mills said. Mills, who did not know the cause of death, said he was taken aback because Waite had been in good health and still working.

Waite appeared last year in episodes of the series "NCIS," in which he played the dad of star Mark Harmon's character. He also appeared in "Bones" and "Days of Our Lives."

"The Waltons," which aired on CBS from 1972 to 1981, starred Waite as John Walton, and Richard Thomas played his oldest son, John-Boy, an aspiring novelist. The gentle family drama was set in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia.

His co-stars on Thursday praised both the actor and the man.

"I am devastated to announce the loss of my precious 'papa' Walton, Ralph Waite," said Mary McDonough, who played daughter Erin Walton. "I loved him so much; I know he was so special to all of us. He was like a real father to me. Goodnight Daddy. I love you."

Michael Learned, who played wife Olivia Walton, said she was "devastated" by the death of "a good honest actor and a good honest man."

"He was my spiritual husband," Learned said in a statement. "We loved each other for over forty years. He died a working actor at the top of his game. He was a loving mentor to many and a role model to an entire generation."

The show, which followed the Waltons' triumphs and setbacks through the Great Depression and World War II, was narrated by its rich-voiced creator, Earl Hamner Jr., who based it on his family memories.

It was a TV rarity, a respectful depiction of Southern country life, and proved so popular that it overpowered its hit comedy competition, NBC's "The Flip Wilson Show."

Waite, a native of White Plains, N.Y., served in the U.S. Marines before earning a bachelor's degree from Bucknell University and a master's degree from Yale University Divinity School, according to a 2010 profile by The Desert Sun.

He became an ordained Presbyterian minister and then worked at a publishing house, the paper said, before falling under the spell of acting. Waite appeared on the stage before moving onto the big screen with roles in 1967's "Cool Hand Luke" and 1970's "Five Easy Pieces," in which he played the brother of Jack Nicholson's character.

Waite received an Emmy nomination for "The Waltons" and another for his performance in the ABC miniseries "Roots."

Waite's role as a steady TV dad in the CBS drama was in contrast to his personal life that was undercut by alcoholism, Waite told The Desert Sun.

"I was a caring, responsible father to all of these kids. But I was drinking the night before and being a drunk on the side," he said, adding, "I found a way to get sober."

In 1990, Waite ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic challenger to a four-term Republican incumbent for the congressional district that included Riverside, Palm Springs and Palm Desert, where Waite lived.

In 1998, he vied for the congressional seat left open after Republican Sony Bono, another performer who turned to politics, died in a skiing accident. Bono's widow, Mary, won the special election.

[AsGoodAsItGets]

Seem to be dropping at speed lately.

[Eliminator]

FOOK man, we're all getting OLDER and they were OLD when we THOUGHT we were young. 555

[harrybarracuda]

Actor Ken Jones has died aged 83.

Jones was best known for his role as "Horrible" Bernard Ives in comedy Porridge and acted alongside Ronnie Barker and the late Richard Beckinsale.

The Liverpool-born star died from from bowel cancer.

Jones, who spent his later life in Llanrhystud, west Wales, died at a nursing home in Prescott, Merseyside, on Thursday.

He appeared in the BBC series Porridge, which were made between 1974 and 1975, and the 1979 spin-off film.

Jones made a last appearance as Ives in a spoof documentary about the life of Ronnie Barker's character, Fletch.

Jones' last TV appearance was two years ago in the long-running daytime TV drama Doctors.

The actor also appeared in The Liver Birds, Casualty, Peak Practice and more recently The 4400.

Family friend Malcolm Frood, 71, from Liverpool told the BBC: "I have known him all my life.

"He was one of the great friends of the family that we have ever known."

[Mr Lick]

Former Preston and England winger Sir Tom Finney has died at the age of 91.

Finney made more than 400 league appearances for Preston North End between 1946 and 1960 and won 76 caps for England

He scored 30 goals for England, placing him joint sixth on the all-time list with Alan Shearer and Nat Lofthouse.

A Preston statement said: "Sir Tom was the greatest player to ever play for Preston North End and one of the all time greats for England."

Preston are due to play Leyton Orient in League One on Saturday.

The statement added: "Preston North End have been informed of the extremely sad news of the passing of Sir Tom Finney.

"The thoughts of everyone at the club, and those connected with it, are with his family at this time."


Twitter reaction

• MOTD presenter Gary Lineker: "Sir Tom Finney has left us. One of the greatest players this country has ever seen, and a true gentleman"
• MOTD pundit and former Preston winger Kevin Kilbane: "I'm proud to say I grew up on the same street as Sir Tom Finney. Very sad to hear of his passing."
• Wolves: "Farewell to one of the game's greats. Rest in peace Sir Tom Finney. A true legend & former team mate and friend of our own Billy Wright."
• Chelsea: "Chelsea FC is saddened to hear of the passing of Sir Tom Finney, one of England's all-time greats. Condolences to his family and friends."
• West Ham: "Everyone at West Ham United has been deeply saddened by the passing of @pnefc and England great Sir Tom Finney."

The Football Association tweeted: "The FA is saddened to hear of the passing of Sir Tom Finney, one of England's all-time greatest players."

BBC chief football correspondent Mike Ingham told BBC Radio 5 live: "He was a slight figure but incredibly brave. Former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly considered him to be the greatest player to ever play the game.

"That's all you need to know."

Born in Preston, Finney was named footballer of the year in 1953-54 and 1956-57 and was twice a runner-up in the league with his local club, as well as playing in the 1954 FA Cup final defeat to West Brom.

In all he scored 187 league goals for North End and was also a qualified plumber in the family business.

He played at the 1954 and 1958 World Cup finals with England. Former England and Blackpool defender Jimmy Armfield calling him a "great footballer and a great man".

Speaking in 2012, England's record goalscorer Sir Bobby Charlton called Finney's contribution to football "immeasurable".

Charlton told BBC Sport: "I used to look at him and think, this is fantastic.

"Watching him, you knew full well that the full-backs had had it. He was just too good for them. Occasionally I had the pleasure to play with him and it was the greatest pleasure anyone could ever give me

"I have so many happy memories of watching him play. His contribution to football is immeasurable."

[piwanoi]

Thanks for the mention Mr Lick ,yeah Tommy was one of the true greats ,I used to go and watch him with my late Father at his Home games in Preston , I often wonder just how much a player like him would bring on the transfer market and what wages he would be on , IMHO the game is getting spoiled by huge wages and transfer fee's which the small clubs just cannot afford ,I suppose one might say "A sign of the Times" RIP Tommy and thanks for the memory's

[Looper]

In full flight on the shearing board, Steve Handley was a sight to behold.



And when he shore, Handley was only ever in full flight. As he pushed a newly-shorn sheep through the chute and into the counting-out pen, he would lurch speedily forward towards the catching pen for a woolly replacement.

Within seconds he would have the next sheep held firmly between his knees, and with his hand-piece moving at furious pace, in less than two minutes he would have another gleaming white merino added to his tally.

And so it would go in a frenetic, bustling, breathtaking manner, from the first sounding of the woolshed bell at 7:30am, marking the start of the shearers' day, to the final bell at 5:30pm.

"No-one's on par with him and he just keeps himself to a regime that I don't think that anyone could keep up with," his long-time friend Noel Dawson once observed.

"He works like a Trojan for eight hours a day."

By then Handley, who died suddenly last week, would usually have about 250, sometimes 300 shorn adult sheep to his name.

A top shearer can turn out a daily tally of 150. Some days Handley shore 400.

Steve Handley: final bell sounds for giant of the shearing world - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[peterpan]

One wonders, a powerful man in peak physical condition, what caused his depression? He would have no financial worries and I wouldn't think alcohol would be a down fall in such a strong minded in individual. any way Steve RIP you were a joy to watch in action.

[Troy]

^ The serious back injury that he sustained according to the report above. Nothing like losing the ability to do the things you love most to cause severe depression.
R.I.P. Steve...

[AsGoodAsItGets]

Actor Ralph Waite, Father On 'Waltons,' Dies At 85 : The Two-Way : NPR

Ralph Waite, the actor best known as the father on the hit television show The Waltons, died Thursday. He was 85. His manager, Alan Mills, .
The Waltons from 1972 until 1981.


It was about a family in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains in the Depression-era 1930s.


Waite also played John Walton Sr. in many Waltons TV movies. More recently, he had a recurring role on the CBS hit drama NCIS as Jackson Gibbs, the father of Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, played by Mark Harmon.


Waite didn't begin studying acting until he was 30 and made his
He also ran unsuccessfully for a congressional seat in 1990 and 1998.


-


He also served in the US Marines.




RIP.

[malcy]

Former Preston and England winger Sir Tom Finney has died at the age of 91.

Finney made more than 400 league appearances for Preston North End between 1946 and 1960 and won 76 caps for England

He scored 30 goals for England, placing him joint sixth on the all-time list with Alan Shearer and Nat Lofthouse.

A Preston statement said: "Sir Tom was the greatest player to ever play for Preston North End and one of the all time greats for England."

Preston are due to play Leyton Orient in League One on Saturday.

The statement added: "Preston North End have been informed of the extremely sad news of the passing of Sir Tom Finney.

"The thoughts of everyone at the club, and those connected with it, are with his family at this time."


Twitter reaction

• MOTD presenter Gary Lineker: "Sir Tom Finney has left us. One of the greatest players this country has ever seen, and a true gentleman"
• MOTD pundit and former Preston winger Kevin Kilbane: "I'm proud to say I grew up on the same street as Sir Tom Finney. Very sad to hear of his passing."
• Wolves: "Farewell to one of the game's greats. Rest in peace Sir Tom Finney. A true legend & former team mate and friend of our own Billy Wright."
• Chelsea: "Chelsea FC is saddened to hear of the passing of Sir Tom Finney, one of England's all-time greats. Condolences to his family and friends."
• West Ham: "Everyone at West Ham United has been deeply saddened by the passing of @pnefc and England great Sir Tom Finney."

The Football Association tweeted: "The FA is saddened to hear of the passing of Sir Tom Finney, one of England's all-time greatest players."

BBC chief football correspondent Mike Ingham told BBC Radio 5 live: "He was a slight figure but incredibly brave. Former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly considered him to be the greatest player to ever play the game.

"That's all you need to know."

Born in Preston, Finney was named footballer of the year in 1953-54 and 1956-57 and was twice a runner-up in the league with his local club, as well as playing in the 1954 FA Cup final defeat to West Brom.

In all he scored 187 league goals for North End and was also a qualified plumber in the family business.

He played at the 1954 and 1958 World Cup finals with England. Former England and Blackpool defender Jimmy Armfield calling him a "great footballer and a great man".

Speaking in 2012, England's record goalscorer Sir Bobby Charlton called Finney's contribution to football "immeasurable".

Charlton told BBC Sport: "I used to look at him and think, this is fantastic.

"Watching him, you knew full well that the full-backs had had it. He was just too good for them. Occasionally I had the pleasure to play with him and it was the greatest pleasure anyone could ever give me

"I have so many happy memories of watching him play. His contribution to football is immeasurable."

Just heard on the news that he was offered a move to Italy for £10,000 pounds transfer fee a record at the time and wages of £100 a week . At the time he was on £14 a week and Preston offered him an extra £6 making £20 a week which he accepted ,nice to know not everyone is driven by money .

[Mr Lick]

Sir Tom Finney's life in pictures



Born in Preston, Sir Tom Finney spent his entire career playing for Preston North End. He made his Football League debut aged 24 but still played 433 games and scored a staggering 187 goals for the club



He also scored 30 goals for England in 76 international games, including this strike against Italy in Turin in 1948



He was not just renowned for his sheer brilliance on the pitch; he was respected worldwide for his sportsmanship, and did not receive a single booking or sending-off throughout his career



Finney twice won the footballer of the year award, given annually by the Football Writers' Association - including this presentation in London in 1954



His loyalty to Preston meant the only domestic honour he won was a championship medal in the old Division Two in 1951



Finney had to settle for an FA Cup runners-up medal when Preston lost in the 1954 final to West Bromwich Albion. He also narrowly missed out on the old First Division title in the 1957-58 season when North End finished runners-up

[Mr Lick]

With his England team-mates (left to right): Finney, Maurice Setters and Bobby Charlton manhandling Billy Wright during a high-spirited training session for the England World Cup squad at Roehampton in 1958



Finney was once tempted to leave North End, when Italian club Palermo offered him £120 a week plus a villa and car to move there. He was on only £14 a week at the time but the Preston chairman refused to discuss it and Finney stayed with North End until he retired in 1960



Finney and his wife, Elsie, at Buckingham Palace as he receives his OBE on 24 October 1961. He was later knighted in 1998



Serving as club president for many years, he remained a staunch supporter of North End, celebrating their Division Two title win with manager David Moyes in 2000



As well as still being heavily involved with the football club, he continued with charity and community work. He is pictured here with promising junior footballers at Moor Park Football Festival



Sir Tom Finney spent his final years in a nursing home, but by the time he died at the age of 91 on 14 February 2014, he was England's oldest international footballer and - along with Roy Bentley - one of only two players remaining from the side which lost 1-0 to the United States at the 1950 World Cup

[CNF55]

One of the best football photos of all times - Tom Finney at Stamford Bridge - 'The Splash'

[misskit]

Sid Caesar, the TV comedy pioneer whose rubber-faced expressions and mimicry built on the work of his dazzling team of writers that included Woody Allen and Mel Brooks, died Wednesday. He was 91.

Goodbye Sid Caesar.

[Mr Lick]

^^ Good call CNF55. Such a famous pic it was on show at Sunderland's ground yesterday



The teams and fans pay their respects at the Sunderland v Southampton match, as the famous photograph, 'The Splash' is displayed on the big screen

[harrybarracuda]

Brave man...

Pete Camarata, Who Fought Fellow Teamsters for Reforms, Dies at 67



Pete Camarata, who took a beating for his defiance, is pictured in 1978 under a portrait of the Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa.

In 1976, Frank Fitzsimmons, president of the Teamsters, struck a defiant note in a speech at the union’s convention in Las Vegas. “To those who say it is time to reform this organization, and it’s time officers stopped selling out the members,” he said, “I say to them, ‘Go to hell.’ ”

The next day, Pete Camarata, a rank-and-file Teamster dedicated to reform, rose to say he opposed Mr. Fitzsimmons’s re-election as well as a pay raise for him. He said Mr. Fitzsimmons and his lieutenants had stifled democracy in the union and ignored workers’ concerns. He called for a rule that would automatically expel any Teamster officer who accepted a bribe from an employer.

Boos and catcalls drowned out his remarks.

Afterward, Mr. Camarata — who died last Sunday in Chicago at 67 — attended a cocktail party in the hotel ballroom, but felt unwelcome and excused himself. Several beefy sergeants-at-arms offered to escort him outside. (Mr. Camarata himself was a hefty man, at one point weighing 400 pounds.) Suddenly, one of them punched him. Others kicked him in the head with their pointed cowboy boots. His face was left purple and swollen, his right eye closed.

The police were sympathetic, until they conferred with Teamster officials. According to Lester Velie’s 1977 book about the Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa, “Desperate Bargain: Why Jimmy Hoffa Had to Die,” one officer then said, “Get out of town, buddy, and get out fast.”

Mr. Camarata left Las Vegas, but he did not abandon his fight to reform the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. In 1981, as head of a dissident group, he ran for president of the union, the first outsider to challenge its leadership. He lost badly.

The campaign was one of many fights his group, Teamsters for a Democratic Union, picked with a union that the federal government regarded as corrupt. Some were successful. In 1989, the Teamsters leadership accepted the group’s proposals for electoral reform. By agreeing to the direct election of international officers, the union avoided a federal trial on racketeering charges but was subjected to government supervision.

The dissident group grew to more than 8,000 members, and though it comprised just a tiny fraction of the union’s total membership of two million, it was a major force in the election of Ron Carey as a reform candidate for Teamsters president in 1991. Mr. Carey included group members in his leadership coalition. (He was later forced out by the federal government, accused of receiving illegal campaign contributions.)

Mr. Camarata retired from the work force in 1995 but continued to fight for union reforms until his death of renal cancer, his wife, Robin Potter, said.

His first marriage ended in divorce. Besides his wife, he is survived by a stepdaughter, Aimee Potter, and a stepson, Jackson Potter.

Peter Joseph Camarata was born in Detroit on Sept. 7, 1946. His father, Caspar, worked at the Packard Motor Car Company for 36 years, where he helped the United Automobile Workers organize. His mother, Mary, cooked in restaurants and at union meetings.

Pete attended Roman Catholic schools and sang in a choir. As a high school student he helped collect day-old bread for a shelter for the homeless. He enrolled at Wayne State University in Detroit and got a job on the loading dock of a trucking company to help with expenses. He ended up dropping out to work full time on the dock and began to think of himself more as a Teamster than as a worker. He became active in Local 299 — the local of both Mr. Hoffa and Mr. Fitzsimmons — and was elected steward.

He was a Hoffa ally. After Mr. Hoffa was released from prison in 1971 — pardoned by President Richard M. Nixon after serving time since 1967 on jury-tampering and fraud charges — Mr. Camarata worked unsuccessfully for his return to the union.

Mr. Fitzsimmons was acting president during Mr. Hoffa’s imprisonment and became president in 1971 when the pardon barred Mr. Hoffa from further union activity. Mr. Hoffa disappeared in Detroit in 1975 and was declared dead in 1982.

At Local 299, Mr. Camarata joined with other young leftist Teamsters to press for more local autonomy. They became affiliated with an organization on college campuses called International Socialists.

In 1976, to win a better contract in Detroit, Mr. Camarata helped lead a wildcat strike in which 300 Teamsters managed to cripple the city. “There wasn’t a truck that moved,” he said in “Detroit Lives,” a 1994 book compiled and edited by Robert H. Mast. “The union bureaucrats were against us, and we had to fight them, too.”

One result of the strike was his election as a delegate to the national convention in Las Vegas. After his open defiance there, he was expelled from the union twice but successfully fought to be reinstated both times. He told Mr. Mast that he had been threatened physically many times.

A flier, signed by a Local 299 member, alleged that the dissident group was financed by illegal drug trafficking. The group denied this. The flier also referred to Mr. Camarata’s weight, explaining his rise to leadership with the phrase “Fat floats.” (He eventually lost 200 pounds and was featured in weight-loss publications, his wife said.)

When Mr. Fitzsimmons consigned Mr. Camarata and other dissidents to hell in 1976, Mr. Camarata had a ready reply: “We’ll meet him wherever he wants.”