The RIP Famous Person Thread

[Mr Lick]

George Jacobs - obituary

George Jacobs was Frank Sinatra's valet who dished up spaghetti and starlets to the Rat Pack and Ol’ Blue Eyes’ mobster pals



George Jacobs in London with Frank Sinatra


George Jacobs, who has died aged 86, was Frank Sinatra’s valet; as an addendum to the Rat Pack for fifteen years, he danced with Marilyn Monroe, played golf with the Mafia and traded gossip with John F Kennedy, all the while serving up Italian delicacies and pneumatic women to satiate Ol’ Blue Eyes’ appetites.


Between 1953 and 1968 Jacobs tended to the whims and moods of “The Chairman”, as Sinatra was known in his inner circle (Jacobs himself referred to Sinatra simply as “Mr. S”). The singer was to be a generous, amusing but tempestuous employer.

Although “nasty and self pitying” when drunk (he once threw a plate of spaghetti marinara at Jacobs because he considered it too al dente) Sinatra took him around the world and treated him as a domestic confidant. “Mr S’s problem, if you could call it a problem, was that he was like a hyperkinetic kid,” stated Jacobs later in life. “Today they’d give him Ritalin.”




At sea with "Mr S"


George Emmanuel Jacobs was born on April 29 1927 in New Orleans, where his father ran a nightclub called the Joy Tavern on the edge of the city’s red light district. His mother was a cook for a rich white family, and his upbringing, he later recalled, was polarised between “living with these plantation aristocrats by day, visiting my daddy and his hepcat jazzmen at night”.

As a young man he joined the Navy and while on a tour of duty in Korea learned that his father had been shot dead outside his bar. Once demobbed Jacobs tried out his luck in Hollywood, landing bit parts in B-movies – he was cast as a restless native in the MGM Tarzan series (“We all had one line: 'Ungawa!’”).




His valet life began in 1950. While browsing a Beverly Hills record store he was approached by a “weird dwarfish man with huge eyeglasses”. The stranger was Swifty Lazar, super-agent to stars such as Humphrey Bogart and Gene Kelly. For the next three years Jacobs acted as Lazar’s “Man Friday”, ministering to his increasingly hyper-phobic impulses (Lazar would only walk on towels at home and had his shirts cleaned in London).

Jacobs met Sinatra in 1953 while looking after Lazar’s Rolls-Royce outside a Los Angeles party. When the singer arrived Jacobs asked him for a smoke. He didn’t have one but returned ten minutes later with a gold bowl brimming with cigarettes. “From that moment on I knew I liked the guy,” he recalled. Sinatra poached him from Lazaar later that year.

Jacobs’s arrival in Sinatra’s household coincided with the rebirth of the star’s career (that year he gave his Oscar-winning turn in From Here to Eternity). He was, however, also caught up in the tumult of his ailing marriage to Ava Gardner. “She could stop planes, not just traffic,” recalled Jacobs. “The first thing to hit me were those cats eyes of hers, green with flecks of gold and hypnotic as hell.” The pair were to become friends.

He was to attend to less attractive characters. In 1956 he cooked clams for mobsters at Sinatra’s Palm Springs home but, he claimed, heard little evidence of criminal activity: “The only talk I heard was about broads, boxing, and golf.” Jacobs remained pragmatic about serving the regular entourages of Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr and Peter Lawford while on the “Mob Circuit”. From the Sands Hotel in Vegas to the Copacabana in New York, during the late 1950s “the drill was the same, endless nights, oceans of booze, gorgeous girls, and, of course, the greatest music on earth.

Gangsters everywhere.”

Tending to Sinatra’s libido was a full-time job. “He always needed a girl, and she didn’t need to be famous,” stated Jacobs. The food chain of Sinatra’s conquests varied from his leading ladies to Vegas showgirls dispatched to his Sands suite as an “on-the-house nitecap”. For every starlet who succumbed to his advances there would be a headliner, such as Olivia de Havilland, who would dismiss him as childish. Jacobs’s role was less a pimp than a tour guide, helping each conquest home after a brief clinch.

In 1962 he accompanied Sinatra (on his personal plane, El Dago) across Europe and Asia. In Hong Kong, Jacobs fitted him out in orange blazers and snakeskin elevator shoes. “I dig these coolies, George,” Sinatra told him. “I may have to replace you.”

But travel was rare – Sinatra liked to remain at home in his Californian compound. And as the decade progressed Jacobs watched the singer go from one trauma to another: first the death of Marilyn Monroe, then the Kennedy assassination and finally the kidnap of his son, Frank Jnr.



With Mia Farrow

In the opening line of his memoir, Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra (2003) Jacobs wrote: “The only man in America who was less interested than me in sleeping with Mia Farrow was her husband and my boss, Frank Sinatra.” Jacobs’s fall from grace, therefore, was as ridiculous as it was swift. One summer evening in 1968 he was en route to meet Gardner for Sinatra when he called in at the Candy Store, a Beverly Hills disco. Mia Farrow, whom Sinatra was in the process of divorcing, came in shortly after. The pair danced. This brief, innocent encounter was talked up by the waspish gossip columnist Rona Barrett. Sinatra was enraged at the thought of his soon to be ex-wife “doing the watusi” with his black servant. Within 24 hours Jacobs was fired and locked out of Sinatra’s private Camelot.

While Jacobs had seen his boss banish plenty of hangers-on, his downfall was to end not only a friendship – of sorts – but also a lifestyle.

“Mr. S had turned my world upside down,” he said. “I had pretty awful withdrawal symptoms for about a year after getting the axe.” Jacobs went on to work for Steve McQueen and Bill Cosby before giving up service to take up a second career as a carpenter.

George Jacobs was married and divorced three times. His survivors include four sons and two daughters. Three further children predeceased him.


George Jacobs, born April 29 1927, died December 28 2013

[harrybarracuda]

Either Ed Harris is really, really, old, or Variety have made a boo boo.....

Actor Bob L. Harris, Son of Ed Harris, Dies at 91 | Variety

Bob L. Harris, an actor who appeared on stage and screen and was the son of actor Ed Harris, died Friday, February 14. He was 91.

Bob Harris appeared in a number of Ed Harris’ films, most recently “Pollock” in 2000 and “Appaloosa” in 2008. Others included “A Flash of Green,” which was presented on PBS’ “American Playhouse” in 1983; HBO telepic “The Last Innocent Man” in 1987; and TNT Western telepic “Riders of the Purple Sage” in 1996.

[Rainfall]

Ed is his son. Great resemblance.

[harrybarracuda]

Ah well, at least they spotted their mistake.

Actor Bob L. Harris, Father of Ed Harris, Dies at 91

[harrybarracuda]

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 .

I don't think it detracts from him at all, but the Palermo transfer was rejected by the Preston chairman. In those days, the clubs owned the players and there was no Bosman.

He probably welcomed the extra money, but I'm fairly certain he would have moved if given the choice (and rightly so).

[malcy]

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 .

I don't think it detracts from him at all, but the Palermo transfer was rejected by the Preston chairman. In those days, the clubs owned the players and there was no Bosman.

He probably welcomed the extra money, but I'm fairly certain he would have moved if given the choice (and rightly so).

Yes you are correct there Harry , they didn't say this on sky news but it was on the channel 4 news the following day I was going to amend my post but forgot . According to the news Preston said if he was not playing for them then he wouldn't play at all . But as you say I expect he welcomed the extra income seemed like a decent fella .

[harrybarracuda]

The Rocky Horror Show - Actor Christopher Malcolm Dies At 67
by WENN | 17 February 2014
The Rocky Horror Show star Christopher Malcolm has died at the age of 67.
Malcolm passed away on Saturday (15Feb14), but his cause of death has not been revealed.
His daughter, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, broke the news of his passing on Twitter.com, writing, "Today the world lost a beautiful, brilliant man. My dad Christopher Malcolm left peacefully and with dignity. He will always be my hero."
The Scottish actor was best known for his role as Brad Majors in the original U.K. stage production of The Rocky Horror Show in 1973.
Malcolm, who also worked as a Tv and film director and producer, went on to feature in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Labyrinth and Highlander.

[harrybarracuda]

Green Acres - Actress Mary Grace Canfield Dies At 89
by WENN | 18 February 2014
Green Acres star Mary Grace Canfield has passed away at the age of 89.
The veteran actress died on Saturday (15Feb14) in Santa Barbara, California following a battle with lung cancer.
She was best known for her recurring role as incompetent handywoman Ralph Monroe in the classic American sitcom, opposite Eva Gabor and Eddie Albert.
Canfield appeared in a number of notable Tv shows, including Bewitched, The Love Boat, General Hospital and The Andy Griffith Show.
She also had small roles in such films as Pollyanna, The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

[Latindancer]

Blimey ! She had a good innings.
I wonder if Mr Heaney is still around ? I recognized his voice a few years ago in a voiceover....it was unmistakeable.

[reddog]

Blimey ! She had a good innings.
I wonder if Mr Heaney is still around ? I recognized his voice a few years ago in a voiceover....it was unmistakeable.

he was a classic, always on the make.
also the shop keeper,forgot his name at the moment only died a few months ago.

[Latindancer]

Actually, I just realized it was Mr Haney....Pat Buttram Pat Buttram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You can see him on Youtube.

[Bazzy]

Devo's Bob Casale dead of heart failure, brother says



Bob Casale.
Los Angeles (CNN) -- Devo guitarist Bob Casale died Monday, his brother and band mate announced Tuesday. Casale was 61.

He was known by fans as "Bob 2" since he played alongside guitarist Bob Mothersbaugh, the brother of Devo co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh.

"As an original member of Devo, Bob Casale was there in the trenches with me from the beginning," his brother Gerald Casale said in a Facebook posting. "He was my level-headed brother, a solid performer and talented audio engineer, always giving more than he got."

The new-wave band began after Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh met as art students at Kent State University. The group wrote its first music in May 1970 -- the same month National Guard troops fired on antiwar protesters on the Kent State campus, killing four students.

Devo actively toured in recent years, including a televised performance playing at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.

"He was excited about the possibility of Mark Mothersbaugh allowing Devo to play shows again," Gerald Casale wrote in his brother's death announcement. "His sudden death from conditions that led to heart failure came as a total shock to us all."

Mark Mothersbaugh issued a statement Tuesday saying he was "shocked and saddened" by Casale's death.

"He not only was integral in Devo's sound, he worked over 20 years at Mutato, collaborating with me on 60 or 70 films and television shows, not to mention countless commercials and many video games," said Mothersbaugh. "Bob was instrumental in creating the sound of projects as varied as Rugrats and Wes Anderson's films. He was a great friend. I will miss him greatly."

Mutato is the name of the band's headquarters, a landmark on Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard.

The band's name was derived from the word "de-evolution" -- the idea that humans are regressing into a destructive herd mentality, Gerald Casale told CNN in an interview in February 2010.

"When you think about 1980, if somebody would have showed you in a crystal ball (for) 2010, you would have thought it was a bad joke," Casale said. "De-evolution happened and now everybody agrees. They don't think we're crazy. They know that it was true."

Devo drummer Alan Myers, who was with the group from 1976 to 1986, died last year.


CNN's Henry Hanks contributed to this report.

[harrybarracuda]

Blah Blah Bob Casale Blah Blah Blah Devo guitarist Blah 61 Blah Blah

[Mr Lick]

John Snell - obituary

John Snell was a heritage railway enthusiast who left BR to run small gauge steam lines such as the Talyllyn and RH&DR





John Snell, who has died aged 82, was a pioneer of railway preservation, firing the first train on the reborn Talyllyn Railway in 1951 and running the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch for 27 years. A mentor to many as vice-chairman of the Heritage Railway Association, he was also an accomplished railway photographer and author.

Snell’s passion for steam was born when, as a 15-year-old schoolboy, he visited the Talyllyn, a North Welsh narrow-gauge line that had been left out of the nationalised British Railways and was on its last legs.


After the death of its owner in 1950, the railway author LTC Rolt set out to rescue the Talyllyn as the world’s first volunteer-operated railway. Snell, waiting to go up to Oxford, wrote to Rolt offering his services.


Rolt recalled: “Though fresh from school and quite unskilled, in looks, manners and sheer height he seemed much older than his age. I could imagine no catastrophe of fire, flood or sudden death dire enough to make John show any excitement or quicken his normal pace… he was to prove a most valuable addition.”


On May 14 1951 Snell was on the footplate of locomotive No 2 Dolgoch, heading the preservationists’ first train from Towyn to Abergynolwyn. In 2011 Snell would board Dolgoch again on the 60th anniversary of the reopening


John Bernard Snell was born in Fiji in 1932, possibly on New Year’s Day. His parents were New Zealanders, and he was educated there until the end of the war. They then sent him to Bryanston, from where he went up to Oxford to read PPE at Balliol.

Snell had intended to qualify for the Bar, but after his experience at the Talyllyn he opted for a career in railways, first with London Transport and later with BR. While he did not remain a volunteer at the Talyllyn – though staying an active supporter – he catalogued the dereliction at the neighbouring Festiniog Railway before its reopening in 1954, and travelled across Europe taking photographs.

Branch line closures prompted an upsurge in the preservation movement, the Bluebell Railway in Sussex in 1960 being the first former BR line to reopen. As “a pioneer who knew first hand what it was like to run a fledgling enterprise with worn-out assets, practically no money and disinterest from senior railway figures”, Snell had a sharp intellect and wry humour that were appreciated by those just starting.

In 1969 he took the chair of the North Norfolk Railway, which sought to reopen a section of the former Midland & Great Northern (and would do so in 1974). Three years later he left BR to become managing director of the 15in-gauge Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway in Kent, staying there until his retirement in 1999.

The 13½-mile RH&DR had been launched in 1927 as “the world’s smallest public railway” by the millionaire racing driver Capt JEP Howey. It had survived the war – during which it operated an anti-aircraft train – but by the 1970s was very run down.

Snell oversaw the line’s revival, securing investment in infrastructure, locomotives and rolling stock and generating lasting public interest; today it carries 100,000 passengers a year, with a daily service for schoolchildren.

After his retirement, he took up the challenge of reconnecting the Tenterden-based Kent & East Sussex Railway with the main line at Robertsbridge, the line having been severed by a new stretch of the A21. Snell’s advice proved valuable to the separately-constituted Rother Valley Railway as it prepared to fill the 2½-mile gap; the first stretch was completed last year.

Snell was a director of the Dart Valley Railway from 1992 to 2008, an adviser to the Railway Heritage Trust and a founder of the Continental Railway Circle. His books include One Man’s Railway, the story of the RH&DR.

John Snell, who latterly lived at Dymchurch, Kent, was unmarried

[Mr Lick]

Ian McNaught-Davis - obituary

Ian McNaught-Davis was a mountaineer and BBC presenter whose greatest feat was explaining home computing in the 1980s


Ian McNaught-Davis climbing the Old Man of Hoy


Ian McNaught-Davis, who has died aged 84, was a BBC presenter with a passion for climbing and computers.

He first came to public prominence in 1967 as one of the climbers on the BBC’s ground-breaking live broadcast of the ascent of the Old Man of Hoy, a 450ft sea stack in the Orkneys. Later, in presenting the Computer Programme, he took on another uphill struggle: explaining the mysteries and wonders of home computers – long before they became ubiquitous – to a wide-eyed public.


Watched by an audience of 15 million, The Great Climb followed the crème de la crème of British climbers as they took on the awe-inspiring Old Man of Hoy. Chris Bonington, Tom Patey, Dougal Haston, Pete Crew, Joe Brown and McNaught-Davis tackled three routes up the exposed and treacherous granite cliffs, accompanied by a suitably dramatic commentary by Chris Brasher, the four-minute mile pacer.


It was a cliffhanger of an event: the rock was loose, howling gales raged, vomiting seagulls swooped and, to make it worse, the climbers had to contend with gigantic waves crashing up the Old Man’s sides. But these were as nothing to the demands of the BBC. A landmark in live broadcasting, the climb required a military-style operation to film. Sixteen tons of production equipment alone had to be ferried 450 miles from the Firth of Clyde in army landing craft and then hauled on sledges three miles along the cliff edge. Other leading climbers were hired as cameramen and to carry transmitters up the monolith. RNAS Lossiemouth was put on standby in the event of an accident although (except in the case of a fatality) the cameras were told to keep filming whatever happened.


McNaught-Davis was then a 37-year-old general manager of a computer company in London, but an established climber on the British scene. Just over a decade earlier, together with Joe Brown, John Hartog and Tom Patey, he made the first ascent of Muztagh Tower in the Karakorum mountain range bordering Pakistan and China — at 7,276m high it was believed to be unclimbable. It remained his greatest climbing achievement

On the Old Man of Hoy, he roped up with Joe Brown again and could be seen and heard inching his way upwards — and more significantly for his future BBC career — chatting away to audiences back home via radio mic.

“If you flash (fall) off, you hang in space and you last about two minutes before you pass out,” he explained after negotiating one particularly exposed corner. “I wasn’t really too enthusiastic about doing that.”

Years later, he expressed his amazement at the primitive equipment they used. “In 1967 we didn’t have proper sit harnesses. Today you have a sit harness so you can leap off into space as young tigers do frequently.”

In another scene he rejoiced in telling Brasher how Brown had been bitten by a fulmar and was having to endure the pungent ammonia smell of the frightened birds’ vomit every time he poked his head over a new ledge.

His bonhomie and natural storytelling ability led to other climbing broadcasts, on the Matterhorn and on the Eiffel Tower. But it was his passion for computers that led to more mainstream BBC work, co-presenting the Computer Programme with Chris Serle in the 1980s.

The idea behind the series was to introduce people to computers and show how they could be used in offices, homes and schools.

In one sequence McNaught-Davis headed to a Chinese restaurant to illustrate that one needed to speak to a computer in the same way one would to a waiter — in a language it can understand. Likening a Chinese menu to a computer’s incomprehensible code, he explained that once you broke either down, it was quite simple to give instructions. He then ordered baked prawns in chilli and the beef chow mein. “Very good,” he added.

The series was successful enough for a further two to be commissioned: Making the Most of the Micro (1983) and Micro Live (1984-87). However, before the home computing revolution, McNaught-Davis was sceptical of the wider appeal of these early computers. “I suspect that many people don’t do much with them,” he said at the time. “They try learning to program and are overwhelmed. Gradually the thrill wears off and they end up on a shelf.”

He was also a presenter on the Adventure Game, a sci-fi game show aimed at children but with an adult following.

Ian McNaught-Davis, known as Mac, was born in Wakefield on August 30 1929, the son of a First World War pilot. He won a scholarship to Rothwell Grammar School before taking up National Service with the RAF — but his poor eyesight kept him grounded. He studied Mathematics at Manchester University before going to work for BP in Africa. In 1971 he helped to set up ComShare, a computer services company specialising in financial software, and ran the European arm until he retired.

He then took up a number of posts in mountaineering’s governing bodies. He was president of the British Mountaineering Council (1991-94) and then president of the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation, the UIAA (from 1995 until 2004). This proved to be one of the most productive periods in the body’s history, seeing the introduction of the Tyrol Declaration, which sought to acknowledge the risks inherent in climbing and preserve the ethics and honour of participants.

A passionate climber all his life, McNaught-Davis still managed a technical rock climb in his 82nd year.

Ian McNaught-Davis married, first, Mary Alderman, with whom he had two sons. The marriage was dissolved. He married, secondly, in 1981, Loreta Herman. She survives him with his stepdaughter and his two sons from his first marriage. A daughter from his first marriage predeceased him.


Ian McNaught-Davis, born August 30 1929, died February 10 2014

[Mr Lick]

Stanley Peck - obituary

Stanley Peck was a Chief Constable of Staffordshire who developed the role of police dogs in detecting and fighting crime ,



Stanley Peck


Stanley Peck, the former Chief Constable of Staffordshire, who has died on his 98th birthday, was instrumental in developing the role of police dogs in crime detection and prevention.


In 1859 police officers in Luton had employed a bloodhound to help track down a murderer, but the systematic use of dogs by police forces in Britain did not really get going until after the Second World War. In the meantime the initiative had passed to Germany and Belgium, whose police forces first began to train and breed dogs for such purposes as crowd control and finding objects; dogs were also trained to perform military duties, as messengers, guards and sentries. The Germans selected the German Shepherd, also known as the Alsatian, as the breed best suited for the tasks they had in mind.


The success of German dogs during the Great War inspired a renewed interest in the potential of police dogs in Britain, and in the 1920s an experimental school was established to examine training and see which breeds had the most aptitude for police work. But the attitude tended to be that dogs were fine as long as they did not cost money or require special training.


In 1937 a Home Office committee recommended that Chief Constables should “consider” the value of dogs in police work, but it was left to the individual chief police officer to decide whether to employ dogs in his force. Two specially trained Labradors were officially introduced in the Metropolitan Police force in 1938, but most chief constables showed little interest, and the outbreak of war brought progress to a halt.


The use of police dogs revived only during the crime wave that swept through British cities after the end of the war; 1946 saw the formation of a small dog section within the Metropolitan Police, and by 1950 its total number of trained dogs had reached 90.

Across the country other forces, too, were beginning to develop their own dog sections. In 1954 a standing committee was formed to coordinate the breeding, supply and training of police dogs throughout Britain




In 1951 Peck, who had joined the police service before the war, was put in charge of a new division at Scotland Yard that oversaw the training of police dogs. He became a strong advocate of the use of dogs in the prevention and detection of crime, and throughout his career played a leading role in raising the profile of police dogs across the country.

When he moved to Staffordshire as Assistant Chief Constable in 1954, Peck started up a dog section in the county. During his time as Chief Constable, from 1960 to 1964, he launched a review of dog training throughout Britain, visiting all the main training schools and establishing the National Police Dog Trials — an annual event to provide a platform for officers and their dogs to demonstrate their skills and expertise, and to help raise standards through competition and sharing good practice. A trophy for best obedience work is named the Stanley Peck Trophy in his honour.

After he was appointed HM Inspector of Constabulary in 1964, Peck continued to attend the trials, and when he became a member of the British Rail Board Police Committee following his retirement, he did much to encourage the revival of a police dog section within the British Transport Police.

Stanley Edwards Peck was born on January 24 1916 in Shanghai, where his father was serving in the municipal police force. At the age of 11, Stanley was sent on the six-week boat journey back to England with his younger brother Barry to take up a place at Chigwell House prep school, later going on to Solihull School.

After School Certificate, Peck briefly studied dentistry at the University of Birmingham before he decided, in his own words, that he would be “more suited to pulling them in than pulling them out”. He signed up for the Metropolitan Police and was one of 197 trainees to be recruited to the Hendon Police College when it first opened in the pre-war years as an accelerated promotion college. Peck returned to police duties just before the outbreak of war, first as a sergeant and then as a junior station inspector in north London.




Stanley Peck (right) presenting the Stanley Peck Trophy for best obedience work at the National Police Dog Trials

In 1941 he joined the RAF and trained as a pilot in South Africa, before becoming a flying instructor. During the war years he trained more than 300 pilots.

After the war Peck returned to the Met, serving for a few years in the vice squad — breaking up gambling dens and raiding brothels in the West End — before becoming a subdivision inspector at Wimbledon in 1949 and moving to Scotland Yard two years later.


Throughout his life Peck was a keen sportsman, representing his school, university and Hendon Police College at rugby and swimming, and captaining police divisional teams in rugby and water polo. From 1969 to 1974 he was president of the UK Branch of the Royal Life Saving Society; his success in restructuring the society led to his appointment as CBE in 1974.

In 1939 Peck married Yvonne Jessop, who died in 1994. In 1996 he married Elizabeth Beddows, who survives him with the two sons and two daughters of his first marriage and a stepson and stepdaughter.


Stanley Peck, born January 24 1916, died January 24 2014

[harrybarracuda]

Valery Kubasov, a Soviet-era cosmonaut whose three space missions included the first joint flight between the United States and Russia, died Wednesday (Feb. 19). He was 79.

"Very sad to report that Valery Kubasov has passed away in Moscow," the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), a professional organization whose astronaut and cosmonaut members included Kubasov, wrote in a brief statement. "A true pioneer of spaceflight and international cooperation in space."

Selected in 1966 to train to be a cosmonaut together with other civilian engineers, Kubasov's highest-profile mission assignment was as one of the two Russian crewmembers for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). [Top 10 Soviet and Russian Space Missions]

Joined on the flight by Alexei Leonov, who 10 years earlier had been the first man to perform a spacewalk, Kubasov launched onboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on July 15, 1975, and two days later docked with an American Apollo command module, marking the first time that the two Cold War rivals worked together in space.

"The joint American-Soviet space mission was a perfect symbol of the historic changes in a world of deeply divided ideologies and nuclear threats," said journalist Tom Brokaw as part of a television special devoted to the space race that aired during NBC's coverage of the Olympic Games on Saturday (Feb. 15). "We went from pointing missiles at each other to exploring the heavens together — and the men who pulled it off, cosmonauts and astronauts, all had the right stuff."

Over the course of the two days that their spacecraft were linked in orbit, Kubasov and Leonov, together with NASA astronauts Deke Slayton, Tom Stafford and Vance Brand, carried out experiments and exchanged gifts. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project laid the foundation for future U.S. and Russian cooperation in space, leading to the International Space Station.

Kubasov's first space mission, the five-day Soyuz 6 flight in October 1969, was also intended to rendezvous with a spacecraft in orbit — in fact, two other Soviet capsules — but due to technical issues, the three vehicles never met up. Kubasov, flying with Georgy Shonin, did successfully become the first "space construction worker," however, by testing out welding methods in microgravity.

Kubasov commanded his third and final flight into space, the May 1980 Soyuz 36 mission to the USSR's Salyut 6 space station. Marking another international milestone as a part of the Interkosmos program, Kubasov's crewmate was Bertalan Farkas, the first Hungarian to fly into space. The eight-day flight swapped the spacecraft docked at the outpost, with Kubasov and Farkas returning home to Earth aboard Soyuz 35.

In total, Kubasov spent 18 days, 17 hours and 57 minutes in space over the course of his three missions.

Valery Nikolayevich Kubasov was born on Jan. 7, 1935 in Vyazniki, Russia. He graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1958 as an aerospace engineer and reported to work at the bureau led by Chief Designer Sergei Korolev, the Soviet Union's leading rocket engineer.

Initially focusing on ballistic studies, Kubasov worked on the design of the Voskhod capsule that his Apollo-Soyuz crewmate Leonov would later fly, before being recruited for the cosmonaut corps.

Prior to launching on Soyuz 6, Kubasov was first assigned to a proposed mission during which a crewmember was to spacewalk between spacecraft. The flight was canceled in the wake of the 1967 loss of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov aboard Soyuz 1 due a parachute failure.

Kubasov also almost launched aboard the ill-fated Soyuz 11 mission in 1971. If it were not for his falling ill, Kubasov, together with Leonov, would have been the prime, rather than backup crew for the 24-day flight to the world's first space station, Salyut 1. The cosmonauts who flew in their place died when their spacecraft depressurized during its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

Kubasov retired from Russia's cosmonaut corps on Nov. 3, 1993 and served as a deputy director for the aerospace corporation RSC Energia. He was decorated for his space achievements, including being named a Hero of the Soviet Union and being bestowed the Order of Lenin, the former Soviet Union's highest honor.

Valery Kubasov was married to Lyudmila Kurovskaya, with whom he had a daughter, Ekaterina, and son, Dmitry.

[Mr Lick]

Actor Malcolm Tierney dies aged 75



Malcolm Tierney appeared in police drama Dalziel and Pascoe in the late 1990s

Screen and stage actor Malcolm Tierney, who played roles in Braveheart and Lovejoy, has died at the age of 75.

Tierney, who performed a range of character roles on TV and film from the 1960s, played Tommy McArdle in soap opera Brookside from 1983-87.

He was also noted for his theatre work with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1970s.

In 2012, Tierney appeared as Sorin in Chekhov's The Seagull at London's Southwark Playhouse.

Writing on Twitter, the theatre praised him as "a magnificent actor" who was "so brilliant" in the production.

Tierney took a significant role in BBC show Lovejoy, playing the rogueish antique dealer's rival in three series of the light-hearted programme.

The Manchester-born actor also appeared in Doctor Who strand The Trial of a Time Lord in 1986, and had a role in the original Star Wars movie in 1977.

Cinema audiences will also recognise him from the Mel Gibson movie Braveheart, in which he played the villainous magistrate who executes William Wallace's wife before meeting a similar end at the hands of the Scottish rebel.

Other notable roles on the small screen included in A Bit of a Do, a serial based on books by Reggie Perrin creator David Nobbs, and the 1990 series of political thriller House of Cards.

Actors who worked with Tierney during his extensive career also paid tribute to him via social media.

Samuel West, who appeared in a radio dramatisation of Life and Fate with Tierney, called him "a wickedly good actor in every medium, and such a clever and funny man".

Only Fools and Horses actor John Challis - Boycie in the popular sitcom - remembered working with him on a TV play for Granada in Manchester called The John Hilarion Salt Exhibition.

Brookside actor Peter Doran said he "always had a wicked sense of humour in the green room".

[DrB0b]

Stanley Peck was a Chief Constable of Staffordshire who developed the role of police dogs in detecting and fighting crime

Ian McNaught-Davis was a mountaineer and BBC presenter whose greatest feat was explaining home computing in the 1980

John Snell was a heritage railway enthusiast

The RIP Famous Person Thread

That's a really, really elastic definition of Famous you got there, Mr Lick.

[Mr Lick]

Notables in their field may be a more accurate description possibly. I fear that many may have contributed toward society more than most on this forum and as such are deserving of a wee mention as they reach the end of their human life form.

Is it merely our own lack of knowledge of those who have provided services to the world's population such as a broadcaster, war hero, scientist, crime fighter and of course a pioneer and author of steam railway preservation that brings us to conclude 'WHO?'.

Certainly they may have achieved less fame than say Britney Spears, however their contribution should never be underestimated. I should mention that I enjoy reading some of their exploits as have also other members here.

[Latindancer]

Thanks for posting all these, Mr Lick. I agree. And their lives often make for much more interesting reading !

[DrB0b]

Certainly they may have achieved less fame than say Britney Spears, however their contribution should never be underestimated. I should mention that I enjoy reading some of their exploits as have also other members here.

As do I. Keep them coming, please.

[jamiejambos]

^
Very well put sir, much more deserving than say the '' Amy Winehouses '' of the world or those who press the self-destruct button. Totally agree Mr Lick.

[Mr Lick]

Alison Jolly - obituary

Alison Jolly was a primatologist who described the social life of the ring-tailed lemur with a storyteller’s flair





Alison Jolly, the primatologist, who has died aged 76, was an authority on the ring-tailed lemur, and the first to describe the unique social dynamics of Madagascar’s prosimian population at large, disproving the long-held scientific belief that the males are dominant in every primate species.

With an evolutionary history stretching back over 65 million years, the prosimians are the most primitive of all the primates. While other members of the family worldwide — such as bushbabies and tarsiers — were displaced by the arrival of the monkey and the ape, lemurs on the island of Madagascar enjoyed complete isolation from such threats, with the result that around 100 species and subspecies now occupy the same 227, 000 square miles.


It was in this remarkable part of the world, in 1962, that Alison Jolly — one of the first in her field to observe the primates in their natural habitat — began her research at the semi-arid southern reserve of Berenty. Combining a scientific eye for detail with a storyteller’s turn of phrase, she wrote vividly of the human and animal societies she found there.


There were the ring-tailed lemurs with their “racoonlike face masks” and tails like “swaying upraised question marks”; the Tandroy, a native tribespeople with names like He-Who-Cannot-Be-Thrown-to-Earth and The Never-Suckled; and the aristocratic de Heaulme family, French founders of the Berenty estate, who had first set aside the forest reserves




Most significant for primatologists, however, were her observations on lemur social relationships. In Lemur Behaviour: A Madagascar Field Study (1966), and later in her landmark 1972 textbook The Evolution of Primate Behavior, she established the arguments for what would become known as the “social intelligence hypothesis”.

Alison Jolly observed that, while lemurs cannot learn to manipulate objects, as monkeys do, their social skills are just as well-developed. This suggested that social integration was the driving force in the evolution of intelligence, creating what she described as “an ever-increasing spiral”.

A second, equally surprising, discovery arose in tandem with this hypothesis, and concerned male-female lemur interaction. Alison Jolly found that female lemurs were fed ahead of the males, and exerted dominance in other social contexts — a practice that ensured the best physical health and highest possible birth rate in a species whose females were capable of bearing only one infant a year



In the years following her initial visit to Madagascar, Alison Jolly published more than 100 scientific papers and popular articles, as well as half a dozen books. She was a scientific consultant for the BBC documentary Lemur Island (2007), and a lifelong advocate for the preservation of Madagascan biological diversity and social customs — even as the two seemed to collide, with the destruction of the rainforests and its inhabitants by native Malagasy tribes.

Writing in a 1988 edition of National Geographic, Alison Jolly highlighted this conflict most vividly and movingly in the case of the “aye-aye”, a rare breed of lemur remarkable for its long third and fourth fingers. “In much of the country tradition decrees that [the aye-aye] be slain on sight,” the piece ran, “lest it uncrook its skeleton finger to point out a victim for death.”



Yet she remained optimistic for the future of such species and of the country as a whole, uniting the two concerns in her role on an independent Biodiversity Committee set up to ensure a positive environmental and social outcome from the construction of a large titanium mine on the country’s southern coast. For all its biodiversity, Alison Jolly knew that Madagascar was “no tropical paradise” to its human inhabitants: “They need development,” she insisted.

An only child, she was born Alison Bishop on May 9 1937 in Ithaca, New York, where her mother was an accomplished local artist and her father an author and professor of Romance Languages at Cornell University. She graduated with a BA from Cornell in 1958, then took a PhD in Zoology from Yale

The Ring-tailed Lemur - YouTube

From 1963 to 1965 she was research assistant to the New York Zoological Society.

Upon marriage she moved to England, beginning writing in earnest as a research associate at Cambridge, and later with the University of Sussex from 1971 to 1981.

However, the demands of a young family prevented further visits to Madagascar until 1990, after which she made frequent trips to coincide with the lemurs’ “birth period”.

Alison Jolly’s other books on social intelligence, based on her work in Madagascar, included A World Like Our Own: Man and Nature in Madagascar (1980) and Lucy’s Legacy: Sex and Intelligence in Human Evolution (1999), which explored the evolutionary basis of, among other things, bisexuality, the menstrual cycle and the female orgasm.

From 1992 to 1996 Alison Jolly was president of the International Primatological Society, which acknowledged her contribution to the field with its lifetime achievement award in 2010. She was also appointed an officer in the National Order of Madagascar. The tribute that most pleased her, however, came in 2006, with the naming in her honour of a newly-discovered mouse lemur species, the tiny reddish-brown Microcebus jollyae.

Alison Jolly is survived by her husband, the development economist Sir Richard Jolly, and by their four children.


Alison Jolly, born May 9 1937, died February 6 2014

[Mr Lick]

I'm probably showing my age now but I think I recall this guy.


Harry Brünjes - obituary

Harry Brünjes was singer who brought highland harmonies to the Coliseum and struck a theatrical chord as a headmaster



Harry Brunjes (centre) with his brothers Tom and Drew performing as The Scott Brothers


Harry Brünjes, who has died aged 89, was one third of The Singing Scott Brothers, the tartan-clad, bonny melodists of the 1950s variety circuit; he later became a successful theatrically-minded headmaster.

In the late 1940s, Tom, Drew and Harry Brünjes were three brothers from Glasgow with an eye on an operatic career. Yet, having adopted the more patriotic name “Scott”, they found that their close harmonies echoed expectations on the popular stage with post-war audiences looking for light entertainment with a twist.


The brothers were marked out by their unusual blend of operatic potential and Scottish lilt. Initially, their set consisted of traditional highland songs, such as Westering Home, before expanding to include film themes and contemporary covers, including My Foolish Heart and That Lucky Old Sun (the latter a hit for Frankie Lane).

They also incorporated impersonations of other acts, including – rather improbably – the black quartet, The Inkspots. Their unified delivery was accentuated by a shared vocal tone, matching outfits (from Tam o’Shanters to dinner suits) and command of the stage – like “one single person in three shapes”.


They rose swiftly up the showbusiness ladder and built a national following, delighting enthusiastic houses in Scarborough, Bridlington, Bournemouth and Great Yarmouth.

They also held audiences in their thrall at England’s two song-and-dance palaces: The Opera House, Blackpool, and the London Coliseum, where they were to perform for the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance of 1952.


Henry Otto Brünjes (known as Harry) was born in Glasgow on April 9 1924. His father was a professional pianist who specialised in accompanying silent movies. Brünjes was educated at St Mungo’s Academy, sitting his Highers at the age of 16. He had to wait two years to take up his place at Glasgow University, where he read Modern Languages (French and Spanish). After a short period working at Glasgow City Hall (where he first met his future wife Ellen McCall) he enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1942



His wartime service was spent as a telegrapher on Talybont, an escort destroyer deployed to the North Sea before assisting the D-Day assault on Omaha Beach. On demob in 1946, Brünjes returned to university to complete his degree (he graduated in 1949). In 1948, he hiked, wearing his kilt, from Glasgow to Barcelona but was arrested, for possessing the wrong papers, crossing the Spanish border. He spent a week in a Francoist jail.

The following year Brünjes and his brothers auditioned for an opera in Edinburgh. That morning they also tried out for a variety producer, resulting in their first booking, for a summer season at the Leith Gaiety Theatre in Edinburgh. They would go on to appear alongside the major stars of the day, enjoying seasons with Morecambe and Wise, Vera Lynn and Charlie Chester, along with visiting American stars. They were also a regular presence on radio shows of the early 1950s




By 1955, the gyrating rock-and-roll of Elvis, Tommy Steele and Bill Haley and his Comets had taken the musical world by storm and the appeal of harmony outfits had begun to wane. The brothers took temporary positions as school teachers and Harry Brünjes was appointed to the staff of St Margaret’s School, Lowestoft. However in 1957, the three brothers were asked to perform again for a set of shows at Blackpool’s Opera House. They supported headliners from across the Atlantic, such as Al Martino, the popular Italian-American crooner, during a season that was to be the brothers’ professional swansong. Although further offers came their way, with young families to support, the trio decided to settle down to a more stable lifestyle.

Brünjes’s teaching career flourished. Although he missed singing with a big band or orchestra, he enjoyed developing inquiring minds, taking particular pride in encouraging students with untapped potential. He became Headmaster of Bedford Modern School in 1965 and, in 1973, was appointed Headmaster of the Alameda School, Ampthill, at the time a flagship comprehensive school. Over the following decade, under his musical direction, the Alameda gained a reputation for staging extraordinary school shows. For these extravaganzas Brünjes would invite former stage friends, such as Terry Hall and Lenny the Lion, to take part in productions.

The Singing Scott Brothers enjoyed one final encore when, in 1973, the trio performed a reunion concert, accompanied by a band, for their parents’ golden wedding anniversary. In 1983 Brünjes retired and divided his time between homes at Corton on the Suffolk coast and Alfaz del Pi on the Costa Blanca. In later years, he moved with his wife to the Isle of Wight, to be nearer their elder daughter.

Brünjes is survived by his two brothers from the act, his two sons and two daughters. His wife Ellen predeceased him in 2010.


Harry Brünjes, born April 9 1924, died January 18 2014