16 May 2016
Culture stars who died in 2016
Lost to the world in 2016: (clockwise) Terry Wogan, Victoria Wood, Ronnie Corbett, David Bowie, Paul Daniels and Prince. In this gallery, Martin Chilton remembers and celebrates the culture stars who have died in 2016.
Culture stars who died in 2015
Culture stars who died in 2014
French actress MADELEINE LEBEAU, the last surviving member of the cast of Casablanca, died on May 1, at the age of 92. LeBeau, who played the role of Yvonne, the spurned girlfriend of Humphrey Bogart's character Rick Blaine in the classic 1942 movie that also starred Ingrid Bergman.
Born in June 1923 in Antony near Paris, LeBeau fled Paris in 1940 after the German occupation with her husband Marcel Dalio, an actor of Jewish origin, before settling in the US. After Casablanca LeBeau appeared in a number of other Hollywood films before returning to Europe where she was cast in Federico Fellini's 1963 comedy-drama 8 ½ and numerous other films by France's 'New Wave' film-makers.
YUKIO NINAGAWA, a Japanese stage director celebrated for his Shakespeare adaptations, died on Thursday May 12 in Tokyo at the age of 80.
Ninagawa debuted as a director in 1969 and gained international fame at the 1985 Edinburgh festival when he directed a samurai-style Macbeth in which the actors performed in Japanese kimono on a stage with a giant Buddhist altar. He adapted most of Shakespeare’s works for the stage – including Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Richard III – and launched a project to perform the playwright’s entire canon of plays in Saitama prefecture, Ninagawa’s native region north of Tokyo.
Ninagawa’s productions have been performed regularly overseas since he brought his version of the Greek tragedy Medea by Euripides to Greece and Italy in 1983.The internationally acclaimed director became a member of the Shakespeare Globe Council at London’s Globe Theatre and in 2002 was awarded the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire.Ninagawa died of complications from pneumonia, an official at the theatre he led told AFP. Ninagawa’s daughter, photographer Mika Ninagawa, mentioned his passing on her blog. “He was a cool father who fought until the end,” she wrote.
TONY COZIER, a brilliant West Indies cricket writer and commentator for more than a half century, died on May 11 in Barbados, aged 75. Cozier (seen here interviewing the great Clive Lloyd) was born in Bridgetown, where the press box at the Kensington Oval cricket grounds is named for him in tribute to his work as a journalist, radio and television analyst and historian.
The son of Barbados journalist Jimmy Cozier, a newspaper founder in his homeland and managing editor in St. Lucia, studied journalism at Canada's Carleton University before starting his career as a reporter in 1958, working with retired West Indies cricket legend Everton Weekes after becoming an editor at the Barbados Daily News.
Cozier, a wicket keeper and field hockey goalkeeper in younger days, edited all 22 editions of the West Indies Cricket Annual and wrote "The West Indies: 50 Years of Test Cricket" in 1978.
Known to many as the voice of West Indies cricket, he began test cricket radio commentary in 1965 when the Caribbean lineup faced Australia and also handled television commentator duties for the BBC, Sky Sports and Australia's Channel Nine.
REG GRUNDY, the producer behind soap opera Neighbours, has died aged 92. Grundy, who also presented his country's version of Wheel Of Fortune, died in Bermuda where he had lived with his wife Joy since 1982, the BBC said.
Kylie Minogue starred in the Australian soap opera as Charlene Robinson, said: "The Australian TV landscape was so heavily influenced by Reg Grundy. I watched his shows growing up and, of course, one show in particular was to change the course of my life."
Sydney native Grundy's shows were hits around the world and also included The Young Doctors and Prisoner: Cell Block H.Two of his shows - Family Feud and the Prisoner remake Wentworth - picked up gongs at the Logie Awards in Melbourne on Sunday, an awards show celebrating the best of Australian television. Grundy (above, with his wife Joy in 1994) lived for a time in London.
Swedish artist CARL FREDERIK REUTERSWARD, best known for his iconic sculpture of a revolver with a knotted barrel displayed outside the UN headquarters in New York, died on May 3, aged 81.
Read: The Non Violence symbol created after the death of John Lennon
KRISTIAN EALEY has died at the age of 38. The actor was best known for his character Matt Musgrove, who appeared in Brookside between 1998 and 2000 and also Hollyoaks from 2000 to 2004, as well as the spin-off Hollyoaks: After Hours.
BARRY HOWARD, known for playing Barry Stuart-Hargreaves in Eighties sitcom Hi-de-Hi!, died from blood cancer on 28 April 2016. He was 78.
Ben Lawrence, TV Critic, on the Hi-de-Hi! star
BILLY PAUL, a Philadelphia soul singer who won fame with Me and Mrs Jones, died on April 24, aged 80.
Paul, who won a Grammy Award and helped shape the course of modern R&B, performed in his youth alongside legends such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Nina Simone. Paul topped the mainstream charts in 1972 with Me and Mrs. Jones, a song about an extra-marital affair that has been covered by Hall & Oates and Michael Buble.
In a decision that would prove commercially disastrous, Paul followed up the hit not with Am I Black Enough For You?, a funky number with allusions to the Black Power movement. He also caused controversy with the explicit song Let’s Make a Baby.
Congolese singer PAPA WEMBA died on April 24, aged 66.
The performer, known as the “King of Rumba”, collapsed on stage during a gig at a festival in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Born in 1949 in former Zaire, Wemba – whose real name was Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kibumba – was the son of a professional funeral wailing woman.
After beginning his career in the Sixties he went on to achieve international fame, selling out venues across Europe, Asia and America. He was arrested in 2004, for smuggling people from the Democratic Republic of Congo into France by disguising them as members of his band.
Pop superstar PRINCE has died at the age of 57. His body was discovered at his Paisley Park home in Minnesota early on 21 April.
Prince, whose real name is Prince Rogers Nelson, suffered a medical emergency earlier this month that forced his private jet to make an emergency landing in Illinois.
An autopsy was completed on April 22, but the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office has said that the results – including the results of a full toxicology scan – will not be available for several weeks.
He became an international superstar in 1982 after his breakthrough album 1999 and was most famous for hits including Purple Rain, When Doves Cry and Kiss. His music career spanned more than three decades and he won seven Grammy Awards, sold more than 100 million records and won an Oscar for Best Original Song Score for Purple Rain.
The singer, who was just 5ft 2ins tall, was in the process of writing an untitled autobiography which was due to be published in 2017.
GUY HAMILTON, who directed James Bond favourites Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Live And Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun, died on April 20, aged 93.
The Paris-born director's talents extended beyond Bond and he worked with a host of other big stars including Michael Caine in 1969's Battle Of Britain, and Harrison Ford in British war film Force 10 From Navarone.
Other notable credits include his work on two Agatha Christie adaptations, the first of which was The Mirror Crack'd in 1980, followed by Evil Under The Sun in 1982. He landed his first big break as a director's assistant for Carol Reed, known for his work on successful films such as The Third Man and Oliver!.
Talking to the Director's Guild of America, Hamilton explained his use of comedy before the opening credits, and how it set the scene for Bond audiences."The great thing is, leave your brains under the seat and we'll go for a great, big ride," he said.
Comedian VICTORIA WOOD has died of cancer at the age of 62.
Wood was well known for her comedy series Victoria Wood: As Seen On TV, as well as her role in sitcom Dinnerladies and her TV special Victoria Wood With All The Trimmings.In 2006, she won two Bafta awards for acting and writing for her drama Housewife, 49, an adaptation of the diaries of Nella Last.
In 1997, she was made an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours and was then made a CBE in 2008. Wood's live comedy was often interspersed with her own compositions and she frequently played the piano.She also composed and performed the theme music for Dinnerladies.
Emmy-winning actress DORIS ROBERTS, the star of US sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, died on April 17, aged 90. Roberts picked up best supporting actress four times in the early 2000s for her portrayal of Marie Barone, the mother of Ray Romano's sportswriter character in the show, which ran for nine seasons.
"Truly the end of an era," said Patricia Heaton, who played Roberts' TV daughter-in-law.Roberts died of natural causes in her hometown of Los Angeles. Roberts joined the CBS show in 1995, having carved a niche in matriarchal roles in the 1980s, including as Donna Pescow's mother on the 1979-80 ABC series Angie and as receptionist Mildred Krebs on NBC detective series Remington Steele.
She won her first of five Emmys in 1983 for a one-season guest role on medical drama St. Elsewhere. Raised by her single mother in the Bronx, Roberts got her break on Broadway in the play The Time of Your Life in 1955. She moved to California to appear in ABC's The Lily Tomlin Comedy Hour in 1975.
She appeared in 34 films over more than half a century, including 1961's Something Wild, The Honeymoon Killers in 1969 and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three in 1974. She also had guest roles later in her career in Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives.
Pioneering Malian photographer MALICK SIDIBE, whose powerful black and white images of local life won him global fame and top awards, has died aged 80. Sidibe's vibrant images of life in the Malian capital Bamako in the 1960s, when the country gained independence from France, were a social commentary chronicling both pop culture and traditional society.
In 2007, he was the first African and the first photographer to be awarded the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice film festival. Sidibe, a commercial portraitist in Mali, loved to photograph Bamako’s youth. Here a young couple, oblivious to everything but each other, dance to music on Christmas Eve. The image is being exhibited by Danziger Gallery at Claridges, London as part of Frieze week.assouline.com/london-claridges.
Welsh actor GARETH THOMAS, who played Roj Blake (centre) in cult sci-fi series Blake’s 7, died on April 13, aged 71.
The prolific British playwright SIR ARNOLD WESKER died on April 12, 2016, aged 83. The London-born writer penned scores of plays, several books and a collection of poems.He was best-known for his trilogy of plays Chicken Soup With Barley, Roots, and I'm Talking About Jerusalem, created in the late 1950s, and his 1962 work Chips With Everything.
DAVID GEST was a US producer who became a regular on British reality TV shows in his later years died on April 12. He became known to the press during his 18-month marriage to Liza Minnelli in 2002.
Gest had links with Michael Jackson after growing up with the popstar and his brothers, who later formed The Jackson Five. Reuniting them became one of his career highlights: Gest produced Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration: The Solo Years in 2001, the highest-rated musical TV special in history.
Following the fame that came with his marriage to Minnelli, Gest appeared on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here in 2006, and went on to Celebrity Big Brother a few years later.
HOWARD MARKS, the former drugs smuggler known as Mr Nice, has died aged 70. He had announced last year that he had inoperable bowel cancer. His autobiography, Mr Nice, detailed his many years smuggling cannabis, in 1996.After years living under as many 43 aliases, he was eventually caught by the American Drug Enforcement Agency in 1988.He was sentenced to 25 years at one of America's toughest prisons - Terre Haute, Indiana - and was released on parole in 1995 after serving seven years.
Born in 1945 in Kenfig Hill, a small Welsh coal-mining village near Bridgend, Howard Marks went to Oxford University where he earned a degree in nuclear physics and post-graduate qualifications in philosophy. After his release from prison he became a prominent campaigner for the legalisation of cannabis and toured a comedy show. He stood for parliament in four separate constituencies (Norwich South, Norwich North, Neath and Southampton Test) in the 1997 general election on the single issue of the legalisation of cannabis, catalysing the formation of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance.
A 2010 film about his life starred fellow Welshman Rhys Ifans (above right).
DAVID SWIFT, who died on April 8 aged 85, found fame as Henry Davenport in the TV sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey. The Liverpool-born actor made his television debut in 1964 as Theo Clay in the magazine soap Compact. He is seen above with Susannah Doyle in Drop The Dead Donkey.
Among hisr small-screen roles included Napoleon in War & Peace (1972-73), the lead role of Alan Taylor in the marriage-guidance serial Couples (1975-76), Dingley, running a florist’s shop with Richard Beckinsale’s Stan, in the sitcom Bloomers (1979), Fagin in The Further Adventures of Oliver Twist (1980), Mr Sedley in Vanity Fair (1987) and Oscar Spinner in the children’s series Oscar Charlie (2001).
Among Swift’s film roles were Montclair, treasurer of the French underground organisation hiring Edward Fox’s assassin, in The Day of the Jackal (1973).
Country music icon and actor MERLE HAGGARD died 6 April - on his 79th birthday - after a bout with pneumonia.
A masterful guitarist, fiddler and songwriter as well as singer, the Country Music Hall of Famer recorded for more than 40 years, releasing dozens of albums and No1 hits.
ERIK BAUERSFIELD, who turned three words from a minor acting role - "It's a trap!" - into one of the most beloved lines of the "Star Wars" series, died on April 3 at the age of 93. Bauersfeld stumbled into the "Star Wars" series while working on a radio project at Lucasfilm. Bauersfeld ended up voicing the roles of both the rebellion's Admiral Ackbar and Jabba the Hut's ghostly steward Bib Fortuna in 1983's Return of the Jedi.
Admiral Ackbar also appeared in The Force Awakens. Despite limited screen time, the character with a large domed head and fish-like eyes was a definite Star Wars fan favorite. His line It's a trap! even became a popular meme.
Bauersfeld was also the last person to audition for the role of Yoda, which eventually went to Franz Oz.
Latin Jazz saxophonist LEANDRO "GATO" BARBIERI, who composed the Grammy-winning music for the steamy Marlon Brando film Last Tango in Paris and recorded dozens of albums over a career spanning more than seven decades, died on April 2, aged 83.
The Argentine-born musician recorded some 35 albums between 1967 and 1982, when he stopped consistently making new records. He toured regularly and went on to record four more albums, including 1997's smooth jazz Que Pasa, which reached No. 2 on Billboard's contemporary jazz charts.
In the 1960s, splitting his time between Rome and New York, Barbieri became part of the Ornette Coleman-inspired free jazz revolution, working extensively with trumpeter Don Cherry from Coleman's groundbreaking quartet.
RONNIE CORBETT died on March 31, aged 85. Born Ronald Balfour Corbett in Edinburgh, he and Ronnie Barker rose to fame in the popular BBC comedy sketch show The Two Ronnies.
His long professional association with Barker produced one of the most popular TV programmes of the late 20th century until Barker's retirement in the mid-1980s, after it had run for 12 series.The Two Ronnies, which ran from 1971 to 1987, invariably ended with the two saying: "It's goodnight from me ... and it's goodnight from him."
Corbett also had a starring role in David Frost's The Frost Report.
DOUGLAS WILMER, who played detective Sherlock Holmes in a 1960s television series, died on 31 March aged 96. Wilmer played the pipe-smoking sleuth a series of TV dramas in 1964 and 1965.
Wilmer returned to the role in the 1975 TV movie The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother and in a series of audio books. Wilmer also appeared alongside Christopher Lee in the Fu Manchu movies and with Roger Moore in 1960s TV adventure series The Saint and in the James Bond film Octopussy.
Imre Kertész, the first Hungarian winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, died on March 31, 2016, aged 86. Kertész, the author of The Holocaust as Culture, A Breath-long Silence, While the Fire Squad is Reloading Their Guns and A Language in Exile, lived a remarkable life, having survived not only Nazi camps as a teenager but also the years of Stalinist dictatorship in his homeland immediately after World War II.
PATTY DUKE, who won an Oscar as a teenager for The Miracle Worker and maintained a long and successful career throughout her life, died at the age of 69, on March 29.
She built on her success in teenhood by playing identical cousins on the popular sitcom, The Patty Duke Show.
GARRY SHANDLING died at the age of 66 on March 24 2016. The comedian and actor created and starred in such shows as It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry Sanders Show.
The US novelist, poet and screenwriter JIM HARRISON, known for his 1979 book Legends of the Fall, died at his home in Patagonia, Arizona, on March 26 at the age of 78.
Harrison, who wrote more than 20 works of fiction in his lifetime as well as many volumes of poetry, also penned the screenplay for the 1994 film adaptation of Legends of the Fall (which starred Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins). Like much of his work, the book celebrates the great American outdoors.
KEN HOWARD, president of the Screen Actors Guild and veteran film and TV actor, died on March 23, aged 71.
George Clooney said: "Today, his obituary read that he was six foot six, but he was so much taller than that."
Howard, who was born in California, started his career on the stage but moved into movies in 1970. However, it was as the Coach in basketball drama The White Shadow that many fans associated him with, with people recognising him as "Coach" in public long after the show ended in 1981.
PHIFE DAWG, the rapper who was the co-founder of Tribe Called Quest, died aged 45 on March 22. Dawg, born in Queens, New York as Malik Isaac Taylor in 1970, started rapping as a teenager and was known for his high-pitched vocals and lyrical inventiveness.
Along with Q-Tip, with whom he rapped on four of Tribe Called Quest's five albums, Dawg was celebrated for helping to define the sound of East Coast rap in the Nineties and talk about life, politics and race without using expletives.
However, the self-proclaimed "funky diabetic" was dogged by health issues. In 2008 he underwent a kidney transplant and his diabetes troubled him in his middle age.
RITA GAM, who starred in numerous films in the Fifties, died on March 22, aged 88.
Gam had roles in films including Saadia (1953), Sign of the Pagan, in which she played a Roman Princess in 1954 and Nicholas Ray's King of Kings. Gam was also the first wife of director Sidney Lumet and a bridesmaid at Grace Kelly's wedding to Prince Rainier.
Actresses from Hollywood's Golden Age
Television magician PAUL DANIELS died on March 17, aged 77, after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Daniels was a performer with a magic touch who entertained TV audiences for decades.The Paul Daniels Magic Show regularly attracted 15 million viewers in the UK and was sold to 43 countries.
Daniels, born Newton Edwards Daniels in Middlesbrough in 1938, became interested in magic as a young child.But it wasn't until 1969 that he became a full-time magician when he performed a summer season at Newquay.The following year Daniels came second in talent show Opportunity Knocks, which led to him being offered a regular slot on the ITV variety show The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club.
Then in 1979 The Paul Daniels Magic Show hit UK screens on the BBC and Daniels became a household name.Famous for his self-deprecating humour, his catchphrase was: "You'll like this... not a lot, but you'll like it."
CLIFF MICHELMORE, who was one of BBC television and radio's leading figures for decades, died on March 17, aged 96.
The prolific presenter, who anchored coverage of the Apollo moon landings and several general elections, was best known as the long-running presenter of BBC magazine programme Tonight.
In a 2013 interview, Sir Michael Parkinson ranked Michelmore with broadcasting greats Sir David Frost and Alan Whicker and hailed the standards their generation set in broadcasting.
Singer FRANK SINATRA JR, son of singer and actor Frank Sinatra and his first wife, Nancy, died at the age of 72, on March 16.
Thanks to his famous father, he had an eventful life, which included being kidnapped at the age of 19, in 1963. He was released only when Sinatra Senior paid a $240,000 ransom. Later in life, he acted as a conductor and manager for his father and his band.
Before his death, which occurred suddenly after a heart attack, Sinatra Jr had been due to perform his show "Sinatra Sings Sinatra" - a medley of his father's greatest hits, interspersed with personal anecdotes and recollections - in Florida.
After he performed the show last year at the Albert Hall, the Telegraph's reviewer wrote that Sinatra Jr had "a voice as clear as a bell, oozing that worn velveteen bass baritone" and sounded "remarkably like his late father".
LEE ANDREWS, the lead singer in doo-wop group Lee Andrews & the Hearts and father of The Roots' Questlove, died on March 16 at the age of 79.
Andrews's son, Khalib Thompson, a Grammy winner as the frontman and drummer of The Roots under his stagename of Questlove, paid tribute to 'the greatest teacher in my life'.
With the Hearts, Lee Andrews formed one of the most successful doo-wop groups of the Fifties and Sixties.
Thunderbirds co-creator SYLVIA ANDERSON, best known for voicing Lady Penelope in the hit TV show, has died aged 88. A producer and writer, Anderson created the Supermarionation puppet series with husband Gerry. She died at her home in Bray, Buckinghamshire, following a short illness. Gerry Anderson died in 2012, aged 83, after suffering with Alzheimer's disease.
As well as voicing Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward in Thunderbirds from its debut in 1965 until 1968, Sylvia also worked on Joe 90, Captain Scarlet and Stingray.
ASA BRIGGS, one of Britain's leading historians and a pioneer of adult education, died on 15 March aged 94. Briggs worked at the Second World War code-breaking station Bletchley Park before embarking on a glittering academic career as a leading specialist on the Victorian era.
He took a leading role in the extension of higher education, helping to set up the University of Sussex and the Open University, and becoming president of the Workers Educational Association.
He received the call to join Bletchley Park in 1943, where he joined the top secret team who cracked the Enigma cipher code. Lady Briggs said that she was married to her husband for 20 years before he revealed his wartime work.
As a historian, his main fields of interest were the social and cultural history of the 19th and 20th centuries and the history of broadcasting in Britain. His academic output did not diminish with age, and he wrote four books since his 90th birthday, including a collection of poetry which is due to be published in May 2016.
ANITA BROOKNER, winner of the 1984 Man Booker Prize for her book Hotel du Lac, has died at the age of 87.
Brookner, who wrote more than 20 novels in her lifetime including The Rules of Engagement and The Next Big Thing, began her career as a novelist relatively late, at the age of 53, with her debut A Start in Life, which was published in 1980.
Before embarking upon a literary career she studied Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and later went on to become the Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge in 1967. While this was a notable achievement in its own right, Brookner also enjoyed the distinction of being the first ever woman to hold the position. She was awarded a CBE in 1990.
Anita Brookner interview: 'In life, there are no happy endings'
SIR PETER MAXWELL DAVIES, composer and former Master of the Queen's Music died at his home in Orkney on 14 March, aged 81. He had been suffering from leukaemia.
Sir Peter was an experienced musician and held the position of associate conductor/ composer at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for 10 years between 1992 and 2002.He was knighted in 1987 and from 2004 to 2014 held the post of Master of the Queen's Music - the musical equivalent of Poet Laureate, granted to a musician "of great distinction". He was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in the 2014 New Year Honours Llist.In February, Sir Peter was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal in recognition of "outstanding musicianship" - the society's highest honour.
KEITH EMERSON, one of the founding members of progressive rock group Emerson, Lake and Palmer, died at the age of 71 at his home in California on March 10
Bandmate Carl Palmer said of the keyboardist, "Keith was a pioneer and an innovator whose musical genius touched all of us in the worlds of rock, classical and jazz."
The group, consisting of keyboardist Emerson, producer Greg Lake, and drummer Palmer, formed in London in the 1970s and released seven albums together.
They parted ways in 1979 before reforming in 1991 and releasing two more albums.
KEN ADAM, the production designer who gave Dr Strangelove its cavernous War Room and James Bond supervillains their futuristic lairs, died on March 10, aged 95. Berlin-born Adam won two Academy Awards in a career that lasted into his seventies and spanned more than 70 films. He was revered for his indelible set artistry, including that for seven Bond movies. Adam was behind the Fort Knox vaults of Goldfinger, the iconic volcano hideaway of You Only Live Twice and Bond's gadget-filled Aston Martin.
Adam's work on Stanley Kubrick's 1964 classic is widely considered among the craft's highest achievements. His enormous, expressionistic set evoked a bomb shelter with a circular, lamp-lit table in the middle, designed to suggest a poker table. It was here where Peter Sellers famously chastised a tussling Air Force general and Russian ambassador: "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room!"
Born Klaus Hugo Adam in 1921, Adam's Jewish family fled Nazi Germany in 1934. They settled in London, where Adam became enraptured by German Expressionist films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. He studied architecture, a background that would later prove useful for production design. He volunteered during World War II and was one of only a handful of German-born pilots to fly for the Royal Air Force.
Adam won his first Oscar in 1976 for Barry Lyndon, which he shared with Vernon Dixon and Roy Walker. His second came in 1995 for The Madness of King George, which he shared with Carolyn Scott.
Other memorable inventions included the winged automobile of 1968's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the gothic home of 1993's Addams Family Values and the Cold War atmosphere of 1965's The Ipcress File.
Record producer GEORGE MARTIN, among many people dubbed "The Fifth Beatle", died on March 8, aged 90. Sir George helped the Beatles achieve global success as the head of the Parlophone record label after hearing their demo tape in 1962.
It was to Martin, then head of Parlophone Records, a subsidiary of EMI, that Brian Epstein turned in 1962 when every other label had rejected the band, and it was Martin who signed the Beatles after meeting them in June of that year.
Veteran British film and theatre producer MICHAEL WHITE, best known for producing The Rocky Horror Picture Show movie and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, died ON mARCH 7, aged 80.
Born in Glasgow, White began his career producing plays on London's West End with shows such as Oh! Calcutta, The Rocky Horror Show and Annie.
He transitioned into films, producing numerous projects including British cult classic comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail in 1974, and The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1978.
Most recently, White was the subject of a 2013 documentary The Last Impresario, directed by Gracie Otto.
PAT CONROY, the author of The Great Santini and The Prince of Tides and other bestsellers, who drew on his bruising childhood and the vistas of South Carolina, died on March 4 aged 70 of pancreatic cancer.
The Prince of Tides was adapted for film in 1991 starring Barbra Streisand, while the 1979 film version of The Great Santini provided Robert Duvall with one of his finest roles.
TONY DYSON, a special effects expert who built the Star Wars R2D2 robot, died on March 4, at his house on the Maltese island of Gozo, aged 68.
He was commissioned to build eight different versions of the round-domed R2D2 for the Star Wars film. "I can honestly say it was one of the most exciting periods of my life," he said. The website said he had also built robots for various technology firms, including Sony, Philips and Toshiba.
TONY WARREN, the Coronation Street creator and "father" of the long-running show, died on March 2.
Warren devised the idea for the Weatherfield soap at the age of 24, at the very beginning of his writing career.
The actress LOUISE PLOWRIGHT, best known for playing hairdresser Julie Cooper in Eastenders and Donna in the West End show Mamma Mia, died on March 2, aged 59 from pancreatic cancer.
She also played Madame Morrible in the musical Wicked and had further TV roles in the ITV series Families and Footballers' Wives: Extra Time.
Tough-guy actor GEORGE KENNEDY, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of a savage chain-gang convict in the Sixties classic Cool Hand Luke, died on February 28.
He won the best supporting actor Oscar for the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke. He played a convict who is boss of a Southern chain gang, pitted against Paul Newman as the rebel prisoner who is bent on bucking the system. After the success of Cool Hand Luke, Kennedy carved out a niche as one of Hollywood's most recognisable supporting actors.
Among other memorable films were the Naked Gun spoofs and Airport.
The author LOUISE RENNISON, whose teen novel Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging was turned into a hit film, has died at the age of 63.
Born in 1951, Rennison was best known for her Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series for teenage girls. Rennison was named Queen of Teen in 2008 and won the Roald Dahl Funny Prize in 2010 in the 7-14 category for Withering Tights. Her most recent book The Taming of the Tights, also in the same series, was published in 2013.
Best known for playing the drunk and foul-mouthed priest Father Jack in the much-loved sitcom Father Ted, FRANK KELLY died on February 28. In October 2015, he had revealed that he was suffering from both Parkinson’s disease and bowel cancer.
Kelly played a number of memorable roles in the six decades of his acting career, including Channel 4’s adaptation of Martin Ross’s Irish RM novels, and a long stint writing and performing in the popular Irish radio sitcom The Glen Abbey Show from the 1970s-90s.
He had his first film appearance in 1969 in The Italian Job, as the prison warden who releases Michael Caine’s character from his cell in the film’s opening sequence.
TONY BURTON, who starred in the Rocky films as the legendary trainer of both Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa, died on February 26, at the age of 78.
The actor appeared in all seven of the Rocky films including a fleeting flashback, using stock footage from an earlier film, in the most recent incarnation Creed. Burton played Tony "Duke" Evers – a no-nonsense trainer who in the first two films supported Apollo Creed, Balboa’s opponent.
In the later films he became the trainer to Balboa, played by Sylvester Stallone, helping him defeat foes such as Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago. The actor won Flint Golden Gloves light heavyweight titles in 1955 and again in 1957, before fighting professionally briefly.
Jazz musician and writer JOHN CHILTON died on February 25, following a brief illness, aged 83.
He was the musical partner of colourful jazz singer George Melly, and the pair played with Chilton's band The Feetwarmers. The band were the resident Christmas act at Ronnie Scott's club in Soho for more than 30 years.
Chilton, who was born in London in 1932, suffered from Parkinson's disease in his later years. He was also known as a writer and won a Grammy Award in 1983 for his album notes on Bunny Berigan. He wrote the definitive biographies of Sidney Bechet and Coleman Hawkins.
JOHNNY MURPHY, a Dublin star of stage and screen, died aged 71 on February 22, 2016. He is best known for playing Joey 'The Lips' Fagan in Alan Parker's 1991 film The Commitments (above right, with Felim Gormley).
Johnny Murphy: the man who played Beckett and the trumpet
DOUGLAS SLOCOMBE, the British cinematographer behind the original Indiana Jones trilogy, died aged 103 on February 22. Indiana Jones director Steven Spielberg described him as a "great collaborator and a beautiful human being".
A three-time Oscar nominee, Slocombe shot 80 films, including 1969's The Italian Job, and was also known for filming the Nazi invasion of Poland. His works included classic Ealing comedies such as the Lavender Hill Mob (above, he is pictured on set with Audrey Hepburn) and Kind Hearts And Coronets and he also won Best Cinematography Baftas for The Servant (1963), The Great Gatsby (1974) and Julia (1977). His third Oscar nomination came for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), the first of the three Indiana Jones films on which he would work with Spielberg. The American director said: "Dougie Slocombe was facile, enthusiastic, and loved the action of film-making. Harrison Ford was Indiana Jones in front of the camera, but with his whip-smart crew, Dougie was my behind-the-scenes hero for the first three Indy movies."
Born in London in 1913, Slocombe made his breakthrough after filming in Warsaw in the lead-up to Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939, using the footage to produce the documentary Lights Out In Europe in 1940.
UMBERTO ECO, a philosopher who wrote best-selling novels including The Name of the Rose, died on February 19 aged 84 from cancer. Eco, who was born on January 5, 1932, at Alessandria, in the northern Italian region of Piedmont, was appointed professor of semiotics at Bologna University in the Seventies and published a treatise laying out his theories.
His breakthrough to a far wider audience came in 1980 with the success of novel The Name of the Rose, which has since been translated into 43 languages and sold millions of copies. A gothic murder mystery set in an Italian medieval monastery, it combines semiotics, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory. It was adapted for the big screen by Jean-Jacques Annaud in 1986, starring Sean Connery as the detective monk William of Baskerville and Christian Slater as his young assistant, Adso of Melk.
Eco was also successful with Foucault's Pendulum (1988), about three employees at a minor publishing house who concoct a fictional conspiracy about a medieval Christian sect called the Knights Templar for fun. Eco once said: "I don't know what the reader expects. I think an author should write what the reader does not expect. The problem is not to ask what they need, but to change them... to produce the kind of reader you want for each story."
Author HARPER LEE died aged 89 on February 19. Her 1961 debut novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, an epic narrative about small-town lawyer Atticus Finch’s battle to save the life of a black resident threatened by a racist mob, sold more than 40 million copies around the world and earned her a Pulitzer prize. George W Bush awarded her the presidential medal of freedom in 2007.
In 2015, the publication of Go Set a Watchmam shed new light on the character of Finch. The first draft of Mockingbird, which had been rejected by her publisher, included passages where Finch was portrayed as having been a supporter of the South’s Jim Crow laws, saying at one point: “Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theatres?”
American actor GEORGE GAYNES was the highly strung commander in seven Police Academy films, the grumpy foster parent in Punky Brewster, played a soap star with a crush on Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie and appeared in hundreds of other TV shows and films. He died on 15 February, aged 98.
Denise Matthews, otherwise known as VANITY came to fame in the Eighties as a protege of Prince. She had a pop career that peaked in 1982 with her Prince-produced hit Nasty Girl, which topped the Billboard dance charts.
Matthews also had a few TV roles in the Nineties, but left the world of entertainment after battling an addiction to crack cocaine, which caused near-fatal renal failure in 1994. She later converted to Christianity. She died on 15 February, aged 57.
Acclaimed novelist MARGARET FORSTER died on February 8 of cancer. The award-winning author wrote many successful books including Georgy Girl and Diary Of An Ordinary Woman.
DANIEL GERSON, who co-wrote several Walt Disney animated films including Monsters, Inc. and Big Hero 6, died on February 6 aged 49, after battling brain cancer. Gerson was a frequent contributor for Pixar Animation, co-writing both 2001's Monsters, Inc. and its 2013 sequel, Monsters University.
Along with Robert L Baird and Jordan Roberts, Gerson co-wrote Disney's Oscar-winning Big Hero 6, an animated superhero tale. The New York-born Gerson got his start as a writer for the NBC comedy Something So Right.
DAN HICKS, known for leading Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks, contemporaries of Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane in the late Sixties, died on February 6, aged 74, after a two-year battle with cancer.
The 1972 album Striking it Rich featured one of Hicks' most renowned tracks, I Scare Myself. In 1973, just as the Hot Licks were finding success with their LP Last Train to Hicksville, Hicks dissolved the band.
MAURICE WHITE the founder of R&B funk band Earth, Wind & Fire, died in Los Angeles, aged 74, on February 3. The Chicago-born musician had been battling Parkinson's disease since 1994.
White, a session drummer, founded Earth, Wind & Fire was founded in 1969 after he moved from Chicago to Los Angeles. The Grammy-winning band fused together rhythm and blues, gospel, funk, soul and African sounds, and enjoyed numerous hits, including Boogie Wonderland, September and After the Love is Gone.
In 1979, the band became the first African-American act to sell out New York's Madison Square Garden. The band sold close to 100 million albums, ranking among the most successful acts of the Seventies. in a 1985 interview with the Chicago Tribune, White said he wanted his music to inspire hope and give people "a positive image of self."
"There are a lot of things wrong on this planet - starvation, poverty, negative thoughts, racism, a lot of weirdness," he said."So somebody has to communicate something to try and balance that, if it's possible."
JOE ALASKEY, who provided the voice for famous cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety and Sylvester the Cat, has died aged 63. Alaskey, who was born in New York on April 17, 1952, died from cancer on February 3. In 2004, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for his work on the cartoon Duck Dodgers, providing the voice of the eponymous hero.
Pakistani author INTIZAR HUSSAIN, widely recognised as one of the greatest Urdu writers in history, died on February 2, aged 92 in the eastern city of Lahore. He was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2013 and was awarded France's "Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" a year later.
SIR TERRY WOGAN, one of the most skilled, popular and enduring radio broadcasters of his generation, died on January 31, aged 77. Wogan was no less popular on television and had hosted a hugely successful chat show. He was famous, too, for his ironic and sometimes blistering - but always amusing - commentary at the Eurovision Song Contest, a role he gave up in 2008.
Wogan began his long association with the BBC in the early 1970s and he fronted the long-running humorous panel show Blankety Blank, complete with his famous 'wand' microphone. He would also appear as a guest on shows such as Celebrity Squares and New Faces.He even found time to have a novelty hit single in 1978 when he released a version of the Floral Dance. He was one of the founders of Children in Need and hosted the telethon for more than 20 years.
Eurovision: crazy tales of UK presenters, including Terry Wogan
Actor FRANK FINLAY died on January 30, aged 89. Finlay, who was made a CBE in 1984, was known for his role in the television series Bouquet of Barbed Wire in 1976, which was seen as one of the most controversial dramas of the era.
He also starred in The Three Musketeers in 1973 alongside Oliver Reed and Richard Chamberlain, and was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role at the Oscars for his portrayal of Iago in Othello.
PAUL KANTNER, the co-founder of Jefferson Airplane whose psychedelic sound and free-spirited mindset helped define Sixties counterculture in San Francisco, died on January 28, 2016, aged 74.
With hits such as Somebody to Love and White Rabbit, Jefferson Airplane wrote anthems for the hippie movement and the memorable Summer of Love in which young people took over the US city in 1967.
See full tribute to Jefferson Airplane's Paul Kantner
SIGNE TOLE ANDERSON, a vocalist and original member of the Jefferson Airplane who left the band after its first record and was replaced by Grace Slick, has died.Anderson died on Thursday at her home in Beaverton, Oregon, according to her daughter, Onateska Ladybug Sherwood.
Anderson was 74 and had been suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Anderson, who survived cancer in her thirties, died on the same day that another Airplane member, Paul Kantner, died.
ABE VIGODA, who acted in Francis Ford Coppola's classic film The Godfather, died on January 26, aged 94. Vigoda played sunken-eyed mafioso Sal Tessio in The Godfather. He was also noted for playing detective Phil Fish on television's Barney Miller. The character was so popular it was spun off into its own series, called Fish.
In his later years, the twice-married Vigoda was mistakenly reported to have died on several occasions, his false demises becoming a running social media joke.
Full report on the death (and hoax deaths) of actor Abe Vigoda
Singer COLIN VEARNCOMBE, better known as Black, died on January 26, aged 53. Black, best known for his wistful 1980s hit Wonderful Life, never regained consciousness after a car crash earlier this month and died in hospital in Cork, southern Ireland, surrounded by family members who were singing as he passed away.
"No need to laugh or cry/ It's a wonderful, wonderful life," the family said in a statement, quoting Black's most famous song. Wonderful Life peaked at number eight in Britain's singles chart in 1987 and was also a hit in a string of other European countries. Although originally from Liverpool, the singer, who leaves a wife and three sons, had made Ireland his home.
JIMMY BAIN died on January 24, aged 68. The Scottish bass guitarist rose to prominence in the Seventies when he played with British rock band Rainbow. He went on to play with Dio, an American heavy metal band led by Ronnie James Dio after he left Black Sabbath. Bain also had stints playing with Thin Lizzy and appeared on Gary Moore's 1983 album Dirty Fingers.
Since 2013, Bain had been a member of heavy metal band Last in Line, along with ex-Dio bandmates Vivian Campbell and Vinny Apice.
Film director ETTORE SCOLA, one of the last grand masters of Italian cinema, died on January 19, at the age of 84. Scola directed unforgettable masterpieces featuring Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren, Vittorio Gassman and Nino Manfredi. His work included A Special Day, a 1977 Oscar-nominated movie featuring Mastroianni as a persecuted radio journalist and Loren as a sentimental housewife who meet on the day Hitler visited Rome in 1938.
Scola (above, receiving The Golden Camera Award at the International Art Film Festival in 2009) also wrote and directed We All Loved Each Other So Much, a 1974 comedy-drama about the post-war lives of three partisans fighting for the liberation of Italy. In all, he directed 41 films.
GEORGE WEIDENFELD, an influential publisher, has died aged 96. Lord Weidenfeld was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1919 and studied at the University of Vienna. He fled to London following the annexation of Austria by Germany at the start of the Second World War to escape persecution by the Nazis for being Jewish.
Weidenfeld co-founded Weidenfeld & Nicolson with Nigel Nicolson in 1949 with the intention that it should be a serious list with a European slant. The firm had early successes such as Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Isaiah Berlin’s The Hedgehog and the Fox and James Watson’s The Double Helix.
GLENN FREY, the co-founder of The Eagles, died on January 18 aged 67. Frey, who co-wrote many of the band's hits – including Hotel California and Take It Easy – helped define music in the 1970s. He died of complications from rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia.
Along with Jackson Browne, he wrote Take It Easy. Two of the band's albums would go on to rank among the top-selling albums ever released: Eagles, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) and 1976's Hotel California each sold more than 20 million copies. Band member Don Henley said Frey was like a brother to him and the bond they forged 45 years ago was never broken, even during the time the Eagles were dissolved."We were two young men who made the pilgrimage to Los Angeles with the same dream," he said, "to make our mark in the music industry."
DALE GRIFFIN, a drummer for British glam-rock band Mott the Hoople, died at the age of 67 on January 17. He had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Griffin (who is centre in the 1975 picture, above, of Mott the Hoople) was born in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire.
Griffin was a founding member of the group, which took its name from a 1966 novel by Willard Manus, and featured singer Ian Hunter and guitarist Mick Ralphs. In 1972, they scored their biggest hit with the David Bowie-penned and -produced raucous anthem All the Young Dudes. The group's songs also included All the Way From Memphis and Roll Away the Stone.
The band split by the mid-Seventies, and Griffin later worked as a producer for BBC live music sessions, with artists including Nirvana, the Smashing Pumpkins and Pulp. Mott the Hoople reformed in 2009, but Griffin was already ill and appeared only during encores, his place otherwise taken by Martin Chambers, of the Pretenders.
CLARENCE REID, a talented R&B musician and songwriter better known for his other stage persona as 'Blowfly, a rap singer of X-rated material, died on January 17 aged 76.
'Blowfly' wore a sequined superhero outfit and parodied pop songs using sexually explicit lyrics that earned him recognition as one of the earliest rappers.
Actor DAN HAGGERTY, who found fame in the 1970s playing Grizzly Adams, died from cancer on January 15 aged 74.
As well as starring in the hit 1977 TV show The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams as the lovable mountain man whose best friend was a grizzly bear, Haggerty also appeared in Charlie's Angels and Chips.
Actor ALAN RICKMAN died on January 14 from cancer, aged 69. Rickman, who was born in London on February 21 1946, had iconic film roles, including Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films and the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
He first came to prominence after starring as the villain Hans Gruber, in Die Hard – a part he was offered two days after arriving in Los Angeles. In 1991 he had one of his most memorable roles, when he starred as a cellist opposite Juliet Stevenson in Anthony Minghella’s moving supernatural romance Truly, Madly, Deeply.
DAVID BOWIE died on January 10 after suffering cancer for 18 months. Bowie released his latest album, Blackstar, just three days ag0. Bowie made a surprise comeback in 2013 when he suddenly released a new single on his 66th birthday with an album out just weeks later, his first for 10 years.
The star made a habit of confounding the critics - killing off his most famous creation, Ziggy Stardust, at the height of his fame - and reinventing himself in roles including glam rocker, soul singer and hippie songwriter.Bowie, born David Jones in post-war Brixton, south London, kicked off his music career in the R&B boom of the early Sixties.In 1969 he made his first appearance in the charts with Space Oddity.
A string of albums followed, before 1972's The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars made him an international star.The 1980s saw him combine his pop career with appearances in films including Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence and Absolute Beginners.
Former presenter and DJ ED 'STEWPOT' STEWART died on January 9 aged 74, a few days after having a stroke. The former BBC Radio 1 DJ and Crackerjack presenter died in hospital in Bournemouth. Stewart was one of the first presenters on Radio 1 when it was launched in 1967.
The following year, he began presenting children's show Junior Choice, which became his trademark radio show.On television, Devon-born Stewart was best known for children's favourite Crackerjack. He hosted the show from 1973 to 1979. Stewart presented a Christmas edition of Junior Choice for BBC Radio 2 in 2015.
French composer and conductor PIERRE BOULEZ died on January 5, at the age of 90.
The world-renowned musician died at his home in Baden-Baden, Germany. Boulez was a controversial figure, who once suggested that opera houses should be burnt down.
As well as being a world-famous composer, Boulez was a prolific writer and pianist and was also known as the head of the Paris Philharmonic.
Manager and producer ROBERT STIGWOOD died on January 4, aged 81. Stigwood managed Cream and Eric Clapton as well as launching the career of the Bee Gees, a band that came to define the sound of the decade. In the Seventies he produced the hit films Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Both films were instant successes and gained cult status, although the sequels were deemed flops.
Stigwood bounced back in 1996 to produce the award-winning film Evita, which starred Madonna. He produced countless West End shows including Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, often working with lyricist Tim Rice and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Canadian jazz pianist PAUL BLEY died on January 3, aged 83. Bley, who was born in Montreal on November 10 1932, was a violin prodigy as a child and had earned a piano diploma by the age of 11. He studied at the Juilliard School in New York while gigging with trumpeter Roy Eldridge, trombonist Bill Harris and saxophonists Ben Webster, Sonny Rollins, and Charlie Parker.
He is regarded as a great innovative musician and released more than 100 albums, collaborating with Charles Mingus,Ornette Coleman and Sonny Rollins. He was an early exploiter of the Moog synthesiser in jazz.
Celebrated cinematographer VILMOS ZSIGMOND, best known for The Deer Hunter and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, died on January 1, 2016 in California, aged 85. Hungarian-born Zsigmond helped define cinema's American New Wave in the Seventies through iconic collaborations and a preference for natural light.
He first gained renown for his collaboration with Robert Altman on classics McCabe & Mrs. Miller and The Long Goodbye. In addition to his work on Michael Cimino's classic The Deer Hunter, for which he earned an Oscar nomination, Zsigmond also worked with Brian De Palma on a number of films including Blow Out. Zsigmond's sole Oscar win was for Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He was also responsible for the smokily beautiful cinematography on Heaven's Gate.
Zsigmond, who was given a lifetime achievement award by the Cannes Film Festival in 2014, also worked with George Miller on The Witches Of Eastwick and with Woody Allen on Melinda and Melinda, Cassandra's Dream, and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.
Culture stars who died in 2015
Gallery compiled by Martin Chilton
