Where did the year go to? A blur of nappies, for me, no doubt, but sitting down to be reflective, as one does, you realise what a contemptible bastard the Reaper was this year too.
Here then are a few thoughts and tributes to the great, good and the memorable who left in January this year.*
*And a few who went before, but were announced after the bells.
To repeat the drill, for those new to this:
Arnold's belief, and one I share, is that if someone makes a mark on your life, however oblique, it is right to tip a hat of respect towards them at their death. They could have written a book you love, or been a hero of your childhood (or adulthood), or even had a passing role in an episode of a TV show you liked. Whatever they did, it is right to acknowledge their role in an aspect of your life, much as we hope others will do for us in the future when we are gone.
He made one small ruling though: "it can't be a meaningless list of names, it has to express why these people meant something." For some people, that is fairly obvious. Phil Everly's legacy, for example, is fairly easily defined and adored. The bigger challenge was in expressing the adoration felt for so many unsung heroes, too many of whom we lost this year. Folk who might not get a moment in a Year End Memoriam on TV, but who deserve a moment of respect none the less. In fact, researching the finer details of folk I had as fuzzy memories led me to appreciate them all the more again.
I guess as you get older, your spheres of knowledge widen, and so by degrees do the vast number of people involved. Take Doctor Who for example. The average fan has an interest in a show going back fifty years, and knows of many of the main stars, production teams, assistants, writers, associates and guest casts of the show. Thats a list of over two thousand names from the off, and I've never met anybody whose sole interest in life is merely one TV show.
So on top of all our the personal tragedies, here is a small (small not being the operative word here) tribute to lives that moved: writers, musicians, politicians, historical figures, war heroes, actors, geniuses, activists, footballers. Some may be acknowledged for their place in history, others for their effect on me. All people made equal by that final exit.
It isn't a complete list. You wont find the Deaths of Everyone in 2014 here - go to Wikipedia for that. I can't pretend to know everything: indeed, I notice many an American football obit, but being blind to the sport, I would have no knowledge of their existence within the sport. Conversely, due to my political history and cult TV geekdoms, folk of those aspects may well show up more than normal.
There was also some judicious editing. My interest has always been primarily in brilliant people, or, at the very least, people I can understand the motivations of. Folk involved in being genuinely evil, I find little brilliance in. Hence previous year snubs of Erich Priebke, and intended future snub of Peter Tobin, for two examples.
For Death is merely a point. All of the people, in their own way, were awe inspiring. So enough of me. Lets pay tribute to the first of these sadly departed.
March 2002 – Michael Leeston-Smith, c 86
Former BBC director who directed The Myth Makers, the
entirely lost Dr Who story about Troy. He had directed several episodes of
Z-cars, having had an early role as lighting engineer on The Quatermass
Experiment. Later he emigrated to South
Africa and helped train the film makers there. Thought alive until this April,
when Toby Hadoke uncovered an obit in The Star newspaper in South Africa date
28th March 2002. His death had gone entirely unnoticed in the UK.
“It was great fun working with Max Adrian and Barrie Ingham.
Both marvellous actors. Although mainly studio-bound, the story did demand some
location filming. We filmed Troy down at Frensham Ponds, a very popular
location at the time.”
Leeston-Smith, DWM188
31st December 2013– James Avery, 68
Actor best known for his role as Uncle Phil in The Fresh
Prince of Bel Air. He also provided the
voice of Shredder in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series.
“Some of my greatest lessons in acting, living and being a
respectable human being came through James Avery. Every young man needs an
uncle.”
Will Smith
31st December 2013 – John Fortune, 74
Comic actor who had a long running partnership with John
Bird, and who appeared in the Bremner, Bird and Fortune TV series, satirising
modern British politics and economics. Fortune and Bird would often improvise
five minute sketches on a topical subject, managing to bounce off each other,
remaining hilarious in the process, and having a start, middle and end of the
sketch self-contained. It was a remarkable talent.
“Yet Fortune was fearless as a satirist. He wasn’t angry or
bitter: quite the reverse. He was a warm, generous, and charming man who loved
literature, cooking, and parrots. He loved people too; he didn’t judge them but
enjoyed them and loved characters - the more eccentric the better. Where Bird
was French – cerebral, brilliantly analytical, smoking Gauloises, John was
Italian, reading poetry, drinking wine and cooking pheasant... John never
seemed hurried. He had the most beautifully organised mind, able to find an
apposite story or experience of his own to cheer you or make you smile. During
our West End run I would fret constantly about the show, confiding in John that
I felt I was just getting away with it. John chastened me for doubting myself.
That night, we took our bows as the audience applauded and cheered. As we
reached the bottom of our bows, I heard John’s voice next to me. “Got away with
it again, Rory?” he said.John didn’t just get away with it. He was the genuine
article. A complete satirist and a lovely human being. I’ll miss him terribly.”
Rory Bremner, Telegraph
2014? – John Carlisle, 79
Wonderful RSC actor. On TV, he was Martindale, the
sympathetic/potentially traitorous boss of Louise Jameson, in the Omega
Factor. He also had roles in The Forsyte
Saga, New Scotland Yard and Disraeli: Portrait of a Romantic. On stage, he was
rarely off it, playing all from King Lear to Nicholas Nickleby. On Broadway, he played Don John in Much Ado,
and Dr Rank in A Doll’s House, among other roles. Despite being a much loved
actor, his death went unreported entirely. It was reported in Equity magazine
in August – when they learned of it. Sometime between 2011 and now. Shame for
such a multi-talented man.
2014 – Derek Smee
Actor who appeared in Poirot, The Saint, Armchair Thriller,
The Bill, and others, but is best known for his performance as Ransome in the
first Jon Pertwee Doctor Who story, Spearhead from Space.
1st January 2014 – Jafar Namdar, 79
Iranian football referee who was at the 1974 and 1978 World
Cups.
1st January 2014 – Juanita Moore, 99
Actress who was Oscar nominated for Imitation of Life. In later life she had an appearance in ER.
1st January 2014
- Billy McColl, 62
Scottish TV actor, who appeared in all the big Scottish
dramas. Possibly best known as one of the two escaped criminals who ran over
and killed the dog, Wee Jock, in a memorable episode of Hamish MacBeth.
Elsewhere he appeared in Doctor Who (Trial of a Time lord), Between the Lines,
and as Jacko Argyle in the rather insane Agatha Christie/Dave Brubeck
cross-over that was Ordeal by Innocence.
2nd January 2014 – Elizabeth Jane Howard, 90
British novelist and ghost story writer, who collaborated
early with Robert Aickman, and who was once married to Kingsley Amis. Her
story, Three Miles Up, is one of the great esoteric British horrors.
2nd January – Bernard Glasser, 89
American producer of the 1963 Day of the Triffids film.
3rd January 2014 – Saul Zaentz, 91
Producer who won the Oscar for One Flew Over the Cuckoos
Nest, Amadeus and The English Patient. Also produced the animated Lord of the
Rings.
3rd January 2014 – Alicia Rhett, 97
Actress who appeared in Gone With the Wind.
3rd January 2014 – Sir Michael Neubert
Tory MP for Romford from 1974-97.
“After her re-election by a landslide in 1983, Mrs Thatcher
appointed Neubert a junior whip. He proved himself a sound performer as he
stayed for five years in the whips’ office, twice earning promotion. He
underlined his loyalty by attending in 1984 one of the formative meetings of
the Thatcherite 92 Group of Conservative MPs. In 1988 he moved to the MoD, as
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Armed Forces. A year later, as cracks
were appearing in the Iron Curtain, Neubert was switched to the defence
procurement portfolio. However the move brought little change to his duties; he
resisted pressure to increase pensions for pre-1973 service widows, and in
April 1990 bravely visited Gruinard Island off the north-west coast of Scotland
to declare it finally safe after World War II anthrax experiments. Though
Neubert did not put a foot wrong, there were complaints that he lacked flair.
When in July 1990 Mrs Thatcher decided to freshen her government, she sacked
him — months later consoling him with a knighthood in her resignation honours.”
Telegraph obit
3rd January 2014 – Phil Everly, 74
One half of the Everly Brothers, singing duo from the 1950s
and 60s.
5th January 2014 – Simon Hoggart, 67
(public domain picture, Guardian, Lib Dem conference 2006)
Journalist who wrote for The Guardian and The Spectator. He presented
The News Quiz . on the Radio 4. Oldest
son of Richard Hoggart.
“Hoggart's world view was shaped by his family roots in the
industrial north of England. He knew Thatcher had made necessary reforms but
felt she was neither evil witch nor national saviour, merely increasingly mad.
He disliked New Labour ("if they ever invent a fat-free lard it would
resemble a New Labour MP") and thought Tony Blair a self-satisfied
opportunist. "I sat in the front row for Tony Blair's (conference) speech.
It was like the monsoon in a Somerset Maugham short story," he once wrote.
John Major's curious vocabulary and sentence structure he routinely ascribed to
the then-PM having learned English as a second language in a British Council
office in rural Nigeria. He also tormented John Prescott and Lib Dem ministers
in general. But he could be kind when he decided a politician had risen to a
difficult occasion and had his favourites. They included Sir Peter Tapsell, now
father of the Commons, whose grandiloquent style of speech prompted Hoggart to
suggest that monks must be writing down his every word on vellum.”
Michael White, Guardian obit
“What few people seemed able to do was face the fact that she got some things right, and others horribly wrong; that she wasn't evil so much as ludicrously overconfident in her judgments. The new pope may have renounced his own infallibility, but she never did.”
Simon Hoggart’s last Year in Review, Guardian 19th December 2013
5th January 2014 – Eusebio, 71
5th January 2014 – Eusebio, 71
"Without doubt, Eusebio was one of the finest players I ever had the privilege to play
against. I feel proud to have been both an opponent and friend and am saddened
to hear of his passing."
Bobby Charlton
Mozambique born Portuguese footballer, who played for
Benfica and won the European Cup. He scored 473 goals in 440 goals for Benfica,
and played in multiple European Cup finals.
“Eusébio scored a
hat-trick on his Benfica debut, in June 1961. Two weeks later, in a friendly
match in Paris, the team faced the Brazilian club Santos, and their great
striker Pelé. With Benfica losing 4-0 and with no chance of winning, Guttmann
brought on Eusébio in the second half. Within 20 minutes, he had scored another
hat-trick. Pelé, along with everyone else watching, sensed the arrival of a
future great. Benfica were then reigning European and Portuguese champions, but
Eusébio forced his way into their formidable side the following season. At the
end of that season the club retained the European Cup, defeating the mighty
Real Madrid, unbeaten in their previous five finals and led by Ferenc
Puskas and Alfredo di Stefano, Eusébio's boyhood idol.
The 19-year-old scored the last two goals in the 5-3 victory, and at the
end of the game swapped shirts with Puskas, who had scored a hat-trick, a
symbolic exchange between the game's greatest goal scorer and his heir
apparent, before Benfica supporters carried their new king from the pitch on
their shoulders. Europe’s football writers voted him the continent's
second-best player in his first full season as a professional.
Gavin McOwan, Guardian obit
Gavin McOwan, Guardian obit
“"His
talent brought joy for entire generations, even those who didn't live through
the most glorious moments of his career.”
Anibal Cavaco Silva
Anibal Cavaco Silva
Playing for his international team, he got Portugal to the
World Cup semifinals in 1966, single handedly bringing his team back from the
brink against North Korea in a famous quarterfinal in which he scored four
goals.
“He was the prototype of a complete 21st-century striker,
decades ahead of his time; a superb athlete (he ran the 100 metres in 11
seconds at the age of 16) with explosive accleration who could leave
defenders trailing in his wake. He could also dribble, was good in the air
and possessed a fearsome and highly accurate right foot.”
Gavin McOwan, Guardian obit
He suffered ill health in his later years, but could still
be seen frequently as the travelling ambassador for all things Benfica and
Portuguese football. During the Euro 2004 quarterfinal penalty shootout with
England, it was Eusebio who could be seen on the touchline yelling to the
Portuguese goalkeeper which way the next English penalty would go. And he was
right.
“Eusebio played down
racial and national politics, praised others and denied stories about him that
could have been turned into legend. Born in Mozambique on Jan. 25, 1942, to an
Angolan father, he belonged to Portugal because those countries were still
considered colonies. The rumor grew that he had been kidnapped by Benfica, the
great power of Portuguese soccer, until he signed a contract.“These are all
lies, pure and simple!” Eusebio said in a 2008 forum at fourfourtwo.com. “Some
people aren’t honest, but me and my family are. My mother signed a contract
with Benfica for 250 contos [around $1,700] and she insisted on a clause which
read, ‘If my son does not adapt, the money is deposited in the bank in
Mozambique and not one penny will be taken from it.’ I had return tickets when
I arrived.”Eusebio’s legacy is best seen and heard in the documentary, “Goal!
The World Cup,” issued in 1967, with commentary by Brian Glanville. In the
third match of the first round, a Portuguese player steamrollered the sport’s
greatest star, Pelé, already playing with an injury. Eusebio stood by Pelé as
the medics attended to him. The rumor was that Eusebio chastised his teammate,
but he said, no, he stood by Pelé because “He is my friend.”
George Vecsey, New York Times
In the 1968 European
Cup final, Eusebio came the closest to dispelling the Curse of Bela (an alleged
curse put over Benfica by their European Cup winning manager when he was sacked
by them, that prevents them winning any European Cup since, despite having
played in eight finals. Eusebio believed in the curse enough to pray for its
lifting at Bela’s grave in Hungary in 1990, to no avail...). At 1-1 late on in
the final against Manchester United, Eusebio launched free of the United
defence, and with only the keeper to beat produced a world class reaction save
out of Alex Stepney. A little to the left, or to the right, and Benfica were
champions. In a moment when many modern day prima donnas would swear or frown
or look huffy at the miss, Eusebio applauded the goalkeepers save.
“He's one of the
greatest in the history of football, but for our country he's much more than
that. Irreplaceable - his place in the history of Portuguese football, but more
than that in the history of our country. He's a man that doesn't belong to
Benfica, doesn't belong to a club, he belongs to a country and I prefer to say
that people like him are immortal, because their history and their legacy
remains forever.”
Jose Mourinho
Jose Mourinho
“"Looking back on
my career I can't say I am sad about it."
Eusebio
6th January 2014 – Larry D Mann, 91
Actor who played Watkins in In the Heat of the Night, but
was also known as the voice of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.
7th January 2014 – Run Run Shaw, 106
Movie mogul and producer.
Creator of Shaw Studios, and more known for his Kung Fu films, he was
also executive producer of Blade Runner.
7th January 2014 – Paul Goggins, 60
MP for Wythenshawe and Sale East from 1997 to 2014, and a
former minister for Northern Ireland under Gordon Brown. Died a week after collapsing while out
running, from a brain haemorrhage.
8th January 2014 – Jacques Lazarus, 97
One of the leaders of the Jewish resistance in France during
World War 2.
9th January 2014 – Franklin McCain, 73
Civil Rights activist. One of the leaders of the Greensboro
sit-ins.
“When the students sat
down, a waitress told them that “we don’t serve Negroes here.” They showed her
receipts from their purchase minutes earlier of school supplies and other items
and asked why Woolworth’s accepted their business in the store but not at the
lunch counter. At one point, a black employee told them to stop making trouble.
A white woman seated near the students expressed her pride in them — and asked
why they hadn’t acted earlier. Woolworth’s was a national chain and, in matters
of segregation, pursued a policy of adhering to local practices. And so the
students were not served. Mr. McCain and others returned the next day, and day
after day after that one, with an increasing number of demonstrators. Not yet a
week into the demonstration, at least 1,000 had come to protest with them. The
Woolworth’s sit-in was not the first of its kind, but it attracted intense
national media coverage and was credited with sparking a movement of sit-ins
across the country. Conceived and sustained by youths, the Greensboro demonstration
also helped inspire the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which was
formed in 1960 and became a cornerstone of the civil rights effort.”
Emily Langer, Washington Post
9th January 2014 – Dale T Mortensen, 74
American economist who won the Nobel Prize in 2010.
10th January 2014 – Ian Redford, 53
Scottish footballer who played for both Dundee clubs,
Rangers, Raith Rovers and Ipswich Town. Was at one point the most expensive
Scottish transfer. Managed Brechin City for a season in 1993/4. Published his
autobiography 2 months before his death.
“Ian joined Rangers at what was a very difficult period for
the club. He managed to catch the back end of what you would say then was the
great team of the 70s. A lot of our players left but he carried out and had a
very good career. He was a great athlete and a very good professional. But most
of all, Ian was just a really nice lad. He came to the club quite frequently
after he left.”
Sandy Jardine, Daily Record
“The memory of his performances for United at a time when
the club competed in the higher echelons of European football will forever be
part of our history and his winning goal against Borussia Monchengladbach in
the semi final of the Uefa Cup semi final in 1987 will always be looked back on
with particular fondness by Arabs everywhere.”
Dundee United statement
“Whatever comes my way, I will be up for the challenges. If you have a good core philosophy of who you are and how you feel about yourself, nothing can get in your way.”
Ian Redford, November 2013
10th January 2014 – Zbigniew Messner, 84
Prime Minister of Poland from 1985-88 who passed the motion
of no confidence in the Soviet Sejm parliament.
11th January 2014 – Ariel Sharon, 85
Controversial Israeli leader, who had been incapacitated by
a stroke in 2006.
11th January 2014 – Jerome Willis, 85
“An unselfish, thoughtful actor, his commanding features and
voice lending themselves equally well to playing dignified victims or devilish
villains.”
Simon Farquhar, Independent obit
British RSC actor whose frequent TV appearances were a
delight, be they in the Oval Portrait, Casualty or Harry Enfield. He was
Mycroft in the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes, a lawyer in The New Statesman and
the party chairman in Yes Prime Minister. A memorable role was as Stevens, the
brainwashed boss of Global Chemicals, in classic Dr Who serial The Green Death
(aka the one with the maggots). Oliver Cromwell, The Freewheelers, Doomwatch,
The Duchess of Malfi, The Avengers, episodes of the Wednesday Play: whatever the
genre, the show was only ever enhanced by the acting ability of Jerome Willis.
“In 1960 he was invited to appear in what would turn out to be a pioneering event in television drama – Shakespeare's history plays from Richard II, through the Henrys IV, V and VI to Richard III, performed in 15 parts, under the overall title An Age of Kings, starting with Richard II: The Hollow Crown. The project was the inspiration of Peter Dews, who persuaded the BBC to take it on. Each instalment was broadcast live, an extra challenge for the actors, the many battlefields created in the studio at Wood Lane. Jerome played a succession of noblemen. His first substantial Shakespeare part came two years later at the Old Vic, when he appeared as Orsino in Twelfth Night, with Eileen Atkins as Viola. In 1975, he undertook what he called a "labour of love", playing the kindly, conscience-stricken General Lord Fairfax in Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo's film Winstanley , about the tragic fate of the leader of the Diggers in the English civil war. He was the one professional in a cast of amateurs. The subject had a deep and lasting appeal for him, confirming his belief in the Quaker movement, which he was to join as a consequence. Other film work included Orlando , with Tilda Swinton, in 1992.”
Paul Bailey, Guardian obit
12th January 2014 – John Horsley, 93
Actor best known for his roles in The Fall and Rise of
Reginald Perrin (as Doc Morrissey) and The Box of Delights (as the Bishop of
Tatchester).
12th January 2014 – John Button, 70
Father of Jenson Button.
12th January 2014 – Sir Robert Scholey, 92
Former Chairman of British steel.
“A plain-speaking Yorkshireman known to friends and enemies
alike as “Black Bob”, Scholey returned the loss-making nationalised corporation
to profitability and led it back to the private sector — but found himself
forever cast in Scottish demonology as the man who closed Ravenscraig.Scholey
was one of British industry’s characters, and when Margaret Thatcher’s
government gave him the tricky and politically sensitive job of handling BSC’s
privatisation, it was seen by some as a high-risk appointment. For Scholey’s
stock-in-trade was bluntness, though this was coupled with a detailed knowledge
of steelmaking acquired over 40 years in the industry. He had a reputation as a
hard, even intimidating, man who did not suffer fools gladly.”
Telegraph obit
13th January 2014 - Bobby Collins, 82
Scottish international footballer who played for Celtic
(winning the 1951 Scottish Cup), Everton and Leeds.
14th January 2014 – Mae Young, 90
(public domain photo from 2001)
“Mae Young — who pulled hair and took cheap shots, who preferred
actually fighting to pretending, who was, by her own account and that of many
other female wrestlers, the greatest and dirtiest of them all.”
William Yardley, New York Times
“Johnnie Mae Young was truly one of the greatest female
competitors to ever lace up a pair of boots. A proud competitor for three
quarters of a century and valued part of WWE to her last day, Young truly
blazed a path for future female grapplers beginning in the 1940s. From the
moment she first stepped through the ropes, Young established herself as one of
the most active and successful female Superstars — including becoming the first
U.S. Women’s Champion, carrying out one of the most storied rivalries of the
time with the legendary Mildred Burke in 1954 and being among the first female
competitors to tour post-war Japan. The entire WWE Universe offers a standing
ovation to a true queen of the canvas and bids Mae Young a heartfelt farewell.”
WWE statement
“My brother and I went to school together, and he was on the
boys' amateur wrestling team. He taught me all of the amateur wrestling holds
so I was a good wrestler. When we went to school, he would go down the street
and say, 'I bet my sister could whip you.' So, I was wrestling all of my
life."
Mae Young
Veteran womans pro-wrestler. In an industry dominated by old
timer men, even many of those old timers used to put Mae Young on their lists
of toughest people in the industry without second thought. Starting out as an
amateur wrestler – there was no such sport for the girls back then, so she just
wrestled the boys – Mae trained to become a professional as in the Depression
thats where the money was.
"When they brought Mildred Burke to Tulsa to wrestle a
girl by the name of Gladys 'Kill 'Em' Gillem, I caught a streetcar and went
over and challenged Mildred Burke because she was the world's champion... Billy
Wolfe and Sam Avey, the promoter, told me, 'You can't wrestle the champion,
there's no way.' The next day Billy Wolfe brought a girl by the name of Elvira
Snodgrass and Gladys 'Kill 'Em' Gillem over to my high school. In the gym, I
shot with Gladys and beat her within seconds. Then, I shot with Elvira, and I
beat her in seconds. Billy Wolfe then said, 'Well, I might make a girl wrestler
out of you.' He smartened me up and said you gotta go with the flow. Back
during the time I started wrestling, they didn't like to see girls in the ring.
Ed 'Strangler' Lewis told me, 'Women belong in the kitchen and not in the ring.
I don't like women wrestling but if there ever was someone born to be a
wrestler, you're it.' That's the greatest compliment I ever received because
that was what I was born to do. That's the only thing I breathe and think
about. I go to sleep thinking about wrestling, I love the business."
Mae Young, collated by Greg Oliver
Her first match was in March 1939.
Her last match was in November 2010! (In which she exploded
the TV Networks PG rating by audibly calling her opponents “sluts” on live TV.)
“It was widely known
that Mae Young was the bona fide toughest and most dangerous female in the
rough and tumble world of old school, pro wrestling. Mae told me many stories
of smoking cigars and playing poker with her male peers that only enhanced the
legend that was 'The Great' Mae Young. Mae once discovered a male wrestler
cheating at cards for which he paid an embarrassingly physical price."
Jim Ross
““Anybody can be a baby face, what we call a clean wrestler.
They don’t have to do nothing. It’s the heel that carries the whole show. I’ve
always been a heel, and I wouldn’t be anything else but.”
Mae Young, Lipsticks and Dynamite
Now, trying to break into a male dominated industry at any
time is quite the obstacle. Especially when one is a carny like atmosphere, and
attempts by groundbreakers were either controlled by the late Fabulous Moolah
(whose reputation when she died was as a pioneer, and has since death been hurt
by a series of revelations about her bullying and blackmailing of her students)
or promoter Billy Wolfe (whose domineering ways pioneering womans wrestler
Mildred Burke had to deal with her entire career).
Mae Young’s response to this was quite blunt and to the
point. For example, one time, on her way to ringside, some creep in the
audience tried to cop a feel. She responded by kicking him so hard she broke
bone, and was arrested for assault!
“Mae Young got into trouble in Little Rock one night, Elviry
Snodgrass recalled, not without some glee because the gals don't like each
other. They never speak outside the ring. "Young is a natural
roughneck," Elviry said by way of prelude to the story. "This night
in Little Rock she said something to a man fan and he kicked her in the face.
Then Mae took him. His wife came to his assistance and Young sent both of them
to the hospital. " The aftermath was a trip to the jailhouse for Mae and a
fine.”
Gene Sullivan, St. Joseph MO News-Press, Friday, March 16,
1945
“Maybe I did work Mr. Nelson over a little,” she said at the
time. “He made advances to me. Improper advances.”
Washington Post
According to historian Greg Oliver, Young was swiftly
released when Mr Nelsons version of events was found to have rather more holes
in it!
She was a take no shit personality, and managed to maintain
a long running friendship with Moolah, despite being polar opposites. (While
Moolah had enemies and was a supreme politician, Mae was universally loved and
called a spade a shovel – though one might say making a friend of someone
likely to be your worst enemy is a fine diplomatic skill in itself.) In fact,
Young even helped train Moolah. In fact,
such was her reputation, she used to train the men!
Her reputation was as one of the finest professional woman
wrestlers in North America, but the outsider as the face of the industry moved
from the much likeable Mildred Burke to Moolah (via the insidious movements of
the aforementioned Billy Wolfe). None of the footage of her work in her prime
exists to modern audiences. So, as time moved on, and the history of
pro-wrestling became, in a word, “McMahon-ised”, her legacy threatened to be
washed away, like so many of the pioneers. After all, she was one in a niche,
and for parts of the 1990s, there wasn’t even a womens championship in Vince
McMahons WWF (swiftly on its way to becoming the only show in town in an
American sense).
This is when Mae Young showed back up on the scene. An
official 76 years old (though it was likely up to half a decade older in
reality), Young appeared on WWF TV in 1999 in a storyline in which a male
wrestler was doing the “anti-woman” gimmick. Wrestling had changed somewhat in
the preceeding 60s years from “worked shoot” amateur with dramatics, to the
Hogan/Big Daddy style stuff we all know today. By 1999, the usual tricks of the
trade, complete with the steel chair shots to the head (since scaled way down due to recent studies in post
concussion syndrome). In typical WWF style, they decided to have one of their
wrestlers use one of the most devastating moves in wrestling (both in terms of
the story, and in terms of how it could go wrong with the untrained or if badly
timed), only to take it fifteen feet off the stage and onto 3 prop tables.
Bubba Ray Dudley, the wrestler who was to deliver the move,
had a hard mans reputation, and even he was a bit worried about how to perform
the stunt with a near 80 year old woman. At which point Mae Young told him “If
you don’t do this like you would anyone else, I’m going to kick your ass.” So
they did, and Mae gave him a hug afterwards! (And given she was the lead heel
in her own independent promotion at the time, events like this were just par
for the course for her even then!)
"I have never thought of my age as any barrier, because
I feel I can do anything these 15- and 16-year-old kids can do.”
Mae Young
“"I picked her up very lightly, put her down very
gently. After the match was over and we'd gone to the back, she came up to me,
grabbed me by the wrist like only Lou Thesz could have done, 'Listen, hotshot,
if you're gonna slam me, slam me like one of the boys.' You could imagine the
look on my face, seeing this little, blonde lady telling me that. From there,
we did the spot where I Superbombed her off the top of the stage, 12 feet from
the ground, through two tables. She has since suggested to me on three
different occasions that we do the same spot from the top of the steel cage!”
Bubba Ray Dudley, Slam Wrestling
Some folk might find this awful, but that would be to
overlook the essential being of Mae Young. She had lived her entire life with
her own branch of openly LGBT feminism, fighting for her right to be taken
seriously in a male dominated industry... so she could earn the right to be a
take no shit comedy performer who was portrayed as a sex mad great-granny on
TV. She revelled in it, and the ability
to show she was as tough as they come, and the adoration she earned was genuine
and widespread.
“"Her longevity in sports entertainment may never be
matched, and I will forever be grateful for all of her contributions to the
industry.”
Vince McMahon
"I have on my 100th birthday an appointment to wrestle
Stephanie McMahon's daughter, Aurora Rose, and that's gonna be my opponent on
my 100th birthday. Stephanie has already promised me that I can do that, so I'm
gonna do that. I'll be there to it."
Mae Young
Her indefatigability with life came to a sudden end, with a
short stay in a hospice. Even then, she took to confounding expectations. As
her fans knew the end was fast approaching, a journalist jumped the gun with
the news she had died three days early. “Dead? I just ate breakfast!” she
apparently responded. Such was her inbuilt fight and stubbornness, she was
ready to rise from the near dead one more time, for the final “false finish”.
What a woman. She’ll be sadly missed.
14th January 2014 – Dick Shepherd, 86
Missouri born film producer who was responsible for
Breakfast at Tiffanys.
15th January 2014 – Roger Lloyd-Pack, 69
Instantly recognisable actor. As Trigger in Only Fools and
Horses, he provided the set up line or reaction shot to some of the classic
moments in British comedy. He was also recognised for appearances in Doctor Who
(as OTT Cyberman creator John Lumic, complete with great villain line “How will
you achieve that...from beyond the grave?”) and Harry Potter (as doomed Barty
Crouch Sr). But his credits were
widespread, including Fiddler on the Roof, the Naked Civil Servant and
Interview with the Vampire.
16th January 2014 – Hiroo Onoda, 91
Japanese soldier who kept to his orders not to surrender on
Lubang Island during WW2 until 1974.
16th January 2014 – Russell Johnson, 89
American TV actor, known for his two roles in The Twilight
Zone in this house. In “Back There” he is the time traveller who tries to
prevent the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, only to confide in John Wilkes
Booth (hows that for a typical Twilight Zone twist?). In “Execution”, he is the
one providing the time travel for Albert Salmi’s nearly executed wild west
criminal.
17th January 2014 – Lord McAlpine, 71
Businessman and former advisor of Margaret Thatcher.
18th January 2014 – Komla Dumor 41
BBC Africa news presenter.
18th January 2014 – Ken Trew, 77
Costume designer for several episodes of Doctor Who.
18th January 2014 – Dennis Frederiksen, 62
Rock singer who was the lead singer of Toto, as well as
provided backing vocals for Survivor.
19th January 2014 – Sir Christopher Chataway, 82
The pacemaker for Roger Bannisters four minute mile. The
first BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Competed in the 1952 and 1956
Olympics. BBC Panorama reporter. Tory MP for Lewisham from 1959-66, and
Chichester from 1969-74. Supported the boycott of apartheid South Africa by the
English cricket team. Later, chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority. He also
suggested the formation of the Guinness Book of Records.
“He was in the vanguard of social reform, co-sponsoring
Humphry Berkeley’s Bill to legalise homosexuality and telling for the Ayes in
the 1964 vote to end capital punishment. As leader of the Inner London
Education Committee, he upset grassroots Tories by letting comprehensive plans
for seven boroughs go ahead, before securing a reprieve from the Labour
government for 44 grammar schools.”
Telegraph obit
19th January 2014 – Bert Williams, 93
Former Wolves and England goalkeeper.
20th January 2014 – Claudio Abbado, 80
Former principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.
20th January 2014 – George Scott, 84
Former wrestler who was WWF booker during the early Hulk
Hogan era.
24th January 2014 – Lisa Daniely, 84
Actress who appeared in Doctor Who and Princess in Love.
27th January 2014 – Ann Carter, 77
Actress in the Curse of the Cat People.
27th January 2014 – Pete Seeger, 94
American folk singer-songwriter. Known for left leaning
politics and social activism over 7 decades. Despite acknowledgement that many
of his contemporaries preferred a folk song to “be 200 years old, like a fine
wine”, he promoted young folk singers like Phil Ochs.
28th January 2014 – Fernand Leduc, 97
Canadian Abstract artist.
28th January 2014 – Kenneth Rose, 89
Writer who wrote the 1983 biography of George V, and worked
for the Telegraph.
30th January 2014 – Campbell Lane, 78
Actor who provided the voice of Skeletor in He-Man, and had
small roles in four episodes of The X-Files.
30th January 2014 – Arthur Rankin Jr
American producer who founded Rankin Pictures, responsible
for many US childrens Christmas specials.
31st January 2014 – Anna Gordy Gaye, 92
Motown songwriter, who wrote “Baby I’m for Real” and several
songs for Marvin Gaye, whom she was married to. They split acrimoniously (which
led to the album “Here My Dear”) but later became friends again until Gaye’s
death in 1984.
31st January 2014 – David Price, 89
Tory MP for Eastleigh from 1955 to 1992.
“An imposing figure, Price was never afraid to stick his
neck out; his abstention over Suez with his uncle, Sir Lionel Heald, just after
arriving in the House, was forgiven by Macmillan — although not by members of
Pratt’s, who four years later blackballed him from his father’s old club. He
opposed capital punishment and apartheid; and advocated tax credits for the
less well-off, a flexible retirement age and a criminal injuries compensation
scheme years before they were introduced . He also campaigned assiduously for
the disabled, a cause which was close to his heart. His wife Rosemary had
suffered a near-fatal 40ft fall from their Pimlico bathroom window in 1964,
when she was 26, incurring multiple injuries and losing the second child they
were expecting. After a year in Stoke Mandeville hospital she spent four
decades mainly in a wheelchair . In 1970 Price and his wife were turned away
from the Tate Gallery when he took her there for the first time since her
accident; not only were the steps difficult for a wheelchair, but attendants
also said that the gallery was too crowded. The Prices checked other museums
and galleries and found things little better; so when Heath’s government
introduced museum charges, Price tabled an amendment allowing them to keep the
money if they spent it on facilities for the disabled.”
Telegraph obit
Quot
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