1st July 2016 – Yves Bonnefoy, 93
French poet, historian and the man who translated Shakespeare into French. He was winner of the French Academy’s highest prize in 1981.
“Mr. Bonnefoy (pronounced bun-FWA) burst onto the literary scene in 1953 with “On the Motion and Immobility of Douve,” a long poetic sequence that revolved around a mysterious female figure, Douve, whose shifting guises invoked the powers of death and rebirth and poetry itself. The work has often been compared, in impact, to the publication of Paul Valéry’s first column of verse, “La Jeune Parque” (“The Young Fate”), a generation earlier, in 1917. “It was a stunning achievement, a work of extraordinary technical mastery, playing with the traditional alexandrine, the 12-syllable line, but subverting it,” John T. Naughton, the author of “The Poetics of Yves Bonnefoy” (1984), said in an interview. “Readers sensed that a new voice had come on the scene, and that a new generation was coming to prominence after the war.” By 1978, when his collected poems were published, Mr. Bonnefoy’s position as France’s most important poet, and one if its most influential men of letters, was secure. After Roland Barthes died in an accident in 1980, Mr. Bonnefoy was elected his successor to the chair of comparative poetics at the Collège de France, making him the first poet to join the institution since Valéry in 1937.”
William Grimes, Yves Bonnefoy, Pre-Eminent French Poet, Dies at 93, New York Times 5 July 2016
1st July 2016 – Robin Hardy, 86
Film director responsible for The Wicker Man.
2nd July 2016 – Caroline Aherne, 52
Actress who became known for her roles as Mrs Merton and in The Royle Family.
2nd July 2016 – Michael Cimino, 77
Film director who was behind The Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate.
2nd July 2016 – Michele Rocard, 85
French Prime Minister from 1988 to 1991.
“Rocard threw his hat in the ring to be the Socialist candidate for the presidency if the ageing Mitterrand decided not to stand again. When Mitterrand made it clear he had every intention of doing so, Rocard had to withdraw his candidature. After Mitterrand’s re-election in 1988, he appointed Rocard as prime minister. The parliamentary elections that followed the presidential election did not give the Socialists an overall majority, and Rocard seemed the person likeliest to rally the support of centrists to the government. As premier, Rocard did have some notable successes: he managed to reconcile the highly antagonistic communities in the French territory of New Caledonia; he organised a reform of the financing of the indebted social security budget; and he introduced a minimum living wage income (Revenu Minimum d’Insertion) for those on very low incomes. These were valuable incremental reforms, but Rocard did not entirely succeed in giving an overall sense of direction as premier. This was partly because Mitterrand, as president, did all he could to undermine him. When Rocard had taken over, the outgoing premier, Jacques Chirac, told him: “Beware of Mitterrand, it is when he smiles at you that the dagger is close to your back.” This was indeed the case, though for Rocard there were in fact few smiles.”
Julian Jackson and David Owen, Guardian obit 6 July 2016
2nd July 2016 – Elie Wiesel, 87
Jewish writer who escaped the Holocaust, wrote The Gates of the Forest, and won the Nobel Peace Prize.
2nd July 2016 – Patrick Manning, 69
Former Geologist who went into politics and became Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago twice, from 1991 to 1995 and 2001 to 2010.
2nd July 2016 – Roscoe Brown, 94
One of the last surviving Tunguskee airmen.
2nd July 2016 – Euan Lloyd, 92
Film producer behind The Wild Geese and The Sea Wolves.
2nd July 2016 – Robert Nye, 77
English poet.
4th July 2016 – Mitch Fenner, 70
BBC gymnastics commentator.
3rd July 2016 – Jimmy Frizzell, 79
Former footballer who played for Oldham, and later spent twelve years in charge of Oldham as manager. He became Manchester City manager in 1986, but was unable to prevent their relegation that season.
3rd July 2016 – John Middleton, 59
Former Derby County goalkeeper.
3rd July 2016 – Noel Neill, 95
Actress who played Lois Lane in the original Superman TV series alongside George Reeves.
4th July 2016 – Abbas Kiarostami, 76
Iranian film director responsiblr for the Wind Will Carry Us.
5th July 2016 – Brian White, 59
Labour MP for North East Milton Keynes from 1997 to 2005.
5th July 2016 – Beatrice de Cardi, 102
Pioneering female archaeologist who worked in the Persian gulf during the 1930s and on. She was taught by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, and later became his assistant and secretary, before moving to her own career in the field, which only ended in 2007. She was swcretary of the British Archaeology Council from 1949 to 1973, and their current headquarters is named after her.
“De Cardi came to the UAE looking for evidence of possible links between two ancient civilisations - one located on the Arabian side of the gulf and the other on the Iranian side."In 1966 I started excavating in southeast Iran and I came across two grey artifacts - one was painted with black designs and the other had decoration," she told Gulf News in an interview. De Cardi knew that a Danish team had found evidence of the Um Al Nar culture in the UAE and Oman (2600BC-2000BC). She decided to send her own discoveries to the team in Muscat museum and they confirmed that they were similar to the wares they had found. "I wanted to track down the wares to see where else I could find them in the emirates and the logical place to look was Ras Al Khaimah, because it is not far from the opposite side of the Gulf," she said.”
Eman Mohammed, De Cardi still retains passion for archaeology, Gulf News 6 March 2009
“We camped out sharing a water channel with a pack of wild dogs who raced past our tent to drink twice daily. At night the howls of wolves in the adjacent hills served as a reminder that Baluchistan was a wild and dangerous place. The impression gained substance when we moved back to Surab and were not allowed to camp at Siah-damb on account of a djinn [spirit] greatly feared by our workmen. I suspected a more material power and accepted a revolver lent by the local official."
Beatrice de Cardi, to Jonathan Brown, Making history: the world’s oldest archaeologist, The Independent, 3 April 2008
“She disliked the comparison to Indiana Jones, explaining that she wanted to be thought of as an academic, not an explorer, and she claimed that she had never experienced any problems because of her sex: “I am not a woman or a man when I am working in the Gulf or anywhere else. I am a professional and they have always accepted that.”
Telegraph obit
“De Cardi’s fieldwork circled the Gulf, starting in Baluchistan in 1947, moving in the 60s to Iran and the Arab Emirates, and on to Oman and Qatar in the 70s. When she stopped digging – unable to climb in and out of trenches, she said – she continued cataloguing artefacts at the Ras al-Khaimah emirate’s national museum, whose foundation went back to her pioneering discoveries. Her most pleasing find was a type of pottery used in Ras al-Khaimah in 2000BC, which analysis showed to have been imported from where she began, in Baluchistan. Although this work was impressive, and supported by grants from academic institutions, she was technically an amateur, accumulating leave to fit her travels around paid employment. She distinguished herself equally in the latter as head of the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) for 24 years, but her heart was in the Middle East. “She toiled valiantly for British archaeology,” said a friend, “while dreaming of deserts.” De Cardi would advise young, aspirant archaeologists that the career was best followed with private means. But if, she once told me, you have to choose between a comfortable living and a perennial interest in life, “personally I’d plump for the interest”.”
Mike Pitts, Guardian obit 14 July 2016
7th July 2016 – James Gilbert, 93
TV producer who created The Two Ronnies (indeed, introduced the Two Ronnies to each other), and was the first producer on Last of the Summer Wine.
“The Frost Report, produced by Gilbert, only ran for two seasons in 1966 and 1967 and a special one-off edition, Frost Over England, won the Golden Rose of Montreux in 1967. But as Sir Antony Jay later recalled, “the shrapnel enriched British comedy for years to come.” Frost and Gilbert recognised the chemistry between Barker and Corbett and started to write for them as a duo. Sketches such as Cleese, Barker and Corbett’s “I look up to him” satire on the British class system, written by Marty Feldman and John Law, became oft-repeated classics. When Frost moved to ITV, Barker and Corbett moved with him. But in 1971 Gilbert lured them back to the BBC as stars of their own show, The Two Ronnies, which would run until 1986 with an average audience of around 15 million viewers. Gilbert, who produced the first series, and the director Terry Hughes, were largely responsible for establishing the pattern of the show with its quick-fire verbal gags, double entendres and cavalcade of naive caricatures of British life: bumbling colonels, half-witted yokels and bosomy barmaids.”
Telegraph obit
“Even afterwards, [Roy] Clarke would credit Jimmy Gilbert with turning his vision of what The Last of the Summer Wine should be into reality. He set the tone and style for the programme which stayed throughout, and was a crucial factor in its popularity. Equally crucially, Gilbert embraced Clarke’s desire to open up situation comedy, to take it outside the confines of the studio... Gilbert had just arrived back from Australia..he found Clarke’s script tremendously impressive, and full of potential to develop into a series. “When I read it, I was bowled over by the originality of the dialogue, the gentle, quirky characters and the atmosphere of the Yorkshire countryside. I wanted to direct it in the same way as I’d done in Australia, making the scenery an important part of the series. The script was brilliant and if we got the casting right, I felt we were in with a very good chance.”
Andrew Vine, Last of the Summer Wine, Aurum Press Ltd 2011, page 14
It was Gilbert though fought to keep the working title of the show, rather than the BBC’s suggested change to The Library Mob. Gilbert, rightly, thought the Library Mob screamed 1970s sitcom, and a title was crucial to a show. He immediately saw Peter Sallis in the Norman Clegg role, and equally vitally, was the only man in the world to look at the dapper Cockney firebrand Socialist Bill Owen prior to 1972 and think: “You know what? You are our smelly, scoundrel Compo.”
A great casting producer sees the perfect casting when it doesn’t strike anyone else. I’m reminded of John McTiernan’s production crew seeing the merits in Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman in Die Hard despite suits protests. Try imagining that film with anyone else in those roles? We can’t, nor can we imagine the bedrocks of Holmfirth played by anyone but Sallis and the late Owen. It’s in seeing how much of one of the great sitcoms was shaped by Gilbert – the location, the cast, the theme – that we can appreciate how much he brought to the number of shows he worked on over the years, from The Frost Report on.
7th July 2016 – Sally Beauman, 71
Former arts editor of the Sunday Telegraph, and novelist, who was married to the late Alan Howard.
8th July 2016 – Abdul Sattar Edhi, 88
Pakistan based humanitarian who was frequently suggested for the Nobel Peace Prize.
“The area, now a teeming slum, is still the headquarters of the Edhi Foundation, which is run out of a ramshackle building where he lived to the end of his days in a tiny backroom. Doctors were persuaded to offer their services free and he raised the money to pay for medicines. Even in old age, he could still be seen on the streets stopping passers-by and cars for cash donations, with no one asking for receipts. Edhi’s charitable activities expanded in 1957 when an Asian flu epidemic swept through Karachi. He borrowed money for tents to treat people who were only asked to contribute financially if they could afford it. “It was the first mass recognition of my work,” Edhi later told the journalist Steve Inskeep. A single generous donation from a businessman, a fellow member of the Memon community, allowed Edhi to buy his first ambulance, which he drove himself around the city. Once asked why he was prepared to help Christians and Hindus alike, Edhi replied, “because my ambulance is more Muslim than you”. A women’s dispensary would later open and then a maternity clinic.”
Jon Boone, Guardian obit, 13 July 2016
8th July 2016 – William Lucas, 91
Actor who was best known for his role as Dr Gordon in The Adventures of Black Beauty. He also played Stapley in one of the finest Avengers episodes, Death’s Door. He appeared in Doctor Who’s Frontios at the last minute, after the previous actor in his role as Range, Peter Arne, was murdered after his costume fitting. Lucas also appeared in Doomwatch, The Spoils of War, The Two Ronnies, Coronation Street, and doomed 90s BBC soap Eldorado.
8th July 2016 – Jackie McInally, 75
Scottish footballer who played for Kilmarnock and Motherwell.
9th July 2016 – Gladys Hooper, 113
Oldest living woman in Britain at the time of her death, who had been an associate of Amy Johnson, and played piano in the band of Mantovani.
9th July 2016 – Sydney Schanberg, 82
Journalist who helped expose the extreme Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, and became internationally famous after a film was made about him and his colleague, Dith Pran, called The Killing Fields.
“The Khmer Rouge, a peasant army with links to the North Vietnamese, began slowly to take over the countryside. They had already established themselves as a terrifying outfit by April 1975, when they reached the outskirts of Phnom Penh. In other parts of the country, city dwellers, members of the professional classes, had been force marched into the country to labour in the fields. Many died or were summarily executed. The danger was enormous and many western journalists left the city. Schanberg elected to stay in Phnom Penh with his translator, fixer and friend, Dith Pran. “Our decision to stay,” Schanberg later recalled, “was founded on our belief – perhaps, looking back, it was more a devout wish or hope – that when the Khmer Rouge won their victory, they would have what they wanted and would end the terrorism and brutal behaviour we had written so often about.” The pair were detained by some teenage Khmer Rouge and only Pran’s quick thinking saved their lives. Schanberg decided to leave but was unable to get Pran out with him.”
Telegraph obit
“Almost the whole time I worked for Sydney as a reporter on the metro desk, he was in a terrible depression. The miracle finally began on the morning of April 18, 1979, when Andreas Freund called him from the Times Paris bureau. An East German correspondent based in Paris had been in Siem Reap in Cambodia, and he had met Pran. The message he carried had eight words—“the eight most exquisite words” Schanberg had ever heard: “Dith Pran survivor, living in Siem Reap Ankkor.” Pran had taken the East German aside at the temple complex at Angkor Wat and asked him in French to take the message to Schanberg: “It will make him happy,” Pran said. At the moment Pran met the East German, the Vietnamese were invading Cambodia to expel the Khmer Rouge and install their own client regime. Ten months later, Pran finally escaped across the Thai boarder. In October, Schanberg got a message from Times man Henry Kamm in Thailand that Pran was in a refugee camp there. Schanberg called Pran’s son in San Francisco, who shouts to his sister and two brothers: “Hey, you guys! Our dad is out of Cambodia!””
Charles Kaiser, The Death and Life of Sydney Schanberg, Vanity Fair 12 July 2016
10th July 2016 – John Drysdale, c.90
British historian who lived in Somalia and founded The Africa Research Bulletin. He advised three Prime Ministers of the country, worked with the UN, wrote the history of Somalia – in the 1964 book The Somali Dispute – and received a state funeral from the country.
14th July 2016 – George Ramsay Cook, 84
Editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
14th July 2016 – Peter Esterhazy, 66
Hungarian writer, considered one of the best modern Eastern European authors, whose work included The Transporters and The Book of Hrabal.
15th July 2016 (announced) – Helen Bailey, 51
Childrens novelist who wrote a serious of books about a character called Electra Brown.
15th July 2016 – Susan Renouf, 74
Prominent Australian socialiate.
16th July 2016 – Bonnie Brown, 77
One third of the US country singing act The Browns with her siblings Jim Ed and Maxine.
17th July 2016 – Fred Tomlinson, 88
Singer who worked with the Monty Python team, who wrote the music for the Lumberjack Song.
18th July 2016 – John Hope, 67
Goalkeeper who played for Newcastle and Sheffield United in the 1970s.
19th July 2016 – John Pidgeon, 69
19th July 2016 – Garry Marshall, 81
Creator of Happy Days.
20th July 2016 – Mark Takai, 49
Congressman for Hawaii from 2015 to 2016, and in his limited time in the House before ill health took over, was involved in the Atomic Veterans Healthcare Parity Act.
21st July 2016 – Lewie Steinberg, 82
Original bass guitarist for Booker T and the M.G.’s, who can be heard on Green Onions.
21st July 2016 – Luc Hoffman, 93
Co-founder of the WWF, and author of ornithological books.
“Captivated by this unique wetland, in 1954 Hoffmann set up the Tour du Valat biological research station, which became one of the leading institutions of its kind in Europe. Many ecologists trained there (including one of Britain’s leading scientists, Lord (John) Krebs, and the research carried out at Tour du Valat helped save France’s fragile population of greater flamingos from extinction. Seven years later, in 1961, Hoffmann was one of the signatories to a groundbreaking agreement that paved the way for the founding of the WWF, and he became the organisation’s first vice-president. But wildlife habitats continued to disappear at an alarming rate, especially in the developing world. Wetlands were particularly threatened, and in 1971 Hoffmann helped set up the Ramsar Convention, named after the Iranian city where the agreement was signed, which for the first time provided truly cross-border protection for wetlands and their wildlife. Coming into force in 1975, the convention now covers 160 countries, making it one of the most effective measures to protect habitats across the globe.”
Stephen Moss, Guardian obit 1 August 2016
21st July 2016 – Bill Cardille, 87
American TV personality, who played a news reporter in Night of the Living Dead.
21st July 2016 – Dick Donnelly, 74
Former East Fife goalkeeper, who became a BBC sports broadcaster.
23rd July 2016 – Dr Kate Granger, 34
Charity fundraiser and doctor behind the "Hello My Name is" campaign.
23rd July 2016 – Thorbjorn Falldin, 90
Three time Prime Minister of Sweden. He was the head of several coalition governments as Sweden tried to deal with a terrible recession.
“As head of the agrarian Center Party, Mr. Falldin led a center-right coalition to power in 1976, ending 40 years of Social Democratic rule. Two years later the government collapsed amid disputes over nuclear power, which Mr. Falldin’s party strongly opposed at the time. He was reappointed prime minister after the 1979 election, serving until 1982, when his government was defeated by Olof Palme’s Social Democrats.”
Associated Press obit, via The Washington Post, 26 July 2016
23rd July 2016 – Joe Napolitano, 67
TV director who worked on numerous American TV shows, but comes to mind for his work on The X-Files episode Darkness Falls.
23rd July 2016 – Carl Falck, 109
Norwegian businessman. From 1948 to 1975, he was the CEO of Norges Grossists-forbund, a union of goods sellers.
24th July 2016 – Marni Nixon, 86
Voice artist who dubbed for some of the most famous songs in Hollywood musical history, from West Side Story to Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend.
25th July 2016 – Artur Correia, 66
Footballer who won five Portugese league titles with Benfica and one with Sporting CP. He also appeared regularly for the Portuguese national side in the 1970s.
25th July 2016 – Tom Clegg, 81
British TV and film director who responsible for many of the Sharpe TV movies. He was also director for the Hammer House of Horror episode The House That Bled to Death (the one everyone remembers with the childrens party scene), and fourteen episodes of the The Sweeney. He also worked on the Fires in the Fall supernatural episode of Bergerac.
26th July 2016 – Sandy Pearlman, 72
Former producer for The Clash.
26th July 2016 – Forrest Mars Jr, 84
Boss of Mars, the chocolate giants.
27th July 2016 – Piet de Jong, 101
Prime Minister of Holland from 1967 to 1971.
27th July 2016 – Jerry Doyle, 60
Actor who appeared as Garibaldi in Babylon Five.
29th July 2016 – Vivean Gray, 92
Actress who was best known for her role as Mrs Mangel in Neighbours.
29th July 2016 – Ken Barrie, 83
Voice actor who sang the theme to Postman Pat and also narrated it. He also sang the theme to Charlie Chalk.
31st July 2016 – Bobbie Heine Miller, 106
Tennis player who reached the Semifinals of the French Open in 1927, and won the Doubles at that years French Open. She reached the final of the 1927 Wimbledon doubles, losing in straight sets to Helen Wills and Elizabeth Ryan.
1st August 2016 – Anne of Romania, 92
Wife to the former King Michael of Romania.
2nd August 2016 – Ahmed Zewail, 70
Scientist who won the Nobel Chemistry prize in 1999 for his work on femtochemistry, the study of swift chemical reactions.
“He designed a new type of electron microscope – by judicious use of ultrafast laser pulses and the photoelectric effect – in which a stream of individual electrons, repeated on a femtosecond scale, could be used to probe the dynamics of atoms in solids and their surfaces, as well as to interrogate biological materials.All this he could do over a thousand million times as fast as had been done by electron microscopists hitherto. His so-called 4D electron microscope – three dimensions of space and one of time – is now contributing greatly to advances in physical, biological, medical and engineering science. The Nobel laureate Roger Kornberg described Zewail’s recent book The 4D Visualization of Matter (2014), as “a chronicle of an extraordinary journey of invention and discovery”.”
John Meurig Thomas, Guardian obit 22 August 2016
2nd August 2016 – Terence Bayler, 86
Actor who appeared as Gregory in The Life of Brian, as the Bloody Baron in the Harry Potter films, and as Major Barrington in the final Patrick Troughton Doctor Who story, The War Games.
3rd August 2016 – Steve LaTourette, 62
Republican Congressman for Ohio from 1995 to 2013, but found himself to the left of the Tea Party (he was one of the only Republican congressmen to vote against defunding NPR) towards the end of his tenure.
5th August 2016 – Sir Robin Chichester-Clark, 88
MP from 1955 to 1974. He served in the governments of Macmillan and Heath.
6th August 2016 – Samuel Robin Spark, 78
Artist who was the son of Muriel Spark.
8th August 2016 – Edward Daly, 82
Former Bishop of Derry from 1974 to 1993. He was on the scene at the Bloody Sunday massacre.
“His involvement with the most controversial event of the “Troubles” was regrettably, in Daly’s view, the main reason why he was made the city’s bishop two years later. News film of his attempt to save Jackie Duddy made an impression worldwide. For Daly, however, it “changed my life completely; I lost my anonymity. I was the priest with the handkerchief, and that was it. It was dreadful, dreadful.”He received threats over the years from Loyalists and Republicans alike, and became constantly afraid of meeting people who would be angry with him. His stooped figure, handkerchief in hand, was immortalised in a mural on the side of a house, painted by the Bogside Artists in 1997. Jackie Duddy’s sister Kay still has the handkerchief. Daly was a prominent witness at Lord Widgery’s inquiry soon after the event, which exonerated troops from the Parachute Regiment, concluding that they had come under attack from gunmen and bombers. “He found the guilty innocent, and the innocent guilty,” Daly complained. “It was the second atrocity.””
Telegraph obit
9th August 2016 – Barry Jenner, 75
American actor who had recurring roles in Dallas (as Dr Jerry Kenderson) and Knots Landing. He also appeared in Remington Steele, Fame, and as Admiral William Ross in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
9th August 2016 – Duke of Westminster, 64
Hereditary peer whose land made him one of the richest men in the world.
9th August 2016 – Padraig Duggan, 67
Musician who was one of the founding members of Clannad.
11th August 2016 – Thomas Steinbeck, 72
Novelist responsible for The Silver Lotus and In the Shadow of the Cypress.
11th August 2016 – Glenn Yarbrough, 86
Prolific folk musician, who had a US top ten hit with Baby the Rain Must Fall in 1965.
11th August 2016 – David Enthoven, 72
Former music manager for Robbie Williams.
11th August 2016 – Hanif Mohammad, 81
Pakistani cricket batsman who had a seventeen year international career, and was the first Pakistani to score a triple hundred. With over 17, 000 runs in First Class cricket, he was considered the finest batsman of his generation.
13th August 2016 – Kenny Baker, 81
Actor who was known to millions as R2-D2 in the Star Wars films. In Return of the Jedi, he also played the leader of the Ewoks.
“Baker’s acting career was not limited to the Star Wars series. He had roles in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man (1980), Miloš Forman’s Amadeus (1984) and Neil Jordan’s thriller Mona Lisa (1986), though it was the fantasy genre that provided his main source of employment: he can be glimpsed, partially obscured by heavy makeup or outlandish costumes, in Flash Gordon (1980), Labyrinth (1986) and Willow (1988).Sometimes he would even appear with his face uncovered, as he did in Terry Gilliam’s jolly fantasy Time Bandits (1981). He was warm and winning in that film as Fidgit, one of a band of dwarves who use their knowledge of the holes in the fabric of the universe to steal from the likes of Napoleon and Robin Hood.”
Ryan Gilbey, Guardian obit 14 August 2016
13th August 2016 – Patricia English, 85
Actress who appeared in a number of shows in the 1960s, and appeared in three episodes of The Avengers, including Mission to Montreal, where she played an alcoholic actress with a secret.
14th August 2016 – Fyvush Finkel, 93
Emmy winning Actor known for his roles in Picket Fences and Boston Public.
14th August 2016 – Lord Goff, 89
British judge.
“As a Lord of Appeal from 1986, he sat on many of the most important cases of modern times, among them Spycatcher, the Lloyd’s negligence litigation and the many cases flowing from the Hillsborough disaster. In the last he pushed medical ethics into uncharted territory, finding that the right to life was not sacrosanct in cases of persistent vegetative state.In 1999, despite having retired the year before, Goff sat with six fellow Law Lords to hear General Augusto Pinochet’s appeal against extradition to Spain on charges of crimes against humanity. He was the sole dissenter to the majority ruling in favour of extradition – though Pinochet would die, untried, in his native Chile.”
Telegraph obit
15th August 2016 – Dalian Atkinson, 48
Footballer who played for Real Sociedad, Aston Villa and Fenerbahce, among others, and was a key part of the Aston Villa side which finished runners up in the first Premier League season. He scored the opener for Aston Villa in their 3-1 win in the 1994 League Cup final.
16th August 2016 – Andrew Florent, 45
Tennis doubles player, who reached the Quarterfinals in the doubles for three of the four Grandslam events.
16th August 2016 – Joao Havelange, 100
Former FIFA boss.
17th August 2016 – Arthur Hiller, 92
Film director who worked on Love Story and The Out-of-Towners.
“After another would-be cute comedy, Penelope (1966), Hiller moved into battle for Tobruk (1967), with Rock Hudson leading allied troops on a mission to destroy Rommel’s oil lines in North Africa. He was more comfortable with The Out of Towners, which starred Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis as Ohians at the mercy of an unfriendly New York. Sandwiched between that original screenplay and directing Plaza Suite, Hiller made his commercial smash, Love Story, and The Hospital. Love Story was chocolate-box romanticism, directed with considerable acumen and no cynicism; nothing could have been further removed from it than The Hospital, a vision of a medical establishment as a microcosm of a decaying society.”
Brian Baxter, Guardian obit 18 August 2016
“They know one another’s eating habits. When the food arrives on a recent luncheon, Oscar-nominated director Arthur Hiller (“Love Story”), 88, quietly tells the waitress, “Cheeseburger over here”. “Except for three days in the last 52 years, Arthur has only eaten cheeseburgers for lunch”, noted his friend, Austin Kalisch, 91, who wrote for such shows as “All in the Family”, “The Bob Newhart Show” and “My Three Sons”. And during the lunch, Hiller, who was voted the nicest guy of his group by his cronies, sneaks some French fries to Kalisch.”
Susan King, How Arthur Hiller and his fellow comedy icons legendary Hollywood lunches inspired a documentary, re-published by the LA Times, 17 August 2016
Man has a cheeseburger addiction and lived to be nearly ninety-three. Much respect here.
17th August 2016 – Shelby Westbrook, 94
One of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen.
18th August 2016 – Michael Napier Brown, 79
British actor who appeared in Shakespeare, Les Miserables, The Dick Emery show, and alongside the greats of acting. His performance in Doctor Who’s The War Games, as a Mexican bandit, is once seen, never forgotten, but it was an atypical performance in his career.
19th August 2016 – Trevor Baker, 94
Famous weatherman.
19th August 2016 – Donald Henderson, 88
Doctor who helped to eradicate smallpox.
“To get this far, Henderson and his team had overcome political resistance, ineffective vaccine stocks, floods, famine and civil war. They had stopped cars in the streets of the former Yugoslavia to vaccinate people, and gone house to house in remote regions of India to nip outbreaks in the bud. Now, eight years into the campaign, Bangladesh was the final refuge for Variola major, the most infectious form of the virus, and the country was threatening to fall apart. Fearing that a tide of refugees might trigger fresh outbreaks, or even reimport the disease to India, Henderson deployed large numbers of health workers to the border to step up surveillance, and vaccinate as required. Fortunately, the predicted influx never arrived. A few weeks later, the borders reopened and WHO’s teams went back to work. In November 1975, Bangladesh reported its final case of smallpox. The world was finally declared smallpox-free in 1979. Despite our best efforts, smallpox remains the only human disease to have been completely eradicated from the planet. “If the Nobel prize in medicine was not so focused on basic science, Henderson and the smallpox team would surely have shared it,” said Chris Beyrer, Desmond Tutu professor of public health and human rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. “The eradication of that ancient, disfiguring and often fatal viral scourge is surely one of the single greatest triumphs of public health in human history.”
Linda Geddes, Guardian obit, 7 September 2016
19th August 2016 – Danus Skene, 72
SNP politician who stood for the party in Shetland in both the 2015 General election, and the 2016 Scottish elections.
20th August 2016 – Brian Rix, 92
Actor who was president of Mencap, and who appeared int he films The Night We Dropped a Clanger and Dry Rot.
21st August 2016 – Sir Antony Jay, 86
Co-writer of Yes Minister.
22nd August 2016 – SR Nathan, 92
Former President of Singapore from 1999 to 2011.
24th August 2016 – Walter Scheel, 97
President of West Germany from 1974 to 1979, and acting Chancellor in 1974 between the downfall of Willy Brandt, and the arrival of Helmut Schmidt.
24th August 2016 – Roger Tsien, 64
Chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 for the discovery of green fluorescent protein.
26th August 2016 – Jiri Tichy, 82
Czech footballer who played in the 1962 World Cup final as a right back.
27th August 2016 – Ronnie Cope, 81
Footballer who played for Manchester United.
28th August 2016 – Ken Purchase, 77
Labour MP for Wolverhampton North East from 1992 to 2010.
28th August 2016 – Mr Fuji, 82
WWE Hall of Famer, who won the tag titles three times with Toru Tanaka, and became an acclaimed manager.
30th August 2016 – Vera Caslavska, 74
Gymnast who won eight Olympic gold medals, and was one of the most successful Olympians in history. An outspoken critic of the Soviet takeover of her country, she was ostracised from the world of sports in the late 1960s, and even banned from attending sporting events. After the fall of Communism, she worked with Vaclav Havel’s government, and her rightful position as one of the Czech Republic’s greatest ever sportspeople was widely recognised.
“The Soviets seem also to have indulged in behind-the-scenes arm-twisting. Many felt that Vera Caslavska should have won the gold for the beam, too. However, she lost to a Russian gymnast after incurring questionable “artistic penalties” Meanwhile, when she went up to receive the gold medal for her floor exercises, the news was broadcast that the score of the Soviet Union’s Larisa Petrik had been upgraded and the two would share the title. When the Soviet Union’s national anthem was played, Vera Caslavska stood with her head down and turned away in a silent but unmistakable protest. On her return to Prague she gave her four gold medals to the Czech leaders of the “Prague Spring”, who had been replaced by Soviet puppets. Retribution was swift. She was barred from travelling abroad and for many years denied any coaching post, bringing an end to her international career.”
Telegraph obit
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