Sunday 31 December 2023

RIP, 2023

Just one more task to perform before the party kicks off and Dolores Delargo Towers descends into madness...

...it's time to open the "Book of the Dead" for 2023. Once again, it's quite a list...

Fred White (US drummer, Earth, Wind & Fire)
Kelly Monteith (US comedian, star of eponymous 1980s BBC comedy show)
Marilyn Stafford (US-born British photographer and photojournalist, The Observer)
Alan Rankine (British (Scottish) musician, The Associates)
James D. Brubaker (US film producer, Rocky films, The Right Stuff, The Nutty Professor)
David Gold (British businessman, Ann Summers, and (soft-porn) publisher, long-serving chairman of West Ham United)
Fay Weldon (British author, essayist and playwright, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil)
Gianluca Vialli (Italian champion football player and manager, Chelsea FC, Sampdoria, Italian national team)
Owen Roizman (US cinematographer, The French Connection, The Exorcist, Network)
King Constantine II (last King of Greece)
Gerry O’Hara (British film director, The Bitch, Maroc 7)
Jeff Beck (British guitarist, The Yardbirds, solo, Hi Ho Silver Lining)
Yukihiro Takahashi (Japanese drummer and singer, founder member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra)
Robbie Bachman (Canadian drummer, Bachman-Turner Overdrive)
Tatjana Patitz (German supermodel, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue; George Michael's Freedom! '90 video)
Lisa Marie Presley (US singer-songwriter, only child of Elvis)
Paul Johnson (British journalist, the New Statesman and the Spectator, historian, Modern Times: A History of the World from the 1920s to the 1980s)
Gina Lollobrigida (Italian actress and icon, Venere Imperiale, Beautiful But Dangerous, Come September, Falcon Crest)
David Sutherland (British (Scottish) comics illustrator, The Beano: "Dennis the Menace and Gnasher", "The Bash Street Kids")
David Crosby (US singer-songwriter, The Byrds, Crosby Stills and Nash)
Top Topham (British guitarist, The Yardbirds, session musician for Christine Perfect (McVie))
Lloyd Morrisett (US educational psychologist, co-founder of the Children's Television Workshop that created Sesame Street)
Cindy Williams (US actress, Laverne & Shirley, American Graffiti)
Donald Trelford (British journalist, former editor of The Observer)
Sylvia Syms (British actress, Victim, The Queen, Ice Cold in Alex)
Tom Verlaine (US singer, guitarist and songwriter, founder member of Television)
Barrett Strong (US singer and songwriter, Motown, I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home), Papa Was a Rollin' Stone)
Lisa Loring (US actress, the original "Wednesday" in The Addams Family TV show)
Charles Silverstein (US academic, writer and gay rights campaigner, who succeeded in getting homosexuality removed from categorisation as a mental illness in 1973)
Kit Hesketh-Harvey (British cabaret comedian, Kit and the Widow, screenwriter, Maurice, Vicar of Dibley and national treasure)
Paco Rabanne (Spanish fashion designer, couturier, costume designer for Barbarella, and perfumier)

Hilary Alexander (New Zealand-British fashion journalist, fashion director, Daily Telegraph, stylist and broadcaster, Britain's Next Top Model)
Burt Bacharach (US composer and legend, Walk On By, The Look of Love, Anyone Who Had A Heart, I Say A Little Prayer and hundreds more)
Princess Marie Gabrielle of Luxembourg
Hugh Hudson (British film director, Chariots of Fire, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan)
James Flynn (Irish TV and film producer, The Banshees of Inisherin)
Trugoy (US hip-hop artist and songwriter, co-founder of De La Soul, Me Myself and I, The Magic Number)
Raquel Welch (US actress, sex siren and icon, One Million Years BC, The Three Musketeers, Myra Breckinridge)
Stella Stevens (US actress, The Poseidon Adventure, The Nutty Professor)
Gerald Fried (US film and television music composer, Man from U.N.C.L.E. , Roots, Star Trek, Killing of Sister George)
Dickie Davies (British broadcaster, presenter of ITV's World of Sport from 1968 to 1985, national treasure)
John "Motty" Motson (British BBC sports commentator, "the voice of football" for more than four decades, national treasure)
Sir Bernard Ingham (British journalist and civil servant, Margaret Thatcher's chief press secretary throughout her time in office)
Peter Tábori (Hungarian-British architect, low-rise brutalist housing including Highgate New Town estate)
Walter Mirisch (US Oscar-winning film producer and centenarian, In the Heat of the Night, Mr. Majestyk, Dracula)
Baroness Betty Boothroyd (British politician, member and speaker of the House of Commons)
Burny Mattinson (US character animator, Sleeping Beauty to Mulan (and more), longest-serving member of staff at Disney)
Ricou Browning (US actor and underwater stunt co-ordinator, James Bond films, Flipper, the "Gill-Man" in Creature from the Black Lagoon)
Irma Serrano (Mexican actress, singer, politician and media personality)
Wally Fawkes (British-Canadian satirical cartoonist, Flook by "Trog", jazz clarinettist, Humphrey Lyttelton band)
Steve Mackey (British bass guitarist, Pulp)
Christopher Fowler (British novelist, gay memoirist, raconteur and blogger)
Bob Goody (British actor, Royal Shakespeare Company, writing partner and double-act with Mel Smith)
Tom Sizemore (US actor, Saving Private Ryan)
Robert Haimer (US musician and songwriter, Barnes & Barnes, Fish Heads)
Gary Rossington (US guitarist, last surviving founder member of Lynyrd Skynyrd)
Kenneth Montgomery (British conductor, Ulster Orchestra, Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra)
Lynn Seymour (Canadian ballet dancer, choreographer and director)
Topol (Israeli actor, Fiddler on the Roof, Galileo, For Your Eyes Only)
Mystic Meg (British astrologer and TV personality, born Margaret Anne Lake)
Robert Blake (US actor, Baretta, In Cold Blood)
Napoleon XIV (born Jerrold Samuels; US comedy singer, They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!)
Bill Tidy (British cartoonist, Punch, Private Eye, "The Fosdyke Saga" for The Daily Mirror, writer and television personality)
Baroness Sue Masham of Ilton (British Paralympian, founder of the Spinal Injuries Association, longest-serving member of the House of Lords in history)
Dick Fosbury (US Olympic athlete, popularised the high jump manoeuvre that became known as the "Fosbury Flop")
Leslie Hardcastle (British film industry veteran, controller of the British Film Institute’s National Film Theatre over five decades)
Jacqueline Gold (British businesswoman who transformed Ann Summers sex shops into a female-friendly high street chain)
Lance Reddick (US actor, The Wire)
Clarence “Fuzzy” Haskins (US singer, founder member of Parliament-Funkadelic)
Mick Slattery (British guitarist, founder member of Hawkwind)
Darcelle XV (US performer, world record-holding oldest working drag queen, appeared in Maisie Trollette biopic)
Keith Reid (British songwriter, co-founder of Procol Harum, wrote Whiter Shade of Pale)
Peter Shelley (British singer-songwriter, Love Me, Love My Dog, producer, Alvin Stardust, co-founder of Magnet Records)
Nick Lloyd Webber (British composer and arranger (Fat Friends The Musical, The Last Bus), son of Sir Andrew)
Christopher Gunning (British composer, Poirot theme, Martini adverts, and arranger, Won't Somebody Dance With Me for Lindsey DePaul)
James Bowman (British operatic countertenor)

Paul O'Grady (British comedian, aka drag queen "Lily Savage", chat show host, TV and radio presenter, Blankety Blank, Paul O'Grady on the Wireless, national treasure)
Ryuichi Sakamoto (Japanese musician, Yellow Magic Orchestra, composer, The Last Emperor and actor Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence)
Seymour Stein (US music executive, co-founder of Sire Records, signed Talking Heads, Ramones, The Pretenders and Madonna)
Heklina (born Stefan Grygelko, US drag queen and actor, founder of Trannyshack)
Lord Nigel Lawson (British statesman, former journalist, Spectator, Sunday Telegraph, The Times; MP and Chancellor of the Exchequer under Margaret Thatcher; father of Nigella)
Michael Roberts (British fashion journalist, illustrator and photographer, Tatler, Vanity Fair, New Yorker)
Nora Forster (German music promoter, The Slits, Sex Pistols, The Clash; John Lydon's wife)
Nicola Heywood-Thomas (British (Welsh) TV and radio broadcaster, BBC Radio Wales, Radio 3, HTV newsreader for sixteen years)
Paul Cattermole (British pop singer, S Club 7)
Lasse Wellander (Swedish guitarist, ABBA)
Michael Lerner (US character actor, Barton Fink, Eight Men Out, My Favourite Martian)
Al Jaffee (US cartoonist, Mad magazine, centenarian)
Dame Mary Quant (British fashion designer and trend-setter of "The Swinging Sixties", national treasure)
Judith Miller (British (Scottish) writer, Miller's Antiques Price Guide, antiques expert, Antiques Roadshow)
Murray Melvin (British actor, A Taste of Honey, Alfie, The Devils, Barry Lyndon)
Ahmad Jamal (US jazz pianist)
Barry Humphries (Australian comedian, actor, author, satirist, chat show host, performer and legend, aka "Dame Edna Everage" and "Sir Les Patterson")
Len Goodman (British ballroom dancer and coach, former head judge on Strictly Come Dancing, national treasure)
Maria Charles (British stage and screen actress, Agony, Never the Twain, and singer, The Boy Friend, Good Old Days)
Harry Belafonte (US singer, Banana Boat Song, Island in the Sun, actor, civil rights activist and legend)
Jerry Springer (British-US journalist, former politician and television host, The Jerry Springer Show)
Wee Willie Harris (British rock and roll singer)
Barbara Young (British actress, I, Claudius, Family Affairs, Last of the Summer Wine, mother of Liza Pullman of Fascinating Aida)
Tim Bachman (US guitarist and vocalist, founder member of Bachman–Turner Overdrive)
Elizabeth Scott, Duchess of Buccleuch
Gordon Lightfoot (Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist, If You Could Read My Mind, Sundown)
Linda Lewis (British singer, It’s In His Kiss, backing vocalist, Bowie's Aladdin Sane LP, Joan Armatrading, Jamiroquai)
Don Short (British showbiz columnist and journalist, created the term "Beatlemania", first reported the death of Brian Jones and the wedding of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton)
Grace Bumbry (US mezzo-soprano, first black headliner at the Bayreuth festival)
Terence Hardiman (British character actor, Crown Court, The Demon Headmaster, Secret Army)
Peter Day (British visual effects designer for the BBC, created the "Davros" villain for Doctor Who)
Rolf Harris (Australian-born TV personality, Animal Hospital, singer, Two Little Boys, painter and former British "national treasure", convicted sex offender)
Kenneth Anger (US film-maker, Scorpio Rising, scandal-writer, Hollywood Babylon)
Barry Newman (US actor, Petrocelli, Vanishing Point)

Lord (Peter) Brooke (British politician, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland under Margaret Thatcher)
John Dobson (British operatic character tenor, Royal Opera House)
Stanley Appel (British TV executive and producer, Les Dawson's Blankety-Blank, Mike Yarwood Show, the man who began the death-knell for Top of the Pops)
Helmut Berger (Austrian actor and sex-symbol, Ludwig, The Damned, Salon Kitty, Madonna's Erotica video)
Andy Rourke (British bassist, founder member of The Smiths)
Martin Amis (British novelist, London Fields, Money, Time's Arrow)
Ray Stevenson (British (Northern Irish) actor, "Volstagg" in the Marvel Thor films)
George Logan (British (Scottish) drag performer and "national treasure", "Dr Evadne Hinge" of Hinge and Bracket)
Dougie Squires (British choreographer, The Young Generation)
Tina Turner (US singer and legend, River Deep – Mountain High, Nutbush City Limits, What's Love Got to Do With It?, Simply The Best)
Cynthia Weil (US songwriter, You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin', Here You Come Again, Make Your Own Kind of Music, On Broadway)
Margit Carstensen (German actress, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Martha)
Marcus Plantin (British television executive producer and director, The Two Ronnies, The Generation Game, Blind Date, Cracker, Heartbeat)
Astrud Gilberto (Brazilian samba and bossa nova singer, The Girl from Ipanema)
Pat Robertson (US televangelist, homophobic bigot)
Yannis Markopoulos (Greek composer, Who Pays the Ferryman? theme)
Ted Kaczynski (US terrorist aka "The Unabomber")
Roger Squires (British crossword compiler, world's most prolific, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Times Educational Supplement)
Silvio Berlusconi (Italian statesman, four-time prime minister, billionaire, scandal-ridden convicted criminal)
Ronnie Knight (British nightclub owner and convicted gangster, married to Barbara Windsor for two decades)
John Romita Sr. (US comic book artist, Marvel Comics, The Amazing Spider-Man, Punisher, Wolverine, Luke Cage)
Treat Williams (US actor, Hair, The Ritz, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead)
Cormac McCarthy (US novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, No Country for Old Men, The Road)
Sir James Hardy (Australian winemaker, Hardy's)
Glenda Jackson (British actress and "national treasure", Women In Love, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Elizabeth R, A Touch of Class; Labour MP for 23 years)
Angela Thorne (British character actress, To The Manor Born, Three Up, Two Down)
Winnie Ewing (British (Scottish) politician, long-standing MP, MEP and MSP for the Scottish Nationalist Party, its president for eighteen years)
Sheldon Harnick (US songwriter-lyricist, Fiddler on the Roof, She Loves Me)
Baroness Margaret McDonagh (British politician, General Secretary of the Labour Party from 1998 to 2001)
Julian Sands (British actor, A Room With a View, Smallville [went missing in January, body discovered in June])
Dame Ann Leslie (British journalist, Daily Mail, "The First Lady of Journalism")
Carmen Sevilla (Spanish actress, singer, dancer and gay icon)
Alan Arkin (US actor, Freebie and the Bean, Grosse Pointe Blank, Little Miss Sunshine)
Meg Johnson (British character actress and singer, Victoria Wood's shows, Emmerdale, Coronation Street)
Janet Dale (British theatre and character actress, Coronation Street, "Mrs Sugden", Joe Orton's landlady in Prick Up Your Ears)
George Armstrong (British child actor, "Alan Humphries" in Grange Hill and Tucker's Luck)
Milan Kundera (Czech-French writer, The Unbearable Lightness of Being)
John Nettleton (British character actor, Yes Minister)
Derek Malcolm (British newspaper columnist, former film critic for The Guardian and the Evening Standard)
Jane Birkin (British-French singer, Je t'aime... moi non plus, and actress, Death on the Nile, Evil Under the Sun)
Geoffrey Davies (British actor, "Dr. Dick Stuart-Clark" in Doctor in the House and its sequels)
Tony Bennett (US singer and legend, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, Rags to Riches, The Good Life)
Ann Clwyd (British (Welsh) politician, MP for 35 years, Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party under Tony Blair)
Vince Hill (British singer and entertainer, stalwart of light entertainment shows for three decades)
Inga Swenson (US singer and actress, Soap, Benson)
George Alagiah (British journalist and presenter, BBC News)
Trevor Francis (British footballer, Nottingham Forest, England national team, Britain's first £1m transferee)
Sinéad O'Connor (Irish singer and campaigner, Nothing Compares 2 U, Mandinka, Thank You for Hearing Me)
Edward Sexton (British Savile Row tailor, fashion designer and consultant to the stars)
Adrian Street (British (Welsh) professional wrestler, "The Exotic One")
Randy Meisner (US musician, singer, songwriter and founding member of the Eagles, Take It to the Limit)
Jim Parker (British television theme composer, Midsomer Murders, House of Cards, The House of Eliott, Mapp & Lucia)
Paul Reubens (US comedian and actor, best known as "Pee-wee Herman")
Carl Davis (US-British composer and conductor, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Pride and Prejudice, Liverpool Oratorio)
Sir Michael Boyd (British theatre director, Royal Shakespeare Company)
Beth Porter (US-British actress, the group's manager "Kitty Schreiber" in Rock Follies of 77)

Walter Charles (US stage actor, La Cage aux Folles)
Carmen Xtravaganza (Spanish-US trans model, singer and "house mother" on the New York "ballroom" nightclub scene, depicted in Paris is Burning)
William Friedkin (US film director, The French Connection, The Exorcist)
DJ Casper (US DJ and songwriter, Cha Cha Slide)
Jamie Reid (British visual artist, Sex Pistols record covers)
Doreen Mantle (British character actress, "Mrs Warboys" in One Foot in the Grave)
Peter Vaughan-Clarke (British actor, "Stephen" in The Tomorrow People)
Robbie Robertson (Canadian guitarist, founding member of The Band, songwriter, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down)
Tom Jones (US theatre librettist and lyricist, Try to Remember (from The Fantasticks))
Patricia Bredin (British singer, the UK's first Eurovision Song Contest entrant in 1957)
Renata Scotto (Italian soprano, opera director, and voice teacher)
Jerry Moss (US record studio executive, co-founder of A&M Records with Herb Alpert)
Sir Michael Parkinson (British journalist, broadcaster, chat-show host and "national treasure")
Nicholas Tresilian (British broadcaster and entrepreneur, co-founder and presenter on Television South West (TSW) and also Classic FM)
Ray Hildebrand (US singer, aka "Paul" of Paul & Paula, Hey, Hey Paula)
John Warnock (US computer scientist, inventor and businessman, co-founder of Adobe Systems)
Denis LePage (Canadian musician and songwriter, Lime)
Yevgeny Prigozhin (Russian businessman and mercenary, co-founder of the notorious war criminals the Wagner Group)
Bob Feldman (US songwriter, My Boyfriend's Back, I Want Candy, Sorrow)
Bernie Marsden (British rock guitarist and founder member of Whitesnake, songwriter, Fool for Your Loving, Here I Go Again)
Bob Barker (US TV host, presented The Price is Right from 1972 to 2007)
Jamie Crick (British radio presenter, Classic FM, Jazz FM, Scala Radio, co-founder of Gaydar Radio)
Mohamed Al Fayed (Egyptian millionaire businessman, owned Harrods, Hôtel Ritz Paris and Fulham FC, father of Princess Diana's boyfriend Dodi)
Jimmy Buffett (US singer-songwriter, Margaritaville)
Gayle Hunnicutt (US-British actress, Sherlock Holmes, Dallas, The Saint)
Steve Harwell (US singer and founder-member of Smash Mouth, Walkin' on the Sun)
Joe Fagin (British singer-songwriter, That's Livin' Alright, As Time Goes By)
John Stevenson (British screenwriter, wrote for Coronation Street for 40 years)
María Jiménez (Spanish singer and gay icon)
Mike Yarwood (British impressionist, comedian, entertainer and "national treasure", hosted top-rating one-man TV shows from 1971 to 1987)
Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi of the Zulu homeland
Nico Ladenis (British chef and businessman, Chez Nico, first UK restaurateur to attain three Michelin stars)
Professor Sir Ian Wilmut (British scientist, pioneer of cloning and stem-cell research, created "Dolly the Sheep")
Jean Boht (British actress, "Nelly Boswell" in 80s sitcom Bread, "national treasure")
Perrie Mans (South African champion snooker player in the 1970s, also won Pot Black TV show)
Marc Bohan (French couturier, chief creator at Christian Dior from 1960 to 1988)
Barbara Mullen (US supermodel of the 1950s)
Roger Whittaker (British singer-songwriter, guitarist and whistler, Durham Town (The Leavin'), The Last Farewell)
Lou Deprijck (Belgian singer and record producer, Two Man Sound Que Tal America; was the true voice of Plastic Bertrand Ça plane pour moi)
Hildegard Neil (South African-born British character actress, Boy Dominic, Diamonds; wife of Brian Blessed)
Katherine Anderson (US singer, founder-member of The Marvelettes)
David McCallum (British (Scottish)-US actor, The Man from U.N.C.L.E, Sapphire and Steel)
Sir Michael Gambon (Irish-born British actor, Royal National Theatre, The Singing Detective, Gosford Park, Harry Potter films)
Dianne Feinstein (US politician, longest-serving female senator in US history)
Pat Arrowsmith (British activist and co-founder of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), lesbian icon)
Rosemary Squires (British light entertainment singer, sang the "Now hands that do dishes..." jingle for the Fairy Liquid adverts)
Terence Davies (British screenwriter and film director, Distant Voices, Still Lives)
Anthony Holden (British writer, broadcaster, columnist and critic, biographer of Tchaikovsky and the Royal Family, professional poker-player)
Piper Laurie (US actress, Carrie, The Hustler, Twin Peaks)
Suzanne Somers (US actress, Three's Company (the US remake of Man About The House))
Osvaldo Desideri (Italian art director, The Last Emperor)
Tony Husband (British cartoonist, Private Eye)
Haydn Gwynne (British actress and singer, Drop the Dead Donkey, The Windsors, Billy Elliot the Musical)
Sir Bobby Charlton (British world champion football player, Manchester United, national team, survivor of the 1958 Munich air disaster, national treasure)
Bill Kenwright (British West End theatre producer, Blood Brothers, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Cabaret, actor, "Gordon Clegg" in Coronation Street)
Richard Roundtree (US actor, Shaft)

Li Keqiang (Chinese statesman, former premier of the People's Republic of China)
Matthew Perry (US-born Canadian actor, "Chandler" in Friends)
Peter White (US actor, "Alan" in Boys in the Band)
Pete Garner (British bassist, The Stone Roses)
David Berglas (German-British magician and TV show host)
Anne Hart (British stage actor and singer, widow of Ronnie Corbett)
Andrew Lumsden (British pioneering gay rights campaigner, co-founded the Gay Liberation Front (UK), Gay Pride and Gay News)
John Whitney (British television producer, Upstairs, Downstairs, founding managing director of Capital Radio, director general of the Independent Broadcasting Authority)
Anna Scher (Irish-born British drama teacher, the Anna Scher Theatre; launched the careers of numerous household names including Kathy Burke, Phil Daniels, Martin Kemp, Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson, and numerous future cast members of EastEnders)
George "Funky" Brown (US musician, founder-member of Kool & the Gang, songwriter, Ladies' Night, Celebration)
Dame A. S. Byatt (British multiple-award-winning author, Possession: A Romance, The Children's Book, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye)
Ben Dunne (Irish businessman, former director of his family's business Dunnes Stores)
Rosalynn Carter (US former First Lady, wife of ex-President Jimmy Carter)
Joss Ackland (British actor, White Mischief, The Hunt for Red October, the Old Vic theatre company, Royal Shakespeare Company)
Annabel Giles (British (Welsh) model, television presenter, Razzmatazz, Posh Frocks and New Trousers, and author)
Larry Fink (US ground-breaking photographer, Social Graces)
Marty Krofft (Canadian puppeteer and artistic director, The Banana Splits, creator of H.R. Pufnstuf)
Jean Knight (US singer, Mr. Big Stuff)
Russell Norman (British award-winning restaurateur, author and TV chef, Saturday Kitchen)
Terry Venables (British football player and multiple cup-winning manager, Queens Park Rangers, Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur, England national team 1994 to 1996)
Geordie Walker (British guitarist and songwriter, founder-member of Killing Joke)
"Sticky Vicky" (born Victoria María Aragüés Gadea, legendary Spanish adult X-rated stage entertainer in the resort of Benidorm)
Dean Sullivan (British actor, "Jimmy Corkhill" in Brookside for 17 years)
Henry Kissinger (German-born US statesman, diplomat and politician, Nobel Prize laureate, centenarian)
Lord Alistair Darling (British politician, former MP and Chancellor of the Exchequer)
Shane MacGowan (British-born Irish singer-songwriter, founder member of The Pogues)
Tony Allen (British stand-up comedian, pioneer of the "Alternative Comedy" scene in the 1980s)
Sandra Day O'Connor (US attorney and politician, first woman to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1981 to 2006)
Brigit Forsyth (British (Scottish) character actress, "Thelma" in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Boon, Playing the Field)
Concha Velasco (Spanish actress, singer, television presenter and gay icon)
Lady Glenys Kinnock (British (Welsh) politician, former Labour minister and MEP, wife of ex-Labour leader Lord Kinnock)
Denny Laine (British musician and singer, founder member of the Moody Blues, guitarist and songwriter with Wings, co-wrote Mull of Kintyre)
Norman Lear (US screenwriter and producer, All in the Family, and centenarian)
Benjamin Zephaniah (British writer, poet and actor)
Ryan O'Neal (US actor, Love Story, What's Up Doc?, Paper Moon)
Shirley Anne Field (British actress, Alfie, The Entertainer, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning)
Michael Blakemore (Australian-British award-winning theatre director, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company; Privates on Parade, Blithe Spirit with Angela Lansbury, City of Angels)
Richard Kerr (British songwriter, Mandy, Looks Like We Made It [hits for Barry Manilow])
Steve Halliwell (British soap actor, "Zak Dingle" in Emmerdale for 29 years)
Wilf Lunn (British inventor, prop maker and television presenter, Vision On)
Laura Lynch (US country musician and singer, founder member of the Dixie Chicks)
Francis Dymoke (British peer, Lord of the Manor of Scrivelsby, honorary and hereditary holder of the title King's Champion, carried the Royal Standard at the Coronation)
Richard Franklin (British character actor, Doctor Who, Crossroads, Emmerdale)
Henry Sandon (British antique expert, author and lecturer, long-time ceramics specialist on Antiques Roadshow, "national treasure")
David Kernan (British actor and singer, Side by Side by Sondheim, A Little Night Music, That Was the Week That Was)
Jacques Delors (French politician, former European Commission President, European integrationist)
Tom Wilkinson (British actor, The Full Monty, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Michael Clayton)
John Pilger (Australian-born, British-based journalist, writer, scholar and documentary filmmaker)

RIP, (almost) one and all!

18 comments:

  1. The list seems to get bigger every year.

    My big surprise? Inga Swenson. I had no idea. It was not even mentioned on our news media to my recollect.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a constant source of amazement the names that turn up on these end-of-year lists - some you'd forgotten all about, some you didn't know were still alive, and some, like Miss Swenson who come straight from left-field... Jx

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  2. So many crushes from my youth that I'd forgotten about.
    RIP all.

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  3. Triste :( fabulon se remplit de plus.
    *d'Anjou

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    Replies
    1. It's the best shows in town at Fabulon! Jx

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  4. This is quite a list. I wasn't aware of some of these.

    Love,
    Janie

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    Replies
    1. 273 names in total (and that's only the ones I actually know from Wikipedia's list and/or obituaries, whichever I saw first)!

      Staggering. Jx

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  5. Replies
    1. A shit-load of losses there, I agree! Jx

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  6. I remember Darcelle XV and Roxy. They WERE gay Portland for decades. Each year they held the Imperial Court nominations at the Hilton Hotel, where I worked, and went to sober up at Roxy Hearts' cafe, where I used to go sober up too! No better than they had to be, but way better than straight Portland deserved.

    Too many good people dead. RIP.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He/she sounds like a VIP to me!

      It's disconcerting to find people you know in the "Book of the Dead" - even more so when they're someone you've had sex with (which happened to me a few years back)... Jx

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  7. Dickie Davies was someone I'd forgotten about, so it was rather a surprise to see him on The List. I never liked sport, but seeing/hearing Dickie presenting/commentating when The Father had sport on the telly was always comforting.
    And I'm not sure that I knew Len Goodman had ascended the sweeping staircase to Fabulon?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's always sad to lose a Dickie! 🤣 Jx

      PS Ol' twinkletoes Len called his last "seven" back in April, and it was all over the headlines, so I have no idea where you were if you missed it...

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    2. I've managed - quite successfully, it seems - to stay away from the news this past year. Although, I have a feeling my sister may have mentioned Len's passing, but I'm not sure it's not the Mandala effect kicking in (or whatever it's called)?

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    3. Good or bad, I always "keep my ear to the ground" with the news. It's the frustrated journalist in me... Jx

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  8. I don't recognise many of them!

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    Replies
    1. There's quite a range here - you must know a number of names on a list this long?! Jx

      Delete

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