RIP thread

[ErnestoGuevara]

There's not much to add to the suitable tributes here to Angharad Rees and Simon Ward, but on a personal level, it does feel a bit numbing as these were actors who regularly appeared on television as I was growing up. I'm sure I was in a fairly large company in having a teenage crush on Ms Rees.

Alexander Cockburn also died this week: a contemporary of Christopher Hitchens and a man of similarly contradictory views. I certainly didn't always agree with him; for example, he was a sceptic about global warming, but he always had something interesting to say.

[blueballsdc]

Sherman Hemsley has passed away at the age of 74:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...ar-dies-353651

Not sure how well he is known oversees but he was a TV icon here in the US. He had quite a long career:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0376200/

Many times a remember being drunk and trying to imitate his George Jefferson walk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhtLTDK9yWA

[kissfan1]

Sherman Hemsley "moving on up" to a better place

rip

[tygrkhat40]

Chad Everett, star of the show Medical Center, passed yesterday from lung cancer at the age of 75.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Everett

[themidlander]

Mary Tamm the actress has died of cancer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18995370



Mary played Romana in The Key To Time stories in Dr Who

[jerquer]

Band manager Jeff Joseph had just told an Adelaide scout he wouldn't be looking at any more local bands when he was captivated by a blond-haired singer.

It was 1967 and the singer was Zoot frontman Darryl Cotton, who at 18 already had the glint of a future star.

That spark was the beginning of a career spanning music, television and theatre that lasted until May when Cotton discovered he had liver cancer.
He died on Friday morning, aged 62.

Speaking to AAP on Friday, Mr Joseph recalled the start of Cotton's career and their life-long friendship.

"There was a certain amount of rawness but there was potential," Mr Joseph said.

"A whole pop evolution was evolving from this group.

"He was in the true sense of the word a pop star."

It didn't take long for the band to make its mark with hits like It's About Time.

Zoot split in 1971 but its members continued to influence music locally and overseas.

Guitarist Rick Springfield wrote the smash hit Jessie's Girl, bass player Beeb Birtles founded The Little River Band and lead singer Cotton found success as a solo singer, songwriter and an actor.

Cotton continued to tour Australia with group Cotton, Keays and Morris until his diagnosis.

Springfield said Cotton was the lead singer of the best band he was ever in.
"We were bandmates in our early 20's and good friends in our early 60's," he wrote on Facebook.

"He now knows what we all want to know. Bless your great spirit my friend. Keep a spot in the band for me up there."

Jim Keays, from Cotton, Keays and Morris, said his friend was youthful and charitable and he was shocked by the speed of his illness and death.

"He was just normal and healthy and one of us, and all of a sudden he's on death's door, it's just something you don't think is going to happen," Keays told ABC radio, describing his friend as a non-drinker and non-smoker who lived a frugal lifestyle.

"Out of the three of us I would have thought he'd be the last to go."

Mr Joseph said Cotton, who regularly visited hospitals as part of his charity work, was loved by all.

"The most important thing would be that Darryl was universally loved. Not liked but loved," he said.

After Zoot broke up Cotton moved to the US where he toured with Olivia Newton-John but returned to Australia in 1978.

His song Same Old Girl was a top 10 hit in 1980.

Despite the fame he achieved as a musician and later television star, Mr Joseph said Cotton remained at heart a family man - with wife Cheryl and children Amy and Tim - and a homebody.

"He loved to be at home with Cheryl and the kids," Mr Joseph said.

"He bent over backwards for those kids.

"It was his whole life."

His family was at his side when he died.

[Markus R]

Geoffrey Hughes has died aged 68. He played Eddie Yeats in Corrie and Vernon Scripps in Heartbeat and also appeared in Keeping Up Appearances and The Royle Family:

http://www.itv.com/news/granada/2012...y-hughes-dies/

[Greenman]

In his day it was worth watching Coronation Street and as Twiggy in 'The Royle Family' he was a great foil to Ricky Tomlinson. I also remember him as the slobbish Onslow in 'Keeping Up Appearances' but my abiding memory of Geoffrey Hughes was as the voice of Paul McCartney in the animated Beatles film 'Yellow Submarine'. Just think all those years in Coro he was searching for his 'Stardust' Lill on the CB, well Geoff mate, you're up there with the real stardust now, R.I.P. We miss ya.

[Pauldec]

This past week Simon Ward, The flame-haired one form Poldark, the beautiful Romana from Dr Who, and now Eddie Yeats all gone. And... I can remember when all these people were young!

[themidlander]

Jack Taylor of Wolverhampton one of the finest football referees passed away today. A man who set high standards of officiating at all levels linked with a feel for the game that is often missing nowadays.

This article from the BBC is fitting tribute....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19020617