RIP thread - Page 56

**keefriff** · October 19th, 2010, 07:29 PM

American television film and stage actor Tom Bosley has passed away at the age of 83. Mr. Bosley had a long and varied acting career that began in 1955. He won a Tony award in 1957 for his work in the Broadway musical Fiorello. He had success in the 1960's in such films as Divorce American Style and The World of Henry Orient. He will likely be remembered most for his long running role as Howard Cunningham on Happy Days. Mr. C. became a much beloved character as the show became immensly popular in the '70's. After a long run with Happy Days, Mr. Bosley also starred in Father Dowlings Mysteries and Murder She Wrote. I know for me he will always be Mr. Cunningham, one of TV's greatest Dads.

RIP Tom Bosley

**eelcat** · October 19th, 2010, 08:03 PM

That's very sad. He was such a nice guy it seemed. When I was younger I remember him for being the voice of the dad in "Wait til Your Father Gets Home" which was sort of on here in Australia when Happy Days started.

**snowy25** · October 19th, 2010, 09:45 PM

Sad news as when I was growing up he was in a lot of the shows that were popular here. Happy Days, Father Dowling and Murder She Wrote were shows that my whole family used to watch. RIP.

**chuckschick** · October 21st, 2010, 12:42 AM

Thanks for the girls bob...guess we won't be seeing that footage from Caligula...what a life he led, actually.

Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione (goo-chi-OHN-nee) has died in a suburban Dallas hospital at age 79.

A statement issued by the Guccione family says he died Wednesday at Plano Specialty Hospital in Plano after a long battle with cancer.

The Brooklyn, N.Y.-born Guccione introduced Penthouse to the American public in 1969, at the height of the feminist movement and the sexual revolution.

The adult publication billed itself as "the magazine of sex, politics and protest," and quickly challenged Playboy magazine by offering a mix of tabloid journalism and provocative photography.

Guccione had estimated the magazine earned $4 billion during his reign as publisher, although he lost much of his personal fortune on bad investments and risky ventures.

imracerx · October 21st, 2010, 12:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuckschick

Thanks for the girls bob...guess we won't be seeing that footage from Caligula...what a life he led, actually.

Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione (goo-chi-OHN-nee) has died in a suburban Dallas hospital at age 79.

A statement issued by the Guccione family says he died Wednesday at Plano Specialty Hospital in Plano after a long battle with cancer.

The Brooklyn, N.Y.-born Guccione introduced Penthouse to the American public in 1969, at the height of the feminist movement and the sexual revolution.

The adult publication billed itself as "the magazine of sex, politics and protest," and quickly challenged Playboy magazine by offering a mix of tabloid journalism and provocative photography.

Guccione had estimated the magazine earned $4 billion during his reign as publisher, although he lost much of his personal fortune on bad investments and risky ventures.

Guccione made "pink" OK..... Sure, it wasn't parting the waters, but close..... R.I.P. Bob! I've already forgotten "Caligula" (maybe) You were a true pioneer.

treyo · October 21st, 2010, 04:13 AM

Not quite sure where to put this, and forgive me mods if this in the wrong place.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11593612

Guccione revised the world of porn, both hard & soft, with his cutting edge magazine Penthouse in the 70s. I well recall the fun and excitement of each new issue in the early 70s when I was a lad at University....

Rest in peace.

**Rick Danger** · October 21st, 2010, 05:38 AM

Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione dies at 79

By TERRY WALLACE, Associated Press Writer

DALLAS – Bob Guccione had tried the seminary and spent years trying to make it as an artist before he found the niche that Hugh Hefner left for him in the late 1960s. Where Hefner's Playboy magazine strove to surround its pinups with an upscale image, Guccione aimed for something a little more direct with Penthouse.

More explicit nudes. Sensational stories. Even more sensational letters that began, "Dear Penthouse, I never thought I'd be writing you..."

It worked for decades for Guccione, who died Wednesday in Texas at the age of 79. He estimated that Penthouse earned $4 billion during his reign as publisher. He was listed in the Forbes 400 ranking of wealthiest people with a net worth of about $400 million in 1982.

In 1984 it was the magazine that took down Miss America, publishing nude pictures of Vanessa Williams, the first black woman to hold the title. Williams, who went on to fame as a singer and actress, was forced to relinquish her crown after the release of the issue, which sold nearly 6 million copies and reportedly made $14 million.

But Guccione's empire fell apart thanks to several bad investments and changes in the pornography industry, which became flooded with competition as it migrated from print to video and the Internet. His company, his world-class art collection, his huge Manhattan mansion — all of it, sold off.

Guccione's family said in a statement that he died at Plano Specialty Hospital in Plano. His wife, April Dawn Warren Guccione, had said he had battled lung cancer for several years.

Guccione started Penthouse in 1965 in England to subsidize his art career and was the magazine's first photographer. He introduced the magazine to the American public in 1969 at the height of the feminist movement and the sexual revolution.

Penthouse quickly posed a challenge to Playboy by offering a mix of tabloid journalism with provocative photos of nude women. The centerfolds were dubbed Penthouse Pets.

"We followed the philosophy of voyeurism," Guccione told The Independent newspaper in London in 2004. He added that he attained a stylized eroticism in his photography by posing his models looking away from the camera.

"To see her as if she doesn't know she's being seen," he said. "That was the sexy part. That was the part that none of our competition understood."

Guccione built a corporate empire under the General Media Inc. umbrella that included book publishing and merchandising divisions and Viva, a magazine featuring male nudes aimed at a female audience. He also created Penthouse Forum, the pocket-size magazine that played off the success of the racy letters to the editor.

Guccione and longtime business collaborator Kathy Keeton, who later became his third wife, also published more mainstream fare, such as Omni magazine, which focused on science and science fiction, and Longevity, a health advice magazine. Keeton died of cancer in 1997 following surgery, but Guccione continued to list her on the Penthouse masthead as president.

Guccione lost much of his personal fortune on bad investments and risky ventures.

Probably his best-known business failure was a $17.5 million investment in the 1979 production of the X-rated film "Caligula." Malcolm McDowell was cast as the decadent emperor of the title, and the supporting cast included Helen Mirren, John Gielgud and Peter O'Toole.

Distributors shunned the film, with its graphic scenes of lesbianism and incest. However, it eventually became General Media's most popular DVD.

Guccione also lost millions on a proposed Atlantic City casino. He never received a gambling license and construction of the casino stalled.

Legal fees further eroded his fortune. Among those who sued were televangelist Jerry Falwell, a California resort, a former Miss Wyoming and a Penthouse Pet who accused Guccione of forcing her to perform sexual favors for business colleagues.

In 1985, Guccione had to pay $45 million in delinquent taxes.

The next year, U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese's Commission on Pornography issued a report attacking the adult entertainment industry. Guccione called the report "disgraceful" and doubted it would have any impact, but newsstands and convenience stores responded by pulling Penthouse from their magazine racks.

Sales dropped after the Meese commission report and years later took another hit with the proliferation of X-rated videos and Web sites. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Penthouse's circulation dipped below 1 million in the late 1990s and fell to about 463,000 in 2003, the year General Media Inc. filed for bankruptcy. Over the first six months of 2010, Penthouse reported circulation of barely 178,000.

"The future has definitely migrated to electronic media," Guccione acknowledged in a 2002 New York Times interview.

In 2004, a private-equity investor from Florida acquired Penthouse in a bankruptcy sale. Penthouse and related properties are now owned by FriendFinder Networks Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla.-based company that offers social networking and online adult entertainment, including some with the Penthouse brand. FriendFinder made a bid this year for Playboy, which now outsells Penthouse roughly 10 to one, but Hefner has rejected it.

Guccione was born in Brooklyn and attended prep school in New Jersey. He spent several months in a Catholic seminary before dropping out to pursue his dream of becoming an artist. He wandered Europe as a painter for several years.

April Guccione said her husband was working as a cartoonist and a manager of self-service laundries in London when he got the idea of starting a magazine more explicit and aimed more squarely at "regular guys" than Playboy, which cultivated an upscale image.

Guccione's staff, which included family members, often described the publisher as mercurial.

"He was a mass of contradictions, engendering fierce loyalty and equally fierce contempt," wrote Patricia Bosworth in a 2005 Vanity Fair article about Guccione, for whom she had worked as executive editor of Viva.

"He hired and fired people — then rehired them. He could be warm and funny one minute and cold and detached the next."

Guccione's management style even sparked a rift with his own son, Bob Guccione Jr. In 1985, the publisher helped his son launch the music magazine Spin, with Bob Jr. serving as editor and publisher. After just two years, the two clashed over the direction of the magazine and the elder Guccione decided to shut it down, forcing his son to secure outside funding.

Success as a publisher allowed Guccione to amass an impressive art collection, which included paintings by El Greco, Modigliani, Dali, Degas, Matisse and Picasso. The works adorned his 30-room, 22,000-square-foot mansion in New York City.

Guccione's financial problems forced him to sell his art collection in 2002 at auction. The collection had been appraised by Christie's at $59 million two years earlier. Four years later, he was forced to sell his Manhattan mansion.

Guccione eventually went back to painting, and his works were shown at venues including the Butler Institute of American Art in Ohio and the Nassau County Museum of Art in New York, said April Guccione, who married him in 2006. The couple moved from New Jersey to Texas in 2009.

Married four times, Guccione had a daughter, Tonina, from his first marriage and three sons, Bob Jr., Tony, and Nick, and a daughter, Nina, from his second marriage.

April Guccione said services for her husband will be private.

___

Former Associated Press Writer Gary Kane in New York contributed to this report.

VallesMarineris · October 21st, 2010, 07:20 AM

maybe the greatest hero, ever. to me, possibly Super Hero, even.
should've been knighted by the Queen.
it really is the end of the world.

rest in peace, Sir Bob.

**troglodyte** · October 21st, 2010, 04:47 PM

The Slits were a pure girl punk band that formed in '76 by Ari Up (Arianne Forster), Palmolive (Paloma Romera, who later made herself in The Raincoats), Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollit. At the beginning of their career, they lived up to punk rock flippant, sneering musical attitudes and delivered a compelling and catchy punk rock.
The debut LP - as the below picture graced - came in 1979 at the leading record label Island and impressed critics. They also had a diehard fanclub of trendsetters, among them disc jockey John Peel who recorded some acclaimed recordings with the four young ladies.
Already with their second album Return Of The Giant Slit from 1981 the creative flame was dying out.
The cracks were deemed to stand somewhat in the shadow of the leading names such as The Clash and The Buzzcocks. Maybe because it was a girl band. Maybe because they knew how to sell themselves well enough. Who knows. But they are still worth to listen to. Sassy, refreshing, seductive and fearless they were. They were also reunited in 2006

Now, Ari Up - or who she really was: Arianna Forster - died only 48 years old as a result of "serious illness". It is her stepfather, Johnny Lydon (of the Sex Pistols), who brings the sad message on his website. Sad. R.I.P (Rock in Peace - Rest in Punk)

**Oswald** · October 21st, 2010, 05:32 PM

Scottish actor Graham Crowden, known for his work on British radio, film and TV has died at the age of 87, his agent has confirmed.

The actor is perhaps best known for his roles in BBC serials A Very Peculiar Practice and Waiting for God.

Crowden turned down the role of Doctor Who after the departure of Jon Pertwee, eventually playing a villain opposite Tom Baker in The Horns of Nimon.

Crowden's agent Sue Grantley said he was "a lovely, lovely man". We will all miss him enormously," she added.

Born in Edinburgh, Crowden's career began on the stage and he took the role of The Player King in the original performance of Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. He also played the mad scientist Doctor Millar in Lindsay Anderson's Mick Travis film trilogy.

In 1974, Crowden refused the lead role in Doctor Who because he did not want to commit himself to one part, and Tom Baker was cast as the Timelord instead.

Five years later, Crowden appeared as the villainous Soldeed in four episodes, opposite Baker.

Between 1990 and 1994, he starred with Stephanie Cole in the BBC comedy series Waiting for God, as a sprightly resident of a retirement home.

His TV work continued and in 2001, he had a guest role in Midsomer Murders.

In 2005, Crowden starred in the BBC Radio 4 sci-fi comedy Nebulous as Sir Ronald Rolands and he made his final TV appearance in 2008 as Sir John Sackville in Foyle's War.

Crowden is survived by Phyllida, his wife of 58 years, and four children.

October 19th, 2010, 07:29 PM	#551
keefriff Torn and Frayed Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: The 612 Posts: 7,025 Thanks: 79,645 Thanked 131,749 Times in 5,993 Posts	Tom Bosley American television film and stage actor Tom Bosley has passed away at the age of 83. Mr. Bosley had a long and varied acting career that began in 1955. He won a Tony award in 1957 for his work in the Broadway musical Fiorello. He had success in the 1960's in such films as Divorce American Style and The World of Henry Orient. He will likely be remembered most for his long running role as Howard Cunningham on Happy Days. Mr. C. became a much beloved character as the show became immensly popular in the '70's. After a long run with Happy Days, Mr. Bosley also starred in Father Dowlings Mysteries and Murder She Wrote. I know for me he will always be Mr. Cunningham, one of TV's greatest Dads. RIP Tom Bosley __________________ You Can't Always Get What You Want But If You Follow To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. You Just Might Find You Get What You Need To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

October 21st, 2010, 12:42 AM	#554
chuckschick Vintage Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 686 Thanks: 13,345 Thanked 15,304 Times in 694 Posts	RIP Bob Guccione Thanks for the girls bob...guess we won't be seeing that footage from Caligula...what a life he led, actually. Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione (goo-chi-OHN-nee) has died in a suburban Dallas hospital at age 79. A statement issued by the Guccione family says he died Wednesday at Plano Specialty Hospital in Plano after a long battle with cancer. The Brooklyn, N.Y.-born Guccione introduced Penthouse to the American public in 1969, at the height of the feminist movement and the sexual revolution. The adult publication billed itself as "the magazine of sex, politics and protest," and quickly challenged Playboy magazine by offering a mix of tabloid journalism and provocative photography. Guccione had estimated the magazine earned $4 billion during his reign as publisher, although he lost much of his personal fortune on bad investments and risky ventures.

October 21st, 2010, 04:13 AM	#556
treyo Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Land of the Flowers Posts: 15 Thanks: 309 Thanked 138 Times in 14 Posts	Bob Guccione, Penthouse Publisher, dead at 79 Not quite sure where to put this, and forgive me mods if this in the wrong place. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11593612 Guccione revised the world of porn, both hard & soft, with his cutting edge magazine Penthouse in the 70s. I well recall the fun and excitement of each new issue in the early 70s when I was a lad at University.... Rest in peace.

October 21st, 2010, 05:38 AM	#557
Rick Danger Vintage Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: In the Chill lounge..... Posts: 1,725 Thanks: 6,794 Thanked 31,400 Times in 1,714 Posts	Associated Press report Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione dies at 79 By TERRY WALLACE, Associated Press Writer DALLAS – Bob Guccione had tried the seminary and spent years trying to make it as an artist before he found the niche that Hugh Hefner left for him in the late 1960s. Where Hefner's Playboy magazine strove to surround its pinups with an upscale image, Guccione aimed for something a little more direct with Penthouse. More explicit nudes. Sensational stories. Even more sensational letters that began, "Dear Penthouse, I never thought I'd be writing you..." It worked for decades for Guccione, who died Wednesday in Texas at the age of 79. He estimated that Penthouse earned $4 billion during his reign as publisher. He was listed in the Forbes 400 ranking of wealthiest people with a net worth of about $400 million in 1982. In 1984 it was the magazine that took down Miss America, publishing nude pictures of Vanessa Williams, the first black woman to hold the title. Williams, who went on to fame as a singer and actress, was forced to relinquish her crown after the release of the issue, which sold nearly 6 million copies and reportedly made $14 million. But Guccione's empire fell apart thanks to several bad investments and changes in the pornography industry, which became flooded with competition as it migrated from print to video and the Internet. His company, his world-class art collection, his huge Manhattan mansion — all of it, sold off. Guccione's family said in a statement that he died at Plano Specialty Hospital in Plano. His wife, April Dawn Warren Guccione, had said he had battled lung cancer for several years. Guccione started Penthouse in 1965 in England to subsidize his art career and was the magazine's first photographer. He introduced the magazine to the American public in 1969 at the height of the feminist movement and the sexual revolution. Penthouse quickly posed a challenge to Playboy by offering a mix of tabloid journalism with provocative photos of nude women. The centerfolds were dubbed Penthouse Pets. "We followed the philosophy of voyeurism," Guccione told The Independent newspaper in London in 2004. He added that he attained a stylized eroticism in his photography by posing his models looking away from the camera. "To see her as if she doesn't know she's being seen," he said. "That was the sexy part. That was the part that none of our competition understood." Guccione built a corporate empire under the General Media Inc. umbrella that included book publishing and merchandising divisions and Viva, a magazine featuring male nudes aimed at a female audience. He also created Penthouse Forum, the pocket-size magazine that played off the success of the racy letters to the editor. Guccione and longtime business collaborator Kathy Keeton, who later became his third wife, also published more mainstream fare, such as Omni magazine, which focused on science and science fiction, and Longevity, a health advice magazine. Keeton died of cancer in 1997 following surgery, but Guccione continued to list her on the Penthouse masthead as president. Guccione lost much of his personal fortune on bad investments and risky ventures. Probably his best-known business failure was a $17.5 million investment in the 1979 production of the X-rated film "Caligula." Malcolm McDowell was cast as the decadent emperor of the title, and the supporting cast included Helen Mirren, John Gielgud and Peter O'Toole. Distributors shunned the film, with its graphic scenes of lesbianism and incest. However, it eventually became General Media's most popular DVD. Guccione also lost millions on a proposed Atlantic City casino. He never received a gambling license and construction of the casino stalled. Legal fees further eroded his fortune. Among those who sued were televangelist Jerry Falwell, a California resort, a former Miss Wyoming and a Penthouse Pet who accused Guccione of forcing her to perform sexual favors for business colleagues. In 1985, Guccione had to pay $45 million in delinquent taxes. The next year, U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese's Commission on Pornography issued a report attacking the adult entertainment industry. Guccione called the report "disgraceful" and doubted it would have any impact, but newsstands and convenience stores responded by pulling Penthouse from their magazine racks. Sales dropped after the Meese commission report and years later took another hit with the proliferation of X-rated videos and Web sites. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Penthouse's circulation dipped below 1 million in the late 1990s and fell to about 463,000 in 2003, the year General Media Inc. filed for bankruptcy. Over the first six months of 2010, Penthouse reported circulation of barely 178,000. "The future has definitely migrated to electronic media," Guccione acknowledged in a 2002 New York Times interview. In 2004, a private-equity investor from Florida acquired Penthouse in a bankruptcy sale. Penthouse and related properties are now owned by FriendFinder Networks Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla.-based company that offers social networking and online adult entertainment, including some with the Penthouse brand. FriendFinder made a bid this year for Playboy, which now outsells Penthouse roughly 10 to one, but Hefner has rejected it. Guccione was born in Brooklyn and attended prep school in New Jersey. He spent several months in a Catholic seminary before dropping out to pursue his dream of becoming an artist. He wandered Europe as a painter for several years. April Guccione said her husband was working as a cartoonist and a manager of self-service laundries in London when he got the idea of starting a magazine more explicit and aimed more squarely at "regular guys" than Playboy, which cultivated an upscale image. Guccione's staff, which included family members, often described the publisher as mercurial. "He was a mass of contradictions, engendering fierce loyalty and equally fierce contempt," wrote Patricia Bosworth in a 2005 Vanity Fair article about Guccione, for whom she had worked as executive editor of Viva. "He hired and fired people — then rehired them. He could be warm and funny one minute and cold and detached the next." Guccione's management style even sparked a rift with his own son, Bob Guccione Jr. In 1985, the publisher helped his son launch the music magazine Spin, with Bob Jr. serving as editor and publisher. After just two years, the two clashed over the direction of the magazine and the elder Guccione decided to shut it down, forcing his son to secure outside funding. Success as a publisher allowed Guccione to amass an impressive art collection, which included paintings by El Greco, Modigliani, Dali, Degas, Matisse and Picasso. The works adorned his 30-room, 22,000-square-foot mansion in New York City. Guccione's financial problems forced him to sell his art collection in 2002 at auction. The collection had been appraised by Christie's at $59 million two years earlier. Four years later, he was forced to sell his Manhattan mansion. Guccione eventually went back to painting, and his works were shown at venues including the Butler Institute of American Art in Ohio and the Nassau County Museum of Art in New York, said April Guccione, who married him in 2006. The couple moved from New Jersey to Texas in 2009. Married four times, Guccione had a daughter, Tonina, from his first marriage and three sons, Bob Jr., Tony, and Nick, and a daughter, Nina, from his second marriage. April Guccione said services for her husband will be private. ___ Former Associated Press Writer Gary Kane in New York contributed to this report.

October 21st, 2010, 07:20 AM	#558
VallesMarineris Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: New York City Posts: 109 Thanks: 14,844 Thanked 838 Times in 99 Posts	maybe the greatest hero, ever. to me, possibly Super Hero, even. should've been knighted by the Queen. it really is the end of the world. rest in peace, Sir Bob. __________________ c'mon and laugh, laugh, laugh. it ain't that bad...

October 19th, 2010, 08:03 PM	#552
eelcat Vintage Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Australia Posts: 660 Thanks: 2,389 Thanked 6,300 Times in 648 Posts	That's very sad. He was such a nice guy it seemed. When I was younger I remember him for being the voice of the dad in "Wait til Your Father Gets Home" which was sort of on here in Australia when Happy Days started.

October 19th, 2010, 09:45 PM	#553
snowy25 Vintage Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 2,274 Thanks: 6,664 Thanked 23,144 Times in 2,260 Posts	Sad news as when I was growing up he was in a lot of the shows that were popular here. Happy Days, Father Dowling and Murder She Wrote were shows that my whole family used to watch. RIP.

October 21st, 2010, 04:47 PM	#559
troglodyte Vintage Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Elsinore, DK Posts: 643 Thanks: 7,866 Thanked 17,461 Times in 658 Posts	Slits The Slits were a pure girl punk band that formed in '76 by Ari Up (Arianne Forster), Palmolive (Paloma Romera, who later made herself in The Raincoats), Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollit. At the beginning of their career, they lived up to punk rock flippant, sneering musical attitudes and delivered a compelling and catchy punk rock. The debut LP - as the below picture graced - came in 1979 at the leading record label Island and impressed critics. They also had a diehard fanclub of trendsetters, among them disc jockey John Peel who recorded some acclaimed recordings with the four young ladies. Already with their second album Return Of The Giant Slit from 1981 the creative flame was dying out. The cracks were deemed to stand somewhat in the shadow of the leading names such as The Clash and The Buzzcocks. Maybe because it was a girl band. Maybe because they knew how to sell themselves well enough. Who knows. But they are still worth to listen to. Sassy, refreshing, seductive and fearless they were. They were also reunited in 2006 Now, Ari Up - or who she really was: Arianna Forster - died only 48 years old as a result of "serious illness". It is her stepfather, Johnny Lydon (of the Sex Pistols), who brings the sad message on his website. Sad. R.I.P (Rock in Peace - Rest in Punk)

October 21st, 2010, 05:32 PM	#560
Oswald Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 13,115 Thanks: 51,076 Thanked 282,672 Times in 13,805 Posts	Graham Crowden Scottish actor Graham Crowden, known for his work on British radio, film and TV has died at the age of 87, his agent has confirmed. The actor is perhaps best known for his roles in BBC serials A Very Peculiar Practice and Waiting for God. Crowden turned down the role of Doctor Who after the departure of Jon Pertwee, eventually playing a villain opposite Tom Baker in The Horns of Nimon. Crowden's agent Sue Grantley said he was "a lovely, lovely man". We will all miss him enormously," she added. Born in Edinburgh, Crowden's career began on the stage and he took the role of The Player King in the original performance of Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. He also played the mad scientist Doctor Millar in Lindsay Anderson's Mick Travis film trilogy. In 1974, Crowden refused the lead role in Doctor Who because he did not want to commit himself to one part, and Tom Baker was cast as the Timelord instead. Five years later, Crowden appeared as the villainous Soldeed in four episodes, opposite Baker. Between 1990 and 1994, he starred with Stephanie Cole in the BBC comedy series Waiting for God, as a sprightly resident of a retirement home. His TV work continued and in 2001, he had a guest role in Midsomer Murders. In 2005, Crowden starred in the BBC Radio 4 sci-fi comedy Nebulous as Sir Ronald Rolands and he made his final TV appearance in 2008 as Sir John Sackville in Foyle's War. Crowden is survived by Phyllida, his wife of 58 years, and four children.