Obituaries

Ricardo Montalban: Mr Roarke of 'Fantasy Island' who championed Latinos in the film and television industry

Thursday, 5 February 2009

The versatile actor, singer and dancer Ricardo Montalban was one of the first Mexicans to become a Hollywood star. Signed by MGM in 1947, he was soon playing "Latin lover" roles opposite the studio's most glamorous stars, including Lana Turner, Esther Williams and Cyd Charisse. On Broadway, he was Lena Horne's fisherman lover in the musical hit Jamaica, for which he received a Tony nomination, and in the film Sweet Charity he displayed a fine sense of parody which he had a chance to develop when he played the deliciously over-the-top Khan in the second Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Khan. He gained a whole new audience when he portrayed the mysterious Mr Roarke, whose opening line, "Welcome to Fantasy Island" introduced the hit television show that ran for six years from 1978. He was also known throughout his career as a tireless campaigner for better opportunities for Mexican actors.

Lives Remembered: Richard Sell

Thursday, 5 February 2009

Richard Sell, who died on 8 November 2008, had an advantage over me, his strict contemporary, in that he received a measure of art training before his enlistment in the army in 1942. He was therefore equipped to chart his way with detachment through his time in the Royal Indian Army Service Corps with a sketchbook and watercolours, the results of which were seen in a hastily arranged retrospective exhibition in Ely after he had been diagnosed with leukaemia.

Rear-Admiral Edward Gueritz: Naval officer wounded by shrapnel on D-Day

Wednesday, 4 February 2009

Edward Gueritz, as a Royal Navy lieutenant, was on his 19th day under shelling on a Normandy D-Day beach when a piece of German shrapnel ripped through his helmet and crushed the back of his skull.

Claude Jeter: Influential gospel singer who refused to sing secular material

Wednesday, 4 February 2009

Claude Jeter, the lead singer of the Swan Silvertones, was among the most emotional and musically talented gospel singers of the 20th century. Like Sam Cooke, he could have easily transferred to singing secular material and become a major star, but it wasn't in his nature. He would tell reporters that he promised his mother that he would only sing the praises of the Lord and he kept that promise, becoming a minister and caring for his community.

T. Llew Jones: Foremost children's writer in Welsh literature

Wednesday, 4 February 2009

T. Llew Jones wrote some of the best-loved children's books in the Welsh language. Long before Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling, he enjoyed cult status among young readers in Wales, turning out some 80 books that were snapped up for their exciting yarns, thumping rhymes and sheer entertainment value.

Bill Frindall: Long-serving scorer on 'Test Match Special'

Tuesday, 3 February 2009

Only in cricket, with its obsession for statistics and records, could the rather anoraky image of a scorer, the person who chronicles each and every ball of a game, be transformed into that of a celebrity.

Ingemar Johansson: Boxer who beat Floyd Patterson to win the world heavyweight title

Tuesday, 3 February 2009

When Ingemar Johansson sent Floyd Patterson crashing to the canvas seven times in one round at New York's Yankee Stadium on 26 June 1959, he became the first Swede, and only the third European, to win the heavyweight championship of the world. Before that feat, Johansson, who has died aged 76, had detonated his famous right-hand punch – variously dubbed "The Hammer of Thor" and "Ingo's Bingo" – on the chins of Britain's best heavyweights to lay claim to the European heavyweight crown, another notable achievement for a boxer once denied an Olympic medal on the grounds of pusillanimity.

Mansour Rahbani: Musician and poet who spearheaded the Lebanese cultural renaissance

Tuesday, 3 February 2009

Mansour Rahbani, the Lebanese composer, musician and producer, known most popularly as one of the Rahbani Brothers, left a legacy of innovation in the spheres of music and theatre in Lebanon and in the wider Arab world. He was largely recognised for his lifelong collaboration with his brother Assi, and Assi's wife, the legendary Lebanese diva Fairuz. By the time of his death, Rahbani's oeuvre as a writer, poet, lyricist, playwright and musical dramatist was phenomenal.

Inger Christensen: Experimental poet who used mathematical structures in her work

Monday, 2 February 2009

Billy Powell: Keyboard player with Lynyrd Skynyrd

Monday, 2 February 2009

Though they are best known for the triple-guitar line-up of Gary Rossington, Allen Collins and Ed King – and his replacement Steve Gaines – and the passionate vocals of their original leader and lyricist Ronnie Van Zant, the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd owed part of their trademark sound to the distinctive contributions of their stalwart keyboard-player, Billy Powell.