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Obituaries
The man who brought the stars down to earth
JOHN DOBSON 1915-2014
John Dobson was a former monk and self-taught stargazer who developed a powerful, inexpensive telescope that almost anyone could build and showed thousands how to do it during five decades as one of public astronomy's most influential evangelists.
Wine pioneer Perc McGuigan was a living legend of the industry
PERC MCGUIGAN 1913-2014
Few people other than Perc McGuigan were witness to and a key participant in the past century of Australian winemaking, although he will probably be best remembered for his 26 years as the Branxton cellarmaster-manager of Penfolds' prized Dalwood operation.
Gilligan's Island prof could fix anything - except boats
RUSSELL JOHNSON 1924-2014
Russell Johnson was an actor who made a living by mostly playing villains in westerns until he was cast as the Professor, the brains of the bunch of sweetly clueless, self-involved, hopelessly naive island castaways on the hit sitcom Gilligan's Island.
Movie star recluse was 'India's Greta Garbo'
SUCHITRA SEN 1931-2014
Suchitra Sen was one of India's best-known movie actresses. She remained famous more than 30 years after she made her last film.
'Fools and Horses' Trigger type-cast for life
ROGER LLOYD-PACK 1944-2014
The actor Roger Lloyd-Pack will forever be associated with the slow-witted Peckham road sweeper Trigger, the character he played in the much-loved television series Only Fools and Horses. He was also well known as disgusting farmer Owen Newitt in The Vicar of Dibley.
Conservative fundraier cleaned out by Broome
LORD MCALPINE OF WEST GREEN 1942-2014
Lord McAlpine of West Green was an early supporter and confidant of Margaret Thatcher and as Conservative Party treasurer in the 1980s was probably the most successful fundraiser the party ever had. Yet, by nature a dilettante, he did not become a significant political figure.
World failed to end for guru of the 70s 'Jesus freaks'
CHUCK SMITH 1927-2013
Chuck Smith was a Christian fundamentalist pastor whose appeal to disillusioned hippies of the Haight Ashbury era fuelled the rise of the “Jesus movement” of the 1970s and inspired the introduction of religious worship into pop culture.
Publisher a jack-of-all-trades, master of most
TOM ROSENTHAL 1935-2014
Tom Rosenthal was one of the most eminent publishers of his generation, successively directing the fortunes of Secker & Warburg, William Heinemann and Andre Deutsch.
Footloose Clockwork Orange sculptoraimed to shock
HERMAN MAKKINK 1937-2013
Herman Makkink was a Dutch-born sculptor whose work achieved a certain notoriety when two examples in fibreglass were featured in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film A Clockwork Orange.
Mayor Pat Reilly never lost that loving feeling for Willoughby
PAT REILLY 1952-2014
News reports featuring Pat Reilly typically prefaced his name with epithets such as ''colourful mayor'' or ''larrikin mayor''. They also rarely omitted to mention ''Elvis impersonator''.
Distinguished maestro was also a champion of the left
CLAUDIO ABBADO 1933-2014
The Italian conductor Claudio Abbado held four of the top musical posts in Europe: La Scala Milan, the London Symphony Orchestra, Vienna State Opera and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Refugee gave his life to save others
JOHN MAC ACUEK 1972-2014
John Mac Acuek was killed recently while he was leading an effort to save civilians caught up in the fighting in South Sudan. It was a tragic, yet heroic, end for a man who seemed to have escaped war to make a new beginning in Australia.
Radio stalwart a talkback pioneer
DES FOSTER 1924-2013
Among other events during his life in radio, Des Foster was a pioneer of talkback in the Sydney market. Until 1967, broadcasting regulations forbade the rebroadcasting of telephone calls, but when that was changed, radio changed.
Personal tragedy helped colour exiled poet's writing
JUAN GELMAN 1930-2014
Juan Gelman was an Argentinian poet and an exile whose writings were coloured by personal tragedy he suffered at the hands of his country's military dictatorship.
Publisher had passion for fine art
SAM URE-SMITH 1920-2013
Over the years, Sam Ure-Smith's independent publishing house, Fine Arts Press Pty Ltd, became sought after to rebrand and set new standards in the production of art-related merchandise in Australia - an important source of funds for any museum or gallery.
Fairfax driver loved self-sufficient life, often-quirk renovating
TED LENTON 1932-2013
Ted Lenton loved being self-sufficient, and getting closer to nature. He was employed as a driver for Fairfax, but away from work, year after year in his back garden in Engadine, he grew all manner of vegetables, from seed.
First state coroner sought justice in times of disaster
KEVIN WALLER 1931-2014
Kevin Waller was a widely respected magistrate and coroner in NSW and was the first state coroner, from 1988 until 1992, a period in which there seemed to be more than the usual number of disasters.
Russian archaeologist struck gold in Turkmenistan
VIKTOR SARIANIDI 1929-2014
Viktor Sarianidi was a Russian archaeologist who found himself starring in his own Indiana Jones adventure when he unearthed six burial mounds at Tillya Tepe on the plains north of the Turkmenistan mountains in the historical region of Bactria, northern Afghanistan.
Russian forecaster of earthquakes, homicides
VLADIMIR KEILIS-BOROK 1921-2014
Vladimir Keilis-Borok was a Russian seismologist who claimed to have discovered geophysics' "holy grail" - a foolproof method of predicting earthquakes.
German violinst a champion of post-War 'new music'
MARIA LIDKA 1914-2014
German-born violinist Maria Lidka championed new music in post-war London. Among the composers who wrote for her were Michael Tippett, Richard Rodney Bennett and Peter Racine Fricker.
Influential philosopher of 'the act of being'
PETER GEACH 1916-2014
Peter Geach was a formidable logician and happened to be married to one of the 20th century's leading English-language philosophers, Elizabeth Anscombe.
Methodist bishop made U-turn on gay marriage
JACK TUELL 1923-2014
When retired Methodist bishop Jack Tuell was asked how he changed his mind on issues of gay ordination and gay marriage, he explained it simply: "I changed my mind when I changed my heart." But the answer was more complicated.
Progeria trapped boy in an old man's body
SAM BERNS 1996-2014
Sam Berns was a Massachusetts high school junior whose life with the illness progeria was the subject of a documentary film recently shortlisted for an Academy Award.
Young chess grandmaster dead at his peak
VUGAR GASHIMOV 1986-2014
Vugar Gashimov was a chess grandmaster from Azerbaijan, one of the world's top players for a decade. He also helped to lead his team to the gold medal in the European Team Chess Championship in 2009.
A lifelong passion for showbiz roles
DAVID PENFOLD 1944-2013
David Penfold was a man of the theatre: performer, director and manager. From a young age he was a part of many musical societies before eventually moving on to bigger productions.
Paved way for Hong Kong's TV and film industry
RUN RUN SHAW 1907-2014
Sir Run Run Shaw turned martial arts movies, an often maligned format, into a globally loved genre, and his B-movie productions never let a modest budget and dubious dialogue get in the way of creating a blockbuster packed with punches.
Religion provided Ian Barbour with a response to scientific challenge
IAN BARBOUR 1923-2013
For Ian Barbour, the deadly possibilities of the Atomic Age raised questions that science couldn't answer - a perplexing situation for a young physicist after World War II.
War brought a bargee's life before move to Tasmania
AUDREY WILLIAMS 1921-2013
In November 1942, Audrey Harper and Evelyn Hunt walked down to the Grand Union Canal, which runs between London and Birmingham. They carried kitbags with only a handful of possessions other than many warm clothes.
Harmonising brother blazed a trail for rock and country
PHIL EVERLY 1939-2014
Phil Everly was the younger half of the Everly Brothers, the duo that helped to transform pop music in the 1960s before being eclipsed by the bands that they had influenced. As they were overtaken by new musical fashions, the brothers continued to perform and record until 1973, when their relationship fractured publicly.
Science fiction guru Graham Stone was an evangelist for the genre
GRAHAM STONE 1926-2014
Graham Stone was a leading authority on Australian science fiction. His magnum opus was Australian Science Fiction Bibliography (2004), which he updated and revised twice and the final edition, in 2010, reached more than 320 pages of listings in two columns of fine print.
Obituary
End of the line for Israel's king of the comeback
Ed O' Loughlin, Gerry Carman Ariel Sharon’s obituary had been written many times before, but recovery from a massive brain haemorrhage he suffered on January 4, 2006, proved one comeback too many for the great survivor of Israeli public life.
Cazalet series creator had her own troubled saga as Mrs Amis
ELIZABETH JANE HOWARD 1923-2014
Elizabeth Jane Howard was acclaimed for her Cazalet series of novels, an epic saga of affluent, middle-class, English family life. Yet she was perhaps equally well known for the turbulence of her personal life, notably as the second wife of the novelist Kingsley Amis.
Special Olympics ambassador helped athletes with disabilities
ROBYN COOK 1941-2013
Robyn Cook was one of Australia's greatest advocates for people with intellectual disabilities in sport. She was a Special Olympics ambassador, supporting local, state, national and international sporting events, and her programs and others she worked on transformed the lives of hundreds of athletes across Australia.
TV's 'Uncle Phil' never quite got it
Black actress found Oscar nomination worked against her
JUANITA MOORE 1914-2013
Juanita Moore earned an Academy Award nomination in 1960 for the single major film role she ever landed, then fell through the cracks of a Hollywood system that had little to offer a black actress besides small parts as maids and nannies.
Portugal's - perhaps the world's - finest striker
EUSEBIO DA SILVA FERREIRA 1942-2014
Eusébio da Silva Ferreira was the first great African footballer, and ranked alongside Pele as one of the finest strikers in the history of the sport.
Preeminent historian of English agriculture
JOAN THIRSK 1922-2013
Joan Thirsk was the leading agricultural historian of her generation and had a huge impact on her field in terms of methodology and research.
Champion of Steady State theory became a galactic outlaw
HALTON C ARP 1927-2013
Halton C Arp was a prodigal son of American astronomy whose dogged insistence that astronomers had misread the distances to quasars cast doubt on the Big Bang theory of the universe and led to his exile from his peers and the telescopes he loved.
She only appered in one movie, but chose well
ALICIA RHETT 1915-2013
Alicia Rhett rose to international attention in Gone With the Wind as India Wilkes, the serious young woman whose love for the dull and timid Charles Hamilton is spurned in favour of southern belle Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh). Despite lasting acclaim, however, it was to be her only screen role.
Knew the price of everything, and the value of everything
MARTIN MILLER 1946-2013
Martin Miller was a charismatic entrepreneur and bon vivant, and after co-founding the bestselling antiques price guides that bear his name (and made his fortune) went on to become a successful hotelier.
Last Maharaja lived strictly by the numbers
SRIKANTADATTA NARASIMHARAJA WADIYAR 1953-2013
Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar was the last scion of the Wadiyar dynasty that ruled the south Indian kingdom of Mysore between 1399 and independence.
Compassionate hero who loved nature
GORDON BUTLER 1918-2013
In 2012, much to the astonishment of this modest man, Gordon Butler became a radio celebrity when he was interviewed by Richard Glover on ABC 702 about his World War II experiences.
Film composer helped to tingle spines
WOJCIECH KILAR 1932-2013
Wojciech Kilar was a Polish pianist and composer of classical music and scores for more than 130 films, including Roman Polanski's Oscar-winning The Pianist and Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Force in chemistry and new university
GORDON BARCLAY 1923-2013
Gordon Barclay grew up supporting his widowed mother by running an oyster lease on the Karuah River and was the first child in his family, and area, to go to high school.
David Clark: Manager of England's 1970-71 Ashes winning team
DAVID CLARK 1919-2013
David Clark was for three decades a leading cricket administrator with MCC and Kent, the club he had captained. He managed two England tours, on one of which – to Australia in 1970-71 – the Ashes went back to England.
From typist to pinnacle of magazine world
PATRICIA RYAN 1938 - 2013
Patricia Ryan started at Time Inc as a typist in the secretarial pool and rose to become the managing editor of People and Life, a rare ascent for a woman in what was then a male-dominated company.
Choreographer of Mary Poppins, Sound Of Music
MARC BREAUX 1924 - 2013
Marc Breaux was one of the lead choreographers on Mary Poppins (1964), coaching Dick Van Dyke through one of the most memorable live-action dance showstoppers in the Disney film canon - the chimney-sweep knees-up Step In Time.
Danger was his middle name
JOHN GAFF 1927-2013
Lieutenant-Colonel John Gaff was in overall command of all bomb disposal units during his posting to Northern Ireland in the 1970s and was awarded a George Medal.
Drew the hooligan worm that cleaned up Hong Kong
ARTHUR HACKER 1932-2013
Arthur Hacker created Lap Sap Chung, a long-snouted green worm with red spots and forked tail which persuaded the citizens of Hong Kong not to litter and achieved cult status afterwards.
British satirist of the '60s went on to bag Blair
JOHN FORTUNE 1939-2013
John Fortune , who has died aged 74, was part of the satire boom of the 1960s, and continued to lampoon the Establishment in the New Labour era.
Campaigner against Mexican drug gangs dies peacefully at home
Richard Fausset MIKE O'CONNOR 1946-2013
Mike O'Connor was an experienced war correspondent who in recent years had worked in defense of journalists in Mexico at a time when it had become one of the most treacherous countries for reporters in the world.
Pioneer of Australian diplomatic corps
BARRY HALL 1921-2013
Barry Hall was the last of the first. He was the remaining surviving member of the inaugural class of diplomatic staff cadets recruited in 1943, when 1500 eligible men and women applied to join the Department of External Affairs.
From fitter and turner to sugar industry expert
JOHN ALLEN 1925-2013
As a young apprentice fitter and turner at Garden Island naval base in Sydney, John Allen was given the job of entering the confined control space of two salvaged Japanese midget submarines after they had been sunk in Sydney Harbour by depth charges in 1942.
Man who was Billy Jack an independent-movie pioneer
TOM LAUGHLIN 1931-2013
Tom Laughlin created the Billy Jack movie series of the 1970s, a low-budget fusion of counterculture piety and martial-arts violence that struck a chord with audiences and became a prototype for independent film-making and distribution.
Singing with the stars
ROBERT ALLMAN 1927-2013
Robert Allman was one of Australia's great singers. To put his career into proper perspective it is necessary to list some of the great singers with whom he performed.
Scientist loved both medical research and leading jazz bands
DAVE KEMP 1945-2013
Dave Kemp was a respected scientist and an enthusiastic musician. Much of his time as an undergraduate at Adelaide University was spent playing double bass at jazz clubs before he discovered a love of research.
Abstract painter embraced realism
GUNTER CHRISTMANN 1936-2013
When asked to comment about his art for Mervyn Horton's Present Day Art in Australia (1969), Gunter Christmann replied: ''I do not care to write about art: I am a painter, I cover flat areas with paint. Paintings are to be looked at.''
Music experimentalist broadened defintion of 'jazz'
YUSEF LATEEF1920-2013
Yusef Lateef was a jazz saxophonist and flutist who spent his career crossing musical boundaries, starting out as a tenor saxophonist with a big tone and a bluesy style, not significantly more or less talented than numerous other saxophonists in the crowded jazz scene of the 1940s.
Designer of the world's most popular killing machine
MIKHAIL KALASHNIKOV 1919-2013
Mikhail Kalashnikov, who has died aged 94, invented the AK47 assault rifle which bears his name and became the weapon of choice for guerrillas, freedom fighters and terrorists the world over.
Pornographer's work 'utterly without redeeming social value'
AL GOLDSTEIN 1936-2013
Al Goldstein did not invent the dirty magazine, but he was the first to present it to a wide audience without the slightest pretense of classiness or subtlety. Sex as depicted in Screw was seldom pretty, romantic or even particularly sexy.
Custodian of Indian temple treasures
SREE UTHRADOM THIRUNAL MARTHANDA VARMA 1922-2013
Sree Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma was head of the family that once ruled the south Indian kingdom of Travancore and remained largely unknown to the wider world until 2011, when it was revealed that a temple of which he was hereditary custodian contained untold treasures.
Ex-Marine kept Lockheed Corporation airborne
LAWRENCE KITCHEN 1923-2013
Lawrence O. Kitchen was a business-savvy ex-Marine who ran Lockheed Corp. in an era when the aerospace industry was dominated by scientists and engineers.
RAF pilot won two gongs on one WWII mission
JIMMY FLINT 1913-2013
Wing Commander Jimmy Flint had the unique distinction of receiving two gallantry awards for separate actions during the same flight.
Distinguished navigator and strategist
RICHARD HAMMOND 1933-2013
A distinguished navigator and strategist who ranks among Australia's greatest yachtsman, Richard ''Sighty'' Hammond also played a significant part in the shaping of the modern Sydney skyline.
World music pioneer was also a top jazz performer
KIM SANDERS 1948-2013
The multi-instrumentalist musician/composer Kim Sanders liked to blow into things. Whether it was a tenor saxophone, a Turkish ney or some strange Balkan bagpipe made from a goatskin.
Top-notch creations made boy from Jerilderie a star in London
FREDERICK FOX 1931-2013
One of Britain's finest milliners, Australian-born Frederick Fox, liked to create hats that were both large and arresting, often sporting feathers or flowers (Royal Ascot was a theatre made for his designs).
Romance writer got her man and her millions of fans
Paul Vitello JANET DAILEY 1944-2013
Janet Dailey was secretary who married her boss at 19, wrote her first novel on something of a dare and went on to become one of the most successful American romance writers of her time, selling as many as 300 million books.
The end was nigh, more than once
Robert D. McFadden HAROLD CAMPING 1921-2013
Harold Camping was a Christian radio entrepreneur and biblical soothsayer who stirred consternation, ecstasy, complaints to the US Federal Communications Commission and widespread ridicule by repeatedly prophesying the end of the world - twice in 2011.
Uncertain starter become one of country music's leading lights
RAY PRICE 1926-2013
Ray Price was one of the most successful country singers in Nashville's history, with a career lasting from 1949 until earlier this year; among his hits was the oft-covered song Release Me.
Two wars and a thousand great stories
ANNE RUSSELL 1923-2013
Anne Russell worked at Bletchley Park in World War II before driving ambulances for the Free French during the Allied thrust into Germany. Subsequently she was employed by the Deuxieme Bureau - French Military Intelligence - in the Indochina campaign.
'Bravest' was last survivor of Myanmar independence fighters
YE HTUT 1922-2013
Ye Htut was the last surviving member of the “Thirty Comrades” who led the fight against British rule in Burma during and after World War II.
To the UK's otters, she was saviour
JEANNE WAYRE 1927 - 2013
Jeanne Wayre co-founded the Otter Trust, a charity that pioneered the captive breeding of otters for release into the wild and has been credited with saving the otter from extinction in much of England.
Sharp eye for history's lies against women
Margalit Fox CYNTHIA RUSSETT 1937 - 2013
Cynthia Eagle Russett was an historian whose best-known book explored attempts by Victorian thinkers to scientifically “prove” women's inferiority.
The Great Train Robber turned famous fugitive
RONNIE BIGGS 1929-2013
Ronnie Biggs was a carpenter and petty crook who became an international celebrity for his role in one of Britain's most famous crimes, the Great Train Robbery of 1963, and for the decades he spent afterward eluding a worldwide manhunt by Scotland Yard.
Left wing journalist with a nose for corruption
TONY REEVES 1940-2013
The award-winning author and journalist Tony Reeves was your classic leftie, a genuine class warrior and true believer. He strove hard to be a modest and common man but was continually undermined by his uncommon compassion, commitment, larrikinism, humanity and grace.
Oscar-winning starlet from the golden age of Hollywood
JOAN FONTAINE 1917-2013
Joan Fontaine was the younger sister of Olivia de Havilland - with whom she maintained a lifelong feud - and indelibly associated with the lead role in the film of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1940).
Best actor Oscar eluded Lawrence of Arabia star
PETER O'TOOLE 1932-2013
Peter O'Toole was an Irish bookmaker's son with a hell-raising streak whose magnetic performance in the 1962 epic film Lawrence of Arabia earned him overnight fame and put him on the road to becoming one of his generation's most accomplished and charismatic actors.
The 'other woman' in Enid Blyton's divorce petition
IDA POLLOCK 1908-2013
Ida Pollock was 105 and the world's oldest working romantic novelist, and, as the author of 123 sagas, one of the most prolific. While her stories were largely untainted by sex, she was dismayed to be cast as the "other woman" in Enid Blyton's divorce petition.
World class choir musician's lasting legacy
DAVID RUSSELL 1937-2013
David Russell was a teacher, composer and one of the Australian Catholic Church's colourful culture warriors and musical leaders.
Author's robust ego was more than matched by his prodigious output
COLIN WILSON 1931–2013
Colin Wilson suspected he was a genius, and there were some who agreed with him when in 1956, aged 24, he published The Outsider, a somewhat portentous overview of existentialism and alienation.
Brilliant chemist was profoundly deaf
JOHN CONFORTH 1917-2013
John Cornforth was awarded a Nobel prize in chemistry in 1975 and is still the only Australian to take the Nobel in chemistry.
Versatile jazz sideman was not one to big-note himself
JIM HALL 1930-2013
Jazz guitarist Jim Hall had a restrained, elegant style, rich in subtlety and nuance and expressed through the amplifier in a sound both mellow and carefully modulated.
Actor made versatility his calling card
CHRISTOPHER EVAN WELCH, 1965-2013
Christopher Evan Welch was a versatile actor whose work ranged from New York stage productions of Shakespeare to the role of the narrator in Woody Allen's 2008 film Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
Elegance in acting career crowned by Sound of Music
Anita Gates ELEANOR PARKER 1922-2013
Eleanor Parker was nominated three times for a best-actress Oscar but her best-known role was a supporting one, as the marriage-minded baroness in The Sound of Music.
Giant of British jazz conquered bad pianos
STAN TRACEY, 1926-2013
Stan Tracey was Britain's finest and most original jazz composer; he was also a pianist of rare distinction.
NELSON MANDELA 1918-2013
The man who built the rainbow
"Justice, freedom, goodness and love have prevailed spectacularly in South Africa, and one man has embodied that struggle and its vindication," Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, the first black Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, wrote following the end of apartheid rule in South Africa.
Family came first, but there were parties and pirates, too
MARY BARGWANNA 1921-2013
Mary Bargwanna embodied an archetypal Australian story. She was born in the bush, went through World War II and eventually lived a global, corporate life, in her case as the wife of a meat industry executive.
Principal shaped technical education and brought life to the arts
JACK PITT 1925-2013
Jack Pitt's energy and perseverance in the face of daunting obstacles enriched the quality of secondary education in Victorian government schools and injected life into a range of arts institutions.
Stylish writer endured grievous loss
ANNABEL FREYBERG 1961-2013
Annabel Freyberg was a gifted and original writer who was arts editor at The Evening Standard before becoming interiors editor of the Telegraph Magazine.
A long quest to claim her birthright as a woman
GEORGINA SOMERSET 1923-2013
Georgina Somerset lived the first 34 years of her life as a man, having been wrongly registered at birth as a boy. A high-profile “intersexual” (a person born with both male and female characteristics), in 1962 she became the first known woman legally to marry in church after officially changing sex.
Exploring the byways and burials of American history
Bettina Boxall MICHAEL G. KAMMEN 1936-2013
Historian Michael G. Kammen began his career steeped in colonial America.
Motor movie man meets maker in mean machine
PAUL WALKER 1973-2013
Paul Walker was an actor best known for his role in the Fast and the Furious movies about street racing.
