Mardas made George Harrison empty boxes supposedly containing mystic light and said he could build a flying saucer.

Gorden Kaye,  the actor, who has died aged 75, was almost universally known as René Artois, the bumbling café owner and frustrated philanderer in the enormously popular television comedy series 'Allo 'Allo, which was seen in more than 30 countries by an audience of some 200 million viewers.

Bassist sported silver hair, thigh-high platform boots and a bass guitar in the shape of a swallow.

Music was in her blood – her father was a dance band leader and her mother a classical pianist.

"Miguel was a man of tremendous talent who had a powerful dramatic presence on screen."

Hans Berliner, a former world champion of correspondence chess became a pioneering developer of game-playing computers, died on Friday, January 13 in Riviera Beach, Florida. He was 87.

• Pauline Hitchins

Sale businessman John Leslie was a generous benefactor to his city and the arts.

• Harrison Smith

​Zhou Youguang, a onetime Wall Street banker from China who developed Pinyin, a Romanized writing system that has helped more than 1 billion Chinese and countless foreigners learn to read and write Mandarin, died Jan. 14 in Beijing, one day after celebrating his 111th birthday.

• David Langsam

Yosl Bergner was arguably Australia's most important painter.

• Gerald O'Collins

Sister Janette Gray had a passionate concern to educate herself and others.

On December 13, 1972, Gene Cernan climbed the ladder of the lunar module of Apollo 17 and finally got his opportunity to explore the moon.

• Matt Schudel

William Peter Blatty was a senior at Georgetown University in 1949 when he heard the extraordinary story that, more than two decades later, would change his life — and scare the devil out of everyone else.

Graham Taylor, who has died aged 72, was the manager of the England football team from 1990 to 1993.

Justice Adrian Smithers was a pioneer in family law reform.

The 1st Earl of Snowdon, who died on January 13 aged 86, was an outstanding photographer, an implacable champion of the disabled, and a designer and filmmaker of note.

• MARGALIT FOX

​From a single gust of wind, Clare Hollingworth reaped the journalistic scoop of the century.

Richard Gee was well-qualified to take his place as a judge of the Family Court of Australia in 1980. It was a difficult time.

Ben Hall was an architect and also a recognised painter who could make and play musical instruments, teach classical guitar and design and make houses, furniture and jewellery. In fact Ben Hall's life was packed with creative pursuits. Some might say he attempted too much.

• Valerie Lawson

Two murals on the walls of James Fairfax' Bowral home encapsulated his two lives: one of duty, the other of adventure and artistic expression.

Her prized koi carp at her Sydney home famously died during a short-term rental by George Lucas.

• Harrison Smith

Sarstedt began writing his own songs and performing across Europe in 1966.

• Malcolm Brown

On the night of Friday, October 29, 1982, Michael Chamberlain tossed and turned all night in  bed in Darwin, in a frenzy of thought, his wife Lindy having been taken to Berrimah Gaol to begin her life sentence for the murder of daughter Azaria.

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafasanjani, who has died aged 82, was president of Iran from 1989 to 1997; he ran for the presidency again in 2005 but lost to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, of whom he became openly critical, and later began to side with reformers, calling for more political freedoms in Iran.

Tony Sonneveld

Georges Prêtre, a French conductor who for seven decades led some of the world's finest orchestras, found a second home in Vienna and forged close relationships with singer Maria Callas and composer Francis Poulenc, has died at his chateau in Naves, in southern France aged 92.

Gregory Shortis was a poet and university teacher of German language and literature and a spectacular performer of his and others' work.

William Christopher, Sister Frances Ann Carr, Lavinia Keppel

Judge gave the defendants tougher sentences for the burglary than for the rape.

Interest in medicine emerged at the age of five when his father removed his tonsils and adenoids on the kitchen table under a chloroform anaesthetic.