Michel Jouvet, who has died aged 91, was one of the first researchers to describe rapid eye movement sleep, the crucial stage when the brain dreams and processes experiences. Jouvet, working in the early 1960s at the University Claude Bernard in Lyon, mapped out the brain structures that generate REM. He compared the discovery of REM sleep to finding "a new continent in the brain". REM sleep is found in all warm-blooded mammals and birds. Jouvet discovered it initially in cats, and later studied penguins, which stay awake for long periods during the breeding season. He implanted an expensive radio-telemetry chip in an emperor penguin in Antarctica, but the valuable research subject was released into the sea and eaten by a killer whale.

• Andrew Jamieson

The death of Tony Sagona has deprived the field of near-eastern archaeology in general, and the University of Melbourne in particular, of a most distinguished scholar and a fine man.

• Jenny Taylor and Evelyn McColl

Doug McColl returned to Warracknabeal in 1949 after training as a pharmacist in Melbourne. He spent the rest of his life serving his local community in countless ways.

• Irene Jones

Alan Cassell left his car factory job in 1950s Birmingham to seek opportunities in Australia - and became one of his new country's most admired actors.

• Paul McMenamin

Despite her own health problems, Christine McMenamin had a stellar rise as a research scientist, doctor and then leader of Monash University's medical training program.

• Alistair Moffat and Filippa Araki

Peter Poole met his first computer in Sydney University's School of Physics in 1957. His lifelong passion for computer science began.

Geoff Crawford regarded his role at Buckingham Palace as a position of trust.



• Brian Costar

A brilliant polymath and political scientist who could also have held professorships in history and public law.

Tony Booth, the actor, who has died aged 85, was best known as the abrasive "Scouse git" of a son-in-law who got under Alf Garnett's skin in the BBC comedy series Till Death Us Do Part; in later life he sometimes performed the same function for his real-life son-in-law, the former prime minister Tony Blair.

Engineer built vital links in the state's road system

An encounter with rock star Elvis Presley was a defining moment of Tom Petty's childhood.

• Dean Bowen

For 40 years, Joe Bowen worked in the family business of moving houses - 3000 of them.

• Graham Willett

Umpire Graham Carbery was the victim of one of football's most notorious incidents, but away from the headlines he lived a quiet life documenting the history of Australia's gay movements.

• Sue Debney and Tanya Druce

In the words of one of her child patients, Joyce Alley "helped to unlock and set free the precious gift of speech and joyful song in many young voices".

• Kerry Cue and Christopher Balmford

Rosemary Balmford, the first woman appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria, was an inspirational role model for women in the legal profession.

The first woman in a wheelchair to teach in a classroom.

Doug Radcliffe was involved in the making of The Dam Busters (1955), working on the bouncing bomb visual effects.

Tony Booth, the actor, who has died aged 85, was best known as the abrasive "Scouse git" of a son-in-law who got under Alf Garnett's skin in the BBC comedy series Till Death Us Do Part; in later life he sometimes performed the same function for his real-life son-in-law, the former prime minister Tony Blair. Booth, who had more than a little in common with his most famous television character, spent most of his career pursuing what he described as "boozing, arguing and crumpeteering". A heavy drinker, he once mistook the prime minister of Luxembourg for a wine waiter at a party given by Harold Wilson. Booth told the visiting politician to "make himself useful" by filling the empty glasses. "I'll say this for the guy," Booth recalled. "He came back with two full glasses. He had style."

Liliane Bettencourt grew up in a cocoon of privilege and secrets.

Jake LaMotta, Lilliane Bettencourt, Lilian Ross,

There weren't many places Joel Peterson hadn't been – at least that's the way it seemed. His work as a cinematographer took him from cities such as New York and London – to visit the Queen no less – to far-flung villages where few outsiders venture.

• Valerie Lawson

Lady Fairfax: Her motto, she said, was "touch every life with good".

Harry Dean Stanton, the shambling, craggy-faced character actor with the deadpan voice who became a cult favourite through his memorable turns in Repo Man, Big Love and many other films and TV shows, died September 15 at a hospital in Los Angeles. He was 91.

• Malcolm Mackerras

Migrant and campaigner who helped create the capital's unique voting system.

• Frank Vincent, Maurice Bluestein, Louise Hay

Frank Vincent, Maurice Bluestein, Louise Hay

On the day of the 2015 ruling, Edith Windsor gave a celebratory party. "I'm thrilled, I'm absolutely thrilled," she told The New Yorker as guests crowded her apartment.

A casual conversation in Sydney between two actors, one famous, the other on the brink of fame, changed everything for the ballet dancer, Tamara Tchinarova.

Before Yves Saint Laurent died of brain cancer, aged 71, a deathbed ceremony made him and Bergé civil partners under the law.