Obituaries

Sonia Pottinger: Record label owner and producer who thrived in the combative Jamaican music business

Wednesday, 5 January 2011

Elisabeth Beresford

Wednesday, 5 January 2011

Pete Postlethwaite: Distinctive, prolific actor, acclaimed by Spielberg as 'the best in the world'

Tuesday, 4 January 2011

Peter Postlethwaite was a distinctive player who established himself as one of the country's finest character actors, and subsequently made countless memorable appearances in feature films, on the stage and on television

Agathe von Trapp: Eldest daughter of the family who inspired 'The Sound of Music'

Tuesday, 4 January 2011

Agathe von Trapp was the eldest daughter of the Austrian family who inspired the Rogers and Hammerstein Broadway production and film The Sound of Music. The film was a worldwide sensation, smashing box-office records and snapping up five Oscars. With figures adjusted for inflation, in 2010 The Sound of Music was ranked 3rd in the all-time list of biggest-grossing films, only behind Gone with the Wind and Star Wars. However, the film detracted somewhat from the reality of the Von Trapps' experience and left them distressed, without the consolation of remuneration from the film's vast profits.

Elisabeth Beresford: Children's author who created the Wombles

Monday, 3 January 2011

Elisabeth Beresford was inspired to create the Wombles by her daughter's mispronunciation during a Boxing Day romp across Wimbledon Common.

Billy Taylor: Pianist and broadcaster who became a tenacious ambassador for jazz

Monday, 3 January 2011

The recordings of Erroll Garner, a man inarticulate in speech and unable to read music, sold in millions across the world during the Forties and Fifties.

Phillips Talbot: Journalist and diplomat who became an expert on South Asian affairs

Monday, 3 January 2011

It was a measure of Phillips Talbot's understanding and knowledge of India and Pakistan that he had been acclaimed as the doyen of American experts on South Asia.

Bobby Farrell: Dancer and frontman of the Euro-disco group Boney M

Saturday, 1 January 2011

Manufactured pop groups have been a curse, a guilty pleasure and an occasional delight ever since The Monkees started aping The Beatles in the mid-Sixties.

Joseph Gavin: Aerospace engineer who played an integral part in the first moon landing

Saturday, 1 January 2011

Joseph Gavin was an MIT engineer who helped put the first men on the moon and led the team to save the Apollo 13 crew from disaster.

James Pickles: Judge who caused controversy both in and out of the courtroom

Friday, 31 December 2010

James Pickles was the self-proclaimed "human face of the judiciary" and "the People's Judge" whose outspoken and colourful attacks on the British legal establishment made him a household name in the 1980s and 1990s.