Ken Russell dies in his sleep

Maverick director, Ken Russell, best known for ‘Women in Love’ and ‘Tommy’, dies aged 84.

Celebrated British film director Ken Russell has died peacefully in his sleep, aged 84, his son Alex has announced.

Russell’s films included ‘Women in Love’, ‘Tommy’ and ‘The Devils’. He found fame with a new generation after appearing in ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ in 2007.

Born in Southampton in 1927, Russell served in the Royal Air Force before moving into television documentaries.

His first film was farce ‘French Dressing’, but his big break was ‘Billion Dollar Brain’ - the sequel to the Michael Caine Harry Palmer spy thriller ‘The Ipcress File’.

The director’s films were often controversial; ‘Women in Love’ featured an infamous scene showing Oliver Reed and Alan Bates wrestling nude.

However it was his most critically lauded effort and earned him an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Director’ and star Glenda Jackson a ‘Best Actress’ Academy Award.

Ken Russell dies aged 84

Religious drama ‘The Devils’, which featured a scene showing Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave sexualising the crucifixion,  also caused an uproar and was initially rejected by the studio.

His biggest commercial success was ‘Tommy’, a trippy rock opera based around the songs of The Who and starring lead singer Roger Daltrey.

His other credits include ‘Lisztomania’, ‘Altered States’, ‘Savage Messiah’ and ‘Crimes of Passion’ and 1991 drama ‘Whore’.

The last film effectively ended Russell’s career as a mainstream film maker, and he fell from the limelight in the 1990s.

He was reduced to making films in his garden starring drama students  - such as 'The Fall of the Louse of Usher: A Gothic Tale for the 21st Century' - but was re-introduced to the public when he appeared in ‘Celebrity Big Brother in 2007.

The series featured the infamous Jade Goody race row, and Russell walked out after four days following arguments with the reality star.
Russell is survived by wife Lisi Tribble and his five children from his first marriage to Shirley Russell.

Wales football manager Gary Speed has died, aged 42

 

Speed said he was satisfied with his first 10 games in charge of Wales

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Wales football manager Gary Speed has died at the age of 42.

The Football Association of Wales (FAW) has said it appears Speed, the national manager for nearly a year, killed himself.
Cheshire Police confirmed he was found dead at 07:08 GMT at his home in Huntington, Chester. They said there were no suspicious circumstances.
Former Wales team mate Ryan Giggs said: "Words cannot begin to describe how sad I feel at hearing this awful news."

"The world has lost a great man in Gary speed I'm devastated spoke to him yesterday morning why ! Why. Why !! I'll miss him so much x”

Robbie Savage Former team mate, on Twitter

He said: "Our thoughts are with his family at what must be a very difficult time for them."

The FAW said: "We extend our sympathies and condolences to the family.
"We ask that everyone respects the family's privacy at this very sad time."
The FAW added: "That this tragedy should have overtaken someone so young and talented is a huge loss not only for his family and friends but a nation as a whole."
Speed, who was awarded the MBE in the 2010 Birthday Honours, leaves a wife and two children.
Phil Pritchard, FAW president, said they would do "whatever we can" to help Speed's family.

In a statement, Cheshire Police said: "At 7.08am on Sunday 27th November Cheshire Police was informed of a sudden death at an address in Huntington in Chester.

Speed signed for Newcastle for £5.5m in 1998

"Officers went to the scene where a 42-year-old man was found dead.
"The next of kin have been informed and have confirmed the identity of the man as Gary Speed.
85 caps
"There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death and the family have requested that they are left in peace to grieve at this difficult time."
Police said a family tribute will be issued later.
Speed had appeared on BBC1's Football Focus show on Saturday afternoon, just hours before his death.
Footballers, celebrities and politicians began issuing tributes within minutes of the news.
Former Wales team mate, Robbie Savage, Tweeted: "The world has lost a great man in Gary speed I'm devastated spoke to him yesterday morning why ! Why. Why !! I'll miss him so much x
"He come to watch strictly 3/4 weeks ago I high fived him in the front row he loved the show ,he loved life he loved his family ! Devastated".

Former Wales team mate Ryan Giggs said: "I am totally devastated. Gary Speed was one of the nicest men in football and someone I am honoured to call a team-mate and friend.
"Words cannot begin to describe how sad I feel at hearing this awful news. It goes without saying my thoughts are with his family at this tremendously sad time."
First Minister Carwyn Jones said: "I'm deeply saddened to hear about the death of Gary Speed.
"This is devastating news and our thoughts are with his family at what must be a very difficult time for them."
Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan tweeted: "This is a sad day for football and for everyone in Wales.
"Gary Speed served club and country as a player and manager with great distinction."
Andrew RT Davies, Welsh Conservatives leader, said: "Gary Speed was tremendously gifted and I - along with millions of others - will always remember him as a legend in the game of football."
'Never be forgotten'
Welsh Liberal Democrats leader, Kirsty Williams, said: "It is a terrible, terrible shock. A tragedy for the Speed family and a tragedy for Welsh football."
Plaid Cymru leader Ieuan Wyn Jones said the "whole nation is in shock", adding: "He will never be forgotten."
At the Liberty Stadium in Swansea - where the home side were playing Aston Villa a minute's silence followed by a minute's applause was held.
Speed, born in Mancot, Flintshire, took over the Wales job in December 2010, and earlier this month, said the side's rapid improvement had exceeded all expectations.
A 4-1 friendly win over Norway represented a third successive win for Wales, and Speed's fifth in 10 games as manager.
At the time, he said: "We've progressed further than I'd have thought in this space of time but we've still got a lot of work to do."
'Stunned and saddened'
Speed won 85 caps for his country during a 14-year international career.
He was given the top job in Welsh football despite only having four months managerial experience.
Speed began his playing career at Leeds United after coming through the trainee ranks, and was part of the side that won the last Football League title in 1992, before the introduction of the Premier League.

Swansea crowd pay tribute to Gary Speed

A Leeds spokesman said the club was "stunned and saddened" by the news.
He was handed his Wales debut as a 20-year-old in the 1-0 friendly win over Costa Rica in May 1990.
He left Leeds in 1996 after 312 appearances to join Everton - who he went on to captain - in a £3.5m move.
Seven goals
Newcastle followed, in a £5.5m switch in 1998. During his six years with the Magpies, he suffered two FA Cup final defeats, but enjoyed a taste of Champions League football.
He then spent four years with Bolton Wanderers after agreeing a £750,000 move.
Speed became the first player to reach 500 Premier League appearances.
He retired from international duty in 2004, having scored seven goals and captaining his country 44 times.
Speed's final appearance came in 3-2 World Cup qualifying defeat by Poland in October 2004.
His tally of 85 caps is a record for an outfield player.

Peter Roebuck

Peter Roebuck, who was found dead on Saturday 12 November aged 55, was a brilliant man fanatically dedicated to cricket.

As a batsman he proved a highly competent county player. As captain of Somerset he was the leading figure behind the coup which ousted Viv Richards and Joel Garner from the club, causing Ian Botham to resign in protest.

Roebuck batting against Oxfordshire, April 1985

After retiring from first-class cricket, Roebuck emigrated to Australia, where he became an authoritative, waspish and highly successful writer and commentator on the game.

In 2001, however, he was the subject of a humiliating scandal, in which he was found guilty of common assault after caning three 19-year-old youths who had been staying with him near Taunton for cricket coaching. To outsiders it seemed that he had emerged unscathed from this disaster; evidently, though, his demons were never slain.

Peter Michael Roebuck was born on March 6 1956, one of six children of two teachers – his father of Economics and his mother of Maths. Both parents were cricket enthusiasts; indeed his mother had kept wicket for the Oxford University Ladies team, which in turn would be captained by one of his sisters.

When Peter was a boy his family moved to Bath, where he would practise interminably by hitting a plastic ball against a wall of his parents' flat, while commentating on the state of play. He liked to recall that the tapping sounds made by this game greatly excited the occupants of the next door flat, who were given to holding séances.

When questions were asked about his intention of pursuing cricket as a career, Peter determined to prove that he was inured to the dangers of batting by facing fast bowlers at the indoor cricket school in Bath. He was duly hit, and hurt, but discovered that he was as keen as ever on the game. "That was the first hurdle overcome," he wrote.
At 13 and still a titch – 4ft 2in if Wisden is to believed – Roebuck played for Somerset Second, bowling leg breaks and googlies, and trying to muster enough strength to hit the ball off the square.
The combination of his intellectual and sporting achievements won him a scholarship to Millfield. His younger brother Paul and two of his sisters were also awarded scholarships to the school, while his parents were taken on as teachers.
Going up to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Roebuck took first-class honours in Law, despite playing cricket for the university for three successive years. In the first of these, 1975, he scored 158 against Oxford, and in quick time.
In 1976, playing for a Combined Oxford and Cambridge side against the West Indians, he was hit by a bumper from Andy Roberts, and taken to hospital, where he was informed that if the blow had been a quarter of an inch away it might have been fatal. He then returned to the crease, only to have his cap knocked off by another Roberts delivery. Roebuck seemed to relish this harsh education.
He had already made his debut for Somerset in 1974. Though not blessed with outstanding natural talent, by 1978 he had become, by sheer determination, an important member of the county side.
The joke was that he performed the function of preventing Richards and Botham from batting together, as the two great men were liable to get out by trying to outdo each other.
Between 1979 and 1983 Somerset's star-studded team won five trophies in limited over cricket. It is doubtful whether Richards, Botham and Garner paid undue attention to their remote, bookish and bespectacled team-mate. This, however, was a mistake, for Roebuck possessed an intensely competitive spirit and extraordinary strength of will.
In 1983, with the luminaries of Somerset away playing in the World Cup, and Brian Rose injured, Roebuck – suddenly and surprisingly – found himself captaining the county for a few games. He enjoyed the experience, and began to think more deeply about how the team's performance might be improved.
In 1985 Somerset finished bottom of the championship, and Roebuck, appointed captain for the following year, did not shrink from the conclusion that the immortals in the team were no longer pulling their weight. Still more bravely, he determined to rectify matters.
The year 1986 proved almost as disastrous as the previous one, as Somerset finished in penultimate position. That August, Roebuck, as captain, secured the sacking of Richards and Garner in favour of the New Zealander Martin Crowe, whereupon Botham resigned out of loyalty to his friends.
To the extent that Somerset ascended the championship table to 11th place in both 1987 and 1988, Roebuck's actions may have been justified. Moreover, since 1984, when he hit seven 100s, his own batting had become formidably consistent.
In four successive seasons, from 1984 to 1987, he averaged more than 40, reaching a peak in the latter year at 49.95. In 1988 he was one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year.
His form slumped rather in 1988, but recovered after he handed over the captaincy to his friend Vic Marks. In 1989 he made a hundred against the Australians His highest first-class score, in 1986, was 221 not out, against a Nottinghamshire attack which included Richard Hadlee.
Roebuck retired from first-class cricket at the end of the season of 1991. In 355 games and 552 innings he had accumulated 17,558 runs at an average of 37.27. As an occasional bowler, variously described a medium-pacer and an off-spinner, he took 72 wickets at 49.16.
Between 1993 and 1999, and again in 2001, Roebuck captained Devon, which won four successive Minor Counties championships from 1994, as well as bringing off two one-day titles.
After 1991, however, his professional career was in Australia, where he became a trenchant and opinionated cricket correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age, and also won a high reputation as a commentator for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Latterly, he also worked for the internet site Cricinfo.
Though his views, not least his campaign in 2008 against Ricky Ponting as Australia's captain, brought furious reaction from the public, Roebuck enjoyed living in Australia.
His prickly, confrontational, individualistic and courageously honest character suited the national temperament, while the standard of his writing did Cambridge proud. Many who worked with him thought of him as a friend, however resistant he might have been to the concept.
"I enjoyed his company and always felt I'd learnt something from him," remarked the hardly less contentious Ian Chappell, a former captain of Australia.
Roebuck also enjoyed visiting South Africa, and showed his generosity in the money he gave for helping Africans to obtain a university education.
Yet, as his conviction for the caning incident in 2001 showed, there was a darker side to his nature. The explanation he gave in court was typically unapologetic. He had told the boys, he said, that he would beat them if they did not conform to "house rules", and he had carried out this threat when they failed to conform to his standards. "I have no time for half-heartedness," he said. "My philosophy is 'through fire into light'."
He was given a suspended sentence of four months for each of the three offences. For all his apparent coolness, however, it seems he was unable to face the consequences when the police visited him on Saturday night.
Roebuck published It Never Rains: A Cricketer's Lot (1985); Sometimes I Forgot to Laugh (2004); It Takes All Sorts: Celebrating Cricket's Colourful Characters (2005); and In It To Win: the Australian Cricket Supremacy (2007).
Peter Roebuck, born March 6 1956, died November 12 2011

John Neville

John Neville, who has died aged 86, achieved early renown as a leading Shakespearean actor with the Old Vic company in the 1950s and later starred in the title role in the 1988 film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and as "The Well-Manicured Man" in the The X-Files.

John Neville as Baron Munchausen 

Noted for his aquiline good looks, swift intelligence and distinctive baritone voice, Neville dominated, with Richard Burton, the Old Vic stage in the late 1950s. He played many leading roles, including Romeo, Hamlet and an acclaimed Richard in Richard II, alongside Virginia McKenna as Queen Anne.

In 1956 he and Burton performed a memorable double-act, alternating the roles of Othello and Iago. Neville later recalled how, before one matinée performance, they had gone out for a liquid lunch at The Ivy: "Staggering out of the restaurant a little the worse for wear, we returned to the theatre and both played Iago. The audience noticed nothing unusual and nor, in the state we were in, did we."

Although the two men were good friends, the gossip columns made them out to be rivals ("the Willesden Wizard v The Welsh Wonder"), and both had their own (mostly young, female) claques. When they appeared together in Henry V, a reviewer noted: "John Neville as Chorus could not move a muscle without eliciting a loud bravo; Richard Burton dared not twitch his crown without waking a counter-cheer from the balcony."

Neville was frequently billed as John Gielgud's natural successor, and he could have become as well-known but for the fact that he never seemed able to settle, and gained a reputation for walking out of jobs when he became bored. In 1972 he left Britain for good and moved to Canada.

The son of a lorry driver and council mechanic, John Neville was born in Willesden, north London, on May 2 1925 and educated at Chiswick County School for Boys. A church choir outing to the Old Vic to see Ralph Richardson and Vivien Leigh in A Midsummer Night's Dream inspired him with a love of theatre, and he went on to play Brutus in a school production of Julius Caesar.

He left school aged 16 to work as a stores clerk in a garage, but his performance as Hamlet in a church drama group production won him a council scholarship to Rada.
He took it up after three years' wartime service as a signalman in the Royal Navy, during which he took part in the Normandy landings and served in the Far East.
Neville made his West End debut in 1947 in a walk-on part in Richard II at the New Theatre. The following year he was engaged for the Open Air Theatre season at Regent's Park, where he played Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Chatillon in King John.
In 1949 he was engaged by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre where, among other roles, he played John Worthing in The Importance of Being Ernest; he also married the play's Cecily, Caroline Hooper.
Moving on to the Bristol Old Vic, Neville soon became the company's leading man, playing Surface in The School for Scandal; Ferdinand in Love's Labour's Lost; and Valentine in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
In 1953 Michael Benthall engaged him for the Old Vic, where early roles included Lewis the Dauphin in King John; Orsino in Twelfth Night; Macduff in Macbeth; and Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost. It was, however, his performance as Richard II in February 1955 that established him in the company's front rank. He captured perfectly the beleaguered king's combination of arrogance and pathos, and on the opening night his performance won him 23 curtain calls.
His other roles at the theatre included Hotspur, Troilus, Romeo and Andrew Aguecheek. He was Pistol in King Henry the Fourth and a subtle but forceful Mark Antony in Julius Caesar. His Hamlet came in 1957, with Jack Gwillim as Claudius and Judi Dench as Ophelia. The Daily Telegraph's critic, WA Darlington, felt that although he gave a memorable performance – "sensitive, romantic-looking and intelligent" – it lacked something "in music and emotional force".
Neville left the Old Vic in 1959 to explore other avenues. He directed The Importance of Being Ernest at the Bristol Old Vic, then took over from Keith Michell as Nestor in the musical comedy Irma La Douce at the Lyric Theatre, winning praise for his fine singing voice. Rather less convincing was his performance as Lord Alfred Douglas in Gregory Ratoff's biopic Oscar Wilde (1960), critics considering Neville too old for the part.
After a temporary return to the Old Vic to direct Henry V, with Donald Houston playing the king, Neville was the enigmatic Stranger in Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea, with Margaret Leighton, at the Queen's Theatre. He also appeared in Peter Ustinov's film Billy Budd (1962) and Peter Sellers's directorial debut, Mr Topaze, in 1961.
Also in 1961, in another departure, Neville turned his back on the West End stage and moved to the Nottingham Playhouse, where he served as joint director from 1963 and played numerous roles, including Macbeth, Coriolanus, Faustus and Sir Thomas More. In 1967, however, he resigned after a row with the city authorities over funding.
For a time Neville worked with Prospect Productions and also starred as Marlborough in the 1969 BBC Two serial The First Churchills, and as Captain Macheath in The Beggar's Opera at Chichester in 1972. But his efforts to find another theatre directorship in Britain got nowhere, and in 1972 he accepted an offer to direct The Rivals at the newly-built National Arts centre in Ottawa. He decided to stay and later took Canadian citizenship.
For the next two decades he continued to act and direct the classics. At Edmonton he oversaw the development of a new arts complex; directed Much Ado About Nothing (playing Benedick) and Uncle Vanya; and played Sherlock Holmes and Bernard Shaw in Dear Liar. Moving to the Neptune Theatre at Halifax, Nova Scotia, he toured in Othello; directed The Seagull; and starred in The Taming of the Shrew and The Master Builder.
In 1982 he moved to Stratford, Ontario, where in 1985 he took over the financially troubled Festival Theatre, founded in 1953 by Tyrone Guthrie. During a notably successful four years he staged Mother Courage, Othello, The Three Sisters and a modern-dress Hamlet. He also took leading roles himself in Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, Pericles, The Merchant of Venice (as Shylock) and Henry VIII.
In 1988 Terry Gilliam chose Neville to play the title role in his film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Although the film was a financial flop, Neville's performance as the baron (from the ages of 35 to 80) was well-received and led to numerous invitations to appear on film and television. From 1995 to 1998 he had a prominent recurring role in The X-Files as the "Well-Manicured Man".
John Neville was appointed OBE in 1965 and a member of the Order of Canada in 2006.
He is survived by his wife, Caroline, and by their three sons and three daughters.

John Neville, born May 2 1925, died November 19 2011

Jackie Leven

Jackie Leven, who has died of cancer aged 61, was one of rock and folk music’s most colourful and individual talents, though he never achieved the wide success and recognition that his performances undoubtedly merited.

“The greatest band you’ve never heard of,” was how a critic described Doll By Doll, the idiosyncratic band Leven led in compelling fashion through the late 1970s and early 1980s. The group’s psychedelic-flavoured style may have been out of step with the times, preventing it from achieving anything more than cult status, but Leven’s rampant imagination rewarded fans’ fascination. Doll By Doll’s 1979 album Gypsy Blood was hailed, retrospectively, as one of British rock’s masterpieces.

Jackie Leven

 

Usually described as a maverick, or an outsider who swam constantly against the tide, Leven survived not only the split of Doll By Doll in 1982, but also an attempt to murder him, as well as debilitating drug addiction. He re-emerged in the 1990s as a darkly witty and unusually perceptive singer-songwriter operating on the fringes of the folk scene. After a 40-year career and 400 original songs, he was still at the top of his game when he collaborated with the multi-instrumentalist Michael Cosgrave on his final album Wayside Shrines and the Code of the Travelling Man – released to enthusiastic reviews earlier this year.

Leven had an unusual background. He was born to a gypsy family in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, on June 19 1950, with a London Irish father and a Northumbrian mother. He was a loner in childhood and had a sketchy education, constantly playing truant from school. Instead he preferred to spend his time wandering alone in the hills near Kirkcaldy, an environment which subsequently featured heavily in his songwriting. On the rare days he did attend, one of his schoolmates was the future Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and the pair were even on Kirkcaldy High School’s debating society together. As a Labour backbencher, Brown occasionally attended Leven’s solo gigs.

One thing Leven did learn, however, was his mother’s love of the blues, and as a teenager he spent much of his time playing in local folk clubs. Having definitively left school he hitchhiked around Britain and parts of Europe, often sleeping rough, and then wound up busking in London. Initially adopting the name John St Field, he released his eccentric, psychedelic first record, Control, in 1971 (reissued by Cooking Vinyl in 1997), before forming Doll By Doll during the height of the punk movement in the late 1970s.

Leven’s weirdly disquieting songs — often confronting such difficult issues as mental illness and homelessness — sharply distinguished Doll By Doll from the more usual bands of the punk era and their simplistic anger. After challenging but failing to dent the dogmatic attitudes of the day, the band disintegrated following four albums that were critically well-received but sold sparsely.

While working on a solo album in 1983 Leven became the victim of a vicious random attack in the street by a group of strangers who tried to strangle him as he walked home from a recording session in North London. “One guy was strangling me and some others were giving me a serious kicking,” Leven recalled. “I remember thinking, quite clearly: 'I’m going to die here.’” He was saved by his producer, who, Leven said, “jumped in a Range Rover and came surging up the street, horn blaring, hurtling onto the pavement in great grandstanding style.”
Nonetheless, Leven’s larynx was badly damaged and in the aftermath of the assault he was unable to sing or play guitar. He was plunged further into gloom when he separated from his girlfriend, and he soon became a recluse, taking solace in heroin.
Two years later he emerged – fully recovered – after undergoing a course of alternative Chinese treatment and psychic healing. Such was his praise for these remedies over more traditional rehabilitation treatments that he went on to co-found the Core Trust, an organisation in Marylebone which promotes a “holistic” approach to helping people with alcohol and drug addictions. As a patron of the Core Trust, he once met Diana, Princess of Wales, responding to her request to sing something with the traditional Scottish ballad The Bonnie Earl Of Moray, which he had previously used as the basis for one of Doll By Doll’s most popular songs, Main Travelled Roads.
Leven subsequently left London to live in Oban on the west coast of Scotland, where he involved himself in the local community and wrote the material that provided the basis of his dramatic and expansive comeback album, The Mystery Of Love Is Greater Than The Mystery Of Death (1994). This was ranked by Q magazine as one of the “100 Best Albums of All Time” and included one of his finest songs, Call Mother.
His ambitious follow-up solo album, Forbidden Songs Of The Dying West (1995), included a 60-voice male choir, guest artists such as the songwriters Eddi Reader and Andy White, and one of his most remarkable songs, Young Male Suicide Blessed By Invisible Woman. The mystical Fairy Tales For Hard Man album (1997), confirmed his evolution into both a soulful, almost spiritual singer and a broody, intriguing songwriter.
Leven continued to experiment and explore different styles on the eclectic Night Lilies (1998) and Defending Ancient Springs (2000). This album, in part inspired by the poet Kathleen Raine, includes sound effects, industrial samples, and a duet with David Thomas (of the experimental rock music group Pere Ubu) on a bold cover of the old Righteous Brothers’ hit You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.
He only became more prolific in the new millennium, releasing further imaginative collections such as Elegy For Johnny Cash (2005) – which includes the entertainingly-titled Why Log Truck Drivers Rise Earlier Than Students Of Zen – as well as Lovers At The Gun Club (2008). His final record – subtitled Songs Written In German Hotel Rooms — was full of characteristically dark but funny numbers such as Swine Flu Fever Blues; To Live and Die In Levenland; and Townes At The Borderline, and incorporated references to Captain Beefheart, John Coltrane and Leslie Phillips along the way.
“All I can do is make records that I would like and want to listen to and hope others agree,” Jackie Leven said earlier this year. “That is my fate.”
He was twice married and is survived by his partner, Deborah Greenwood, and by a son of an earlier relationship.
Jackie Leven, born June 19 1950, died November 15 2011

England legend D'Oliveira dies

 

D'Oliveira played 44 Tests for England after moving from South Africa 

 

Former England all-rounder Basil D'Oliveira has died at the age of 80.

Born in South Africa, D'Oliveira moved to England in 1960 due to the lack of opportunities for non-White players.
In 1968 he was named in England's squad to tour South Africa which was then cancelled as South Africa's government refused to accept his presence.
D'Oliveira played county cricket for Worcestershire between 1964-80 and represented England in 44 Tests, scoring 2,484 runs at an average of 40.
The headlines made by D'Oliveira in 1968 marked the start of South Africa's sporting isolation.
After being added to the England squad as a replacement for the injured Tom Cartwright the South African government made it clear he would not be welcome after they learned he was originally from South Africa and coloured.
The tour was called off and the incident culminated in a ban on sporting ties with South Africa which would last until the early 1990s.
No official team from any country subsequently toured South Africa until apartheid was abolished following Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990.
Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola paid tribute to the man fondly called 'Dolly' whose health had been deteriorating for some time leading up to his death in England.
"He was a man of true dignity and a wonderful role model as somebody who overcame the most extreme prejudices and circumstances to take his rightful place on the world stage.

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• Test caps: 44
• Test debut: v West Indies 1966
• Last test: v Australia 1972
• Runs: 2484
• 100s: 5
• Ave: 40.06
• Wickets: 47
• Best (match): 5-62
• Econ rate: 1.95

"The circumstances surrounding his being prevented from touring the country of his birth with England in 1968 led directly to the intensification of opposition to apartheid around the world and contributed materially to the sports boycott that turned out to be an Achilles heel of the apartheid government.
"Throughout this shameful period in South Africa's sporting history, Basil displayed a human dignity that earned him worldwide respect and admiration.
"His memory and inspiration will live on among all of us. On behalf of the CSA family I would like to convey our sympathies to his family and salute them on a life well lived."
D'Oliveira's son Damian played county cricket for Worcestershire, between 1982 and 1995.
In August his grandson Brett, a leg spinner, also signed for Worcestershire on a one-year contract.

Karl Slover

Karl Slover, who has died aged 93, was a member of the "Singer Midgets" vaudeville troupe and played several roles as a Munchkin in the 1939 film classic The Wizard of Oz.

In the film, Slover appeared as Herald No 1 – the first of the three trumpeters to herald the arrival of the Munchkin mayor. He also played one of the Munchkin soldiers; was one of the singers who prompted Judy Garland to Follow the Yellow Brick Road; and he was the only "Sleepyhead" boy in the nest of eggs.

Karl Slover

 

Born Karl Kosiczky on September 21 1918 in Prakendorf, Hungary (now in Slovakia), he stopped growing at the age of four and was diagnosed with pituitary dwarfism.

"My father tried everything to make me grow," he recalled. "He took me to Budapest where I was placed on a stretching machine with one doctor pulling at my legs and another my feet until I screamed with pain. They tried other things too – there were gold injections; I was once placed in a barrel full of coconut oil; another time I met with a witch doctor in Hawaii – I was seen as a punishment for something that perhaps my father had done in a previous life."

On his ninth birthday his father sold him to the impresario Leo Singer, who ran a travelling vaudeville troupe of "midgets" based in Berlin: "My father was glad to get rid of me," he recalled. "Even at that tender age I knew I'd be better off with Singer than with my parents."

In 1928 he travelled with the troupe to America on forged documents "proving" he was 16. Bookings flooded in, and the Singer Midgets toured extensively – they stopped in Hawaii for three years and played at the Roxy Theatre and Hippodrome in New York. At just 4ft 4in, Kosiczky was the smallest member of the troupe and, later, the shortest of the male Munchkins.

After The Wizard of Oz he continued to perform for three more years in the "Original World Famous Singers Midget Show". Then, when the show broke up in 1942, he found work with an entrepreneur called BA Slover, who owned several rides at the Royal American Carnival in Tampa, Florida, and, with his wife, ran a company that leased mobile carnival rides to shopping centres and other venues. Kosiczky sold tickets for the rides and changed his name from Kosiczky to Slover when he became an American citizen in 1943. Subsequently he performed with trained poodles.
As well as The Wizard of Oz, Slover appeared in They Gave Him A Gun (1937), starring Spencer Tracy; Bringing Up Baby (1938), with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn; Terror of Tiny Town (1938), a film with a midget cast in which he played the town barber and a saloon bass player; the Laurel and Hardy comedy Block-Heads (1938); the Humphrey Bogart thriller Crime School (1938); and Magic Trio (1938). In 1945, at the age of 27, he donned a bonnet and played a baby in a pram in The Lost Weekend, with Ray Milland and Doris Dowling.
In 1963, on his only return trip to Europe, Slover was reunited with his mother: "Father was long dead and to see mother and my sisters again was the happiest day of my little life," he recalled.
In 2007 he was one of seven Munchkins at the unveiling of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame dedicated to the little people in the film.

Karl Slover, born September 21 1918, died November 15 2011

Dulcie Gray

Dulcie Gray, who died on Tuesday aged 95, was a star of British stage and screen for more than 50 years, often appearing with her husband, Michael Denison.

Theirs was a famously long marriage, which lasted for almost 60 years in a profession not known for stability. Between them they starred in more than 100 West End plays and, in the 1940s and 1950s, were familiar figures in British films. On screen they co-starred in My Brother Jonathan and The Glass Mountain in 1948, The Franchise Affair in 1950 and the Battle of Britain movie Angels One Five in 1952. In 1983, both were awarded the CBE.

Dulcie Gray and Michael Denison

As an actress, Dulcie Gray somehow lacked individuality. Though she and Michael Denison made a good team, it was difficult to think of her as a star in her own right, and this is doubtless why she never won meaty screen parts independently of her husband. She was sometimes compared — and not to her advantage — with Googie Withers, who was her contemporary and also enjoyed a long marriage to her regular co-star, John McCallum.

Acting, however, was only one of Dulcie Gray’s talents. She was also a prolific writer and an expert on butterflies. She wrote some two dozen murder mysteries, which found wide popularity, eight radio plays, several volumes of short stories and an autobiography (Looking Forward, Looking Back). With Michael Denison, she wrote some thoughts on her craft for young children, An Actor and His World.

She also wrote one play (Love Affair), in which she co-starred with her husband, who also directed. Despite long theatrical experience, writing for the stage was not her forte. The play opened to a savage review from Kenneth Tynan, who fulminated that it shattered three cardinal rules: “actresses should not write plays, playwrights should not act in their own plays and directors should not appear in their own productions”. And he added a fourth rule as a coda: “actors should not marry”. The Denisons were mortally offended and considered legal action. Dulcie Gray never wrote another play.

Her principal achievement as a writer was Butterflies on My Mind, a scholarly study of the insects written in 1978 that went on to win the Times Educational Senior Information Book Award.

Dulcie Bailey was born in Kuala Lumpur on November 20 1915, the daughter of a judge. She was educated in England at private schools in Wallingford, Wokingham and Swanage but in her late teens returned to the East, where she began work as a journalist for the Malaya Tribune.
She also wrote and broadcast songs on the radio. One of them, You Tickle Me Spitless, Baby, achieved some local acclaim.
Though keen on amateur theatricals, she never intended to become an actress, thinking instead of journalism or teaching. Indeed for a time she held a teaching post in the Malayan jungle. Accepting a job at a school in England, she worked her passage home, but was unable to take up the position because she then badly broke her arm.
At a loose end, she competed initially for a painting scholarship at the Amédée Ozenfant studio at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in London. She won and spent three months there but soon found that art was not her métier. So she tried for a place at the Webber Douglas drama school and was again successful.
It was there that she met Michael Denison, with whom she first acted six months later in a play about the Irish leader Charles Stewart Parnell (Dulcie Gray played his inamorata, Kitty O’Shea). Much smitten with his co-star, Denison sent her half a dozen roses (all he could afford at 7s 6d a bloom), with a note “To Kitty, from Charles Stewart”. She came to his dressing room at the interval and exclaimed “Would you believe? I haven’t seen him for years and look what old Charlie Stewart has sent me.”
The misunderstanding, however, was overcome and in 1939 they married, spending a one-night honeymoon at the Dorchester hotel before speeding off to Aberdeen, where she made her professional debut in Hay Fever at His Majesty’s Theatre. (She had toyed with calling herself Angela Botibol, but was wisely dissuaded, settling instead for her mother’s maiden name, Gray.)
While her husband served in the war, she played in repertory in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Harrogate, before coming to London to play in Shakespeare at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park. In her first season, she was Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and subsequently played Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew.
Her West End debut came in 1942 in a lacklustre production of The Little Foxes, but this was followed in 1943 by a personal triumph in Brighton Rock as the luckless waitress Rose. It earned her a film contract with Gainsborough Pictures. Her co-star, as the mobster Pinkie, was Richard Attenborough, who also played the part in the 1947 film version. Dulcie Gray, however, was passed over for the film in favour of the unknown Carol Marsh.
Her performance in the play certainly impressed Aleister Crowley, the notorious diabolist, who sent her six lines of doggerel in appreciation, ending “A young thing stole the show away/Her dulcet name is Dulcie Gray”. She wrote a brief letter of thanks but lived to regret it when he invited her to be sacrificed as a virgin at dawn in a midsummer rite at Stonehenge. With tongue firmly in cheek, she sent her regrets on the grounds that she disliked getting up early; Aleister Crowley bothered her no more.
On screen she was never a leading lady. Her career started with supporting roles in such films as 2,000 Women and Madonna of the Seven Moons (1944), They Were Sisters (1945) and Mine Own Executioner (1947). Only when she began co-starring with Michael Denison in My Brother Jonathan (1948) did she register with film buffs. Like John McCallum and Googie Withers, Derek Farr and Muriel Pavlow, the Denisons became known as a team. But in a sense that was the problem. They were identified as Michael-Denison-and-Dulcie-Gray rather than separate players. They made a good living out of it, but at the expense of individual fame. With the exception of Michael Denison’s Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest, their screen work was unmemorable.
On television, however, in later life, Dulcie Gray enjoyed success in soap operas and serials such as The Voysey Inheritance and Rumpole. In particular, she became identified in the 1980s with the character of Kate Harvey in the long-running nautical saga Howards’ Way. It required her only to smile benignly and look bemused — as well she might, having to cope with a plot in which Kate’s daughter’s ex-boyfriend marries her son’s prospective mother-in-law, who is also the grandmother of her son’s hoped-for stepson by the son of the man she has just married.
Dulcie Gray’s writing talents were reawakened when she contracted what looked like a terminal disease. She was diagnosed with cancer and given eight months to live. Novel-writing took her mind off her fate. In the end, happily, the diagnosis was proved wrong and she recovered. There was a bonus, too: she turned out to be a dab hand at thrillers, concocting some deliciously gruesome murders — strangling in the bath, electrocution by hair-dryer and the like. From 1966, the Denisons lived in a magnificent old Georgian mansion in Buckinghamshire designed by Robert Adam, where peace and quiet proved the ideal setting for her literary efforts.
Dulcie Gray and Michael Denison, who died in 1998, had no children.

Dulcie Gray, born November 20 1915, died November 15 2011