Kate Spade

Chris Cornell

Christopher John Cornell - who was born on July 20th, 1964, in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. - was an American singer and musician, best-known as the singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitarist, of the bands Soundgarden and Audioslave.  

Jill Bennett

Nora Noel Jill Bennett - who was born on December 24th, 1931, in Penang, Straits Settlements, in what is now Malaysia - was a British actress, and the fourth wife of the playwright John Osborne.  After her birth in the British overseas territory, Bennett returned to England as a child with her British parents, where she was educated at Prior's Field School, a girls' independent boarding school in Godalming, Surrey.  After training at RADA, Bennett made her stage debut in the 1949 season at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, and her film debut  with a small part in the 1951 murder-mystery film The Long Dark Hall starring Rex Harrison.  In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Bennett - who was then in her late teens and early twenties - was the live-in partner of the American-born British actor, Sir Godfrey Tearle - who was in his sixties.  In 1956, she appeared in the American film Lust for Life - starring Kirk Douglas - about the painter Vincent van Gogh; and in 1960 played opposite Stanley Baker in British crime drama, The Criminal.  

Alan Lake

Alan Lake - who was born on November 24th, 1940, in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England - was a British actor and occasional singer.  Studying acting at RADA, Lake began performing in television roles in 1964, and landed his first film role the following year.  In 1967, the casting director Pamela Brown gave birth to Lake's first child - a daughter, Catherine Emma - following a brief affair.  After numerous credits in various popular British T.V. programmes of the 1960s, and a handful of film roles, Lake met the actress Diana Dors on the set of the 1968 T.V. series The Inquisitors.  Initially disliking Dors, the two quickly fell in love, marrying on November 23rd, 1968.  In 1969, Dors gave birth to the couple's only child - a son, Jason David - and Lake even released a single that year, although the song failed to chart.  The couple appeared together in well-received stage plays in the early 1970s.  However, things began to go wrong in July, 1970, when Lake served one year of an 18-month for his involvement in a pub brawl.  On his release from prison, Dors presented Lake - a keen horseman - with a mare; however, Lake was soon left seriously injured when the horse ran into a tree, leaving him with a broken back, and unable to walk for several weeks.  Now in severe pain, and unable to work, Lake began drinking heavily, with Dors saying, "alcohol had unleashed a monster, uncontrollable and frightening."  He began having psychotic episodes, but was temporarily diverted from drinking by converting to Roman Catholicism, convincing his wife to join him in the faith.  In 1974, Dors was rushed to hospital with meningitis; she recovered, and months later became pregnant.  Advised by doctors to have an abortion, she went ahead with the pregnancy, motivated by her regret at two previous abortions.  Sadly, Dors miscarried, which led Lake to return to drinking.  For the rest of the 1970s, Lake's once-promising acting career was reduced to small parts in T.V. dramas and low-budget comedy films, although he did have a major role in a 1974 film promoting the band Slade, as well as a part in episode 1 of The Sweeney.  Lake and Dors separated for a time in 1980, reuniting after Lake agreed to receive treatment for his alcoholism.  From here on, Lake's work began to dry up, and Dors's health declined: she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1982, and died in May of 1984.  Devestated, Lake burnt all his wife's clothes, and fell into a deep depression.  On October 10th, 1984, Lake took their teenage son Jason to the railway station, before returning to the family home in Sunningdale, Berkshire, England, and took his own life by shooting himself in the mouth in his son's bedroom.  Alan Lake was 43 years old.

Graham Bond

Graham John Clifton Bond - who was born on October 28th, 1937, in Romford, Essex, England - was a British rock and blues musician and vocalist, considered a founder of the English rhythm and blues boom of the 1960s.  Given up by his biological parents at a young age, he was placed into a Dr. Barnardo's home, before being adopted.  Having passed his 11-plus examination, Bond was educated from the ages of 11 to 16 at the Royal Liberty School - a grammar school in Gidea Park in the London Borough of Havering, England.  Here, he studied music, performing his first jazz concert with the Goudie Charles Quintet in 1960.  Bond first gained national attention as a jazz saxophonist with the Don Rendell Quintet, before briefly joining Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated.  In around 1963, Bond formed his own band, the Graham Bond Quartet, which soon became the Graham Bond Organisation.  Their 1965 album, There's a Bond Between Us, is considered the first rock music recording to use a mellotron.  The band was plagued by problems with substance abuse (particularly Bond's), as well as disagreements between drummer Ginger Baker and double bassist Jack Bruce.  This culminated in Bond firing Bruce, with Baker leaving soon after, and the pair ultimately forming Cream with Eric Clapton.  The Graham Bond Organisation continued as a trio, but, with Bond's physical and mental health declining, and the band achieving little commercial success, they dissolved in 1967.  After the band's break-up, Bond continued to break-down, as he suffered from manic episodes and periods of intense depression, exacerbated by drug use.  He moved briefly to America, where he recorded two albums and performed session work for other artists, before returning to England in 1969.  With his new wife, Diane Stewart - who shared his interest in the supernatural - Bond then formed Graham Bond Initiation.  In 1970, he formed the band Holy Magick, releasing two albums.  He spent short periods in Ginger Baker's Air Force and The Jack Bruce Band, before releasing the double album Solid Bond in 1970.  In 1972, Bond teamed up with Pete Brown to record Two Heads are Better Than One, and in 1973 recorded an album with the John Dummer Band, although this was not released until 2018. After the near-simultaneous collapse of both his marriage and his band, Bond formed the group Magus, although they disbanded around Christmas 1973 without recording.  Years of commercial failure had left Bond's financial affairs in chaos, as well as severely affecting his pride.  For years, he had been hampered by severe bouts of drug addiction, and he spent January of 1973 in hospital after a mental breakdown.  On May 8th, 1974, at Finsbury Park station in London, Bond threw himself to his death under the wheels of a Piccadilly line train.  Graham Bond was just 36 years old.

Vincent Crane

Vincent Rodney Cheesman - who was born on May 21st, 1943, in Reading, Berkshire, England - was a British songwriter and keyboardist, best-known as the organist in the bands The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Atomic Rooster.  As a teenager, he taught himself boogie-woogie piano, before attending Trinity College of Music in London between 1961 and 1964.  Influenced by Graham Bond, he took up playing the Hammond Organ.  In late 1966, Crane founded the Vincent Crane Combo, in which he teamed-up with bass player Binky McKenzie, saxophone player John Claydon, and drummer Gordon Hadler.  In 1967, he joined forces with Arthur Brown in his own band, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.  Their debut album in 1968, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, contained the song Fire, which was co-written by Crane, and reached no. 1 in the U.K. singles chart, as well as topping the charts in the U.S.A.and Canada.  During the band's first tour of the United States in 1968, Crane suffered a mental breakdown, returning to England for treatment, where he spent three or four months at the mental hospital in Banstead, Surrey.  Crane rejoined the band, but they effectively disintegrated on another tour of the U.S.A. in June of 1969 when leader Arthur Brown temporarily disappeared to a commune, leaving drummer Carl Palmer and Crane to leave and form Atomic Rooster.  Playing their first concert at the Lyceum in London on August 29th, 1969, headlining above Deep Purple, Atomic Rooster released their first eponymous album in 1970, before Carl Palmer left to join Emerson, Lake, andPalmer, that same year.  Atomic Rooster enjoyed success with two hit singles in 1971: Tomorrow Night (written by Crane), and Devil's Answer.  From at least 1968, Crane had been suffering from manic depression (now known as bipolar disorder), necessitating several periods of treatment at both in- and outpatient mental-health facilities.  As well as continuing work with his own band, Crane collaborated with other musicians on a number of albums, including Rory Gallagher, Arthur Brown, and Peter Green.  Atomic Rooster's final album was the relatively-unsuccessful Headline News in 1983, after which Crane disbanded Atomic Rooster.  In 1984, he joined Ray Dorset, Peter Green, and Jeff Whittaker, under the name Katmandu, releasing the one-off album, A Case for the Blues.  Crane joined Dexy's Midnight Runners in 1985, playing piano on their album, Don't Stand Me Down, and two singles, one becoming the theme for the BBC television series, Brush Strokes.  Dexy's disbanded in 1987.  Crane intended to form Atomic Rooster again, planning a German tour for 1989, but - on February 14th,1989 - he was found dead from a deliberate overdose of Anadin tablets, leaving behind his wife, Jean.  Vincent Crane was 45 years old.

Sheree Winton

Shirley June Winton - who was born on November 4th, 1935, in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England - was an English actress, and the mother of television presenter, Dale Winton.  Born into a poor family, Shirley Patrick (as she was then known) met Jewish furniture salesman Gary Winton at the age of seventeen.  She married Winton (who was then in his forties) in 1954, taking on both his surname and his Jewish religion.  On May 22nd, 1955, at the age of nineteen, she gave birth to her only child: a son, Dale, who was named after the actor Dale Robertson who starred in the television cowboy series Tales of Wells Fargo of which she was a fan.  In 1957, the now-glamorous Sheree was chosen as Queen for a Day at the Oldham Charity Carnival, and the following year was named the Mediterranean Orange Queen of Covent Garden.  Winton won her first film role with a small part in the 1959 British-American horror movie, First Man into Space, followed in that same year by two more uncredited roles in The Devil's Disciple and Follow a Star.  During the next few years, she played a number of minor parts in a variety of British films and television series, appearing alongside the likes of Spike Milligan and Terry-Thomas.  With her blonde hair and good looks, Winton was dubbed the "English Jayne Mansfield".  She had an uncredited part in the 1965 film Thunderball, which starred Sean Connery as James Bond.  Winton and her husband were divorced in 1965, with Gary Winton dying three years later in 1968 on the very day of her son Dale's bar mitzvah ceremony.  Juggling raising her son alone with struggling to find work to make ends meet, Winton began to suffer from depression.  Her last T.V. appearances were on two episodes of Frankie Howerd in 1966.  After an absence of four years from the 'silver screen', Winton appeared in two more movies in 1969: an uncredited part in the Basil Dearden black comedy, The Assassination Bureau; and as 'Lady Pupil Rhubarb' in the Eric Sykes short film, Rhubarb.  These were to be her final film roles.  Over the years, Winton's depression worsened, and she was rushed to hospital on several occasions to have her stomach pumped after overdoses.  In 1972, her son Dale began working as a disc jockey at clubs in Richmond, London.  On May 29th, 1976, Winton shut herself into her bedroom at her home in Hatch End, London, England, and hung a "do not disturb" notice on her door.  Later that day, her son, Dale, entered the room to find his mother's lifeless body lying there.  She had committed suicide by taking an overdose of barbiturates.  Sheree Winton was 40 years old.