Stuart Leary

Stuart Edward Leary - who was born on April 30th, 1933, in Green Point, Cape Town, South Africa - was a dual-code professional sportsman, who played soccer as a centre-forward, and cricket as an all-rounder.  Leary started his football career with Cape Town side, Clyde, before moving to English club, Charlton Athletic, in 1950, along with team-mate Eddie Firmani.  Making his debut in 1951, he became a prolific goalscorer, netting a record number of goals for the club: in total, Leary made 376 league appearances for Charlton, scoring 153 goals, until his departure for Queens Park Rangers in 1962.  At Q.P.R., he appeared in a further 94 league games, scoring 29 goals.  Leary played once for the England under-23 team in 1954, but was banned from playing for the full national team due to his foreign birthplace.  Leary had a parallel career as a county cricketer for Kent between 1951 and 1971.  A right-handed batsman, in first-class matches, he scored 16,517 runs at an average of 31.10, and took 146 wickets at an average of 33.80 with his leg-break bowling. Leary returned to South Africa after his sporting career ended.  Rumours circulated that he may have been homosexual, at a time when this was not widely accepted, particularly in sporting circles, although he had married, and then divorced, an older woman.  Fellow South African cricketer, Eddie Barlow, said that, at the time of Leary's death, he had, "...about five girlfriends on the go..."  In By His Own Hand, writer David Frith states that Leary had a fondness for resting his hand on a colleague's knee during team photographs; also, at the time of his death, three people who knew Leary apparently stated that he was concerned at the nationwide crackdown on juvenile vice, and that he was also worried he may have contracted the AIDS virus.  In 1985, Leary was replaced as coach of Western Province cricket team, and sometime thereafter began taking anti-depressant drugs.  Leary's body was found on Table Mountain near Cape Town on August 23rd, 1988. It was believed he committed suicide two days earlier, on August 21st, by throwing himself off a precipice.  He was 55 years old.

Dave Clement

David Thomas Clement - who was born on February 2nd, 1948, in Battersea, south-west London, England - was an English footballer.  Clement signed as a professional with Queens Park Rangers in 1965, making his debut in the 1966-67 season - a memorable one for Q.P.R., as they won the Third Division Championship by a twelve-point margin, and became the first Third-Division side to win a major trophy - the League Cup - by defeating West Bromwich Albion 3-2 at Wembley.  A right-sided full-back, Clement played a total of 472 games for Q.P.R. between 1965 and 1979, scoring 28 goals.  During this time, he also won five full international caps for England.  He was sold to Bolton Wanderers in 1979, before moving on to Fulham in 1980.  He played a further nine games, scoring two goals, for Wimbledon during the 1981-82 season, leaving him with a career total of 532 league games and 30 goals.  As his football career wound down, Clement began to become depressed; and, on March 31st, 1982, he committed suicide by ingesting weedkiller.  He was 34 years old.  Dave Clement's son, Neil Clement, who was only three years old at the time of his father's death, also became a professional footballer, spending the majority of his career at West Bromwich Albion.  His eldest son, Paul, became a non-league footballer, and later a professional coach and manager, becoming head coach at Swansea City in Wales.

Stephanie Parker

Stephanie Parker - who was born on March 29th, 1987, in Brighton, East Sussex, England  - was an English-born Welsh actress.  She was best-known for playing the part of Stacey Weaver in the long-running BBC Wales television series, Belonging - a programme which revolved around the trials and tribulations of the Lewis family and the changing environment of modern Wales in their town of Bryncoed.  Parker also starred as Zoe in Doc Martin, Phoebe Mitchell in Casualty, and Debbie Hargrove in Doctors, as well as appearing in dramas on BBC Radio 4. The final episode of Belonging - in which Parker had played a central part since the age of 15 - was broadcast on Thursday, April 16th, 2009.  The following Saturday, April 18th, at 6 a.m., a passer-by  found Parker's dead body on open ground near Pontypridd, south Wales.  The death was ruled a suicide by hanging.  She was described by her agent, Mark Jermin, as, "...a great talent..."; and by Clare Hudson, BBC Wales's head of English-language programmes, as, "...an immensely-talented actor...".  Stephanie Parker was just 22 years old.

Mike Thalassitis

Michael Thalassitis - who was born on January 19th, 1993, in Edmonton, London, England - was an English footballer and television personality.  Starting his career with Stevenage in Division Two of the Football League, Thalassitis, a striker, subsequently played for several non-league teams. In all, between 2011 and 2017, he played 151 games, scoring 36 goals, for various teams.  Of Greek-Cypriot descent, Thalassitis also played  three games for the Cypress under-19 side, and four for their under-21s. He was called up for Cyprus's senior team in May, 2014, but was unable to travel to the game against Japan, as he had ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in the final game of the league season whilst on loan from Stevenage at Ebbsfleet United.  On May 29th, 2017, Thalassitis was announced as part of the cast for the third series of the reality television show, Love Island.  He and fellow contestant Jessica Shears, along with their respective partners Olivia Attwood and Dom Lever, emerged among the three couples with the fewest public votes for Favourite Couple.  In 2018, he joined the fourth series of Celebs Go Dating.  On March 15th, 2019, Mike Thalassitis hanged himself in a park in Edmonton, north London, England.  He was 26 years old.

Lynette Davies

Lynette Vaynor Davies - who was born on October 18th, 1948, in Tonypandy, Glamorgan, Wales - was a Welsh actress of stage, television, and film.  The daughter of a Customs and Excise officer, she was educated at Our Lady's School, Cardiff, before training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and then going into repertory at the Bristol Old Vic.  In 1974, she appeared as Regan in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of King Lear, as well as playing Yulia in the R.S.C.'s first British production of Maxim Gorky's Summerfolk at the Aldwych Theatre.  Her highest-profile role was as Davinia Prince, the central character in The Foundation, a British television series produced by ATV from 1977 to '78, about the widow of a business tycoon, although she had previously appeared on television in The Ghosts of Motley Hall, Clayhanger, and Will Shakespeare, and subsequently acted in Tales of the Unexpected and Inside Story.  Throughout the 1980s, Davies continued to appear in British T.V. roles, including starring as Jenny Swanne in 32 episodes of Miracles Take Longer, in The District Nurse with fellow actress Nerys Hughes, and in episodes of Tales of the Unexpected, No Place Like Home, Inside Story, Bergerac, and The Watch House. Her final two television appearances were both in 1992: as Dr. Renata Berger in Street Legal; and her last-ever role, as Nerys Jones, in the Welsh production, The Christmas Stallion.  In 1986, Davies joined the English Shakespeare Company.  From then until 1988, she toured first the U.K. and then around the world with the company, at first performing The Henrys, and then The Wars of  the Roses.  However, whilst on this gruelling touring schedule in the U.S.A., Davies displayed signs that she was increasingly "out of kilter", and she eventually returned to Britain, where she was hospitalised, presumably with a stress-related illness.  In 1989, Davies played Doll Tearsheet in an English Shakespeare Company production of Henry IV, Part 2.  Most of her later years were spent on stage: in the West End, and in New Zealand, Canada, and America.  Davies was married twice, the second time to set designer Jose Furtado, with whom she lived in Toronto, while working in theatre and on radio there.  In 1992, Davies was cast in a starring in The Lifeboat, a new BBC series by Lynda la Plante, which was to be filmed in Pembrokeshire in Davies's native Wales.  Unfortunately, soon after shooting started in 1993, Davies's psychiatric illness returned, and the programme had to be recast and some scenes reshot.  Davies herself returned to Cardiff in a state of despondency.  On December 1st, 1993, a bag containing Davies's shopping was found on the beach at Lavernock Point, near Penarth, Wales.  Her fur-coat was found a little further away.  Later that day, Lynette Davies's body was found, drowned, also at Lavernock Point, on the coast of the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales.  Upon her death, which was ruled a suicide, Davies left an estate valued at £251,073.  She was 45 years old.

John Lyons

John Patrick Lyons - who was born on November 8th, 1956, in Buckley, Flintshire, north-east Wales - was a Welsh footballer, who played for several teams in the Football League between 1974 and 1982.  As a youngster at Elfed High School, Lyons excelled at basketball, playing for the Wales under-15 team at that sport, before signing as a professional footballer with Wrexham in September of 1975. Playing as a striker, he scored 23 goals in 86 games for Wrexham, helping them to the Third Division title in the 1977-78 season.  He subsequently played for Millwall, Cambridge United, and Colchester United; in total, playing 195 league games, and scoring 58 goals.  Whilst at his last club, Colchester, Lyons befriended his fellow striker and notorious hardman, Roy McDonough.  Lyons had replaced fan-favourite, Kevin Bremner, in the side, and thus became unpopular with his own side's supporters, and began to suffer from depression. Lyons had apparently said several times to McDonough that, if the crowd abuse didn't stop, he would hang himself.  On November 9th, 1982, Lyons played in a home game for Colchester United against Chester City at Layer Road, which his team won 1-0.  Two days later, on November 11th, 1982, Lyons went out for a drinking spree with McDonough.  He thereafter returned to his home in the village of Layer de la Haye, Essex, England, and hanged himself.  John Lyons was just 26 years old.

Boon Gould

Rowland Charles Gould - usually known as Boon Gould - was an English musician and songwriter.  Born on March 4th, 1955, in Shanklin, Isle of Wight, England, he was a guitarist and occasional saxophone player with the pop band, Level 42; his brother, Phil Gould, was the drummer in the band.  Boon Gould played on Level 42's first seven studio albums, before leaving the band, along with his brother, in 1987.  Gould had had a period of sustained illness, resulting in nervous exhaustion and suffering from panic attacks whilst on stage.  After leaving Level 42, Gould recorded two solo albums under the name Zen Gangsters.  In October, 2012, he performed in public with Level 42 for the first time in 25 years, at a one-off show in Bristol, U.K.  In 2018, Gould was asked to perform jury service, which caused him to become very agitated and damage the family home, before disappearing, sparking a police search.  On April 30th, 2019, Boon Gould's body was found hanged at a friend's house in Uffculme, Devon, England.  An inquest found a small amount of alcohol was in his body at death, although he had been drinking quite heavily for many years.  He had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and had suffered from depression for much of his life.  Boon Gould was 64 years old, and left behind a wife, Moira.

Mark Speight

Mark Warwick Fordham Speight - who was born on August 6th, 1965 - was an English artist and children's television presenter.  Born in Seisdon, Staffordshire, England, he was raised in Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, West Midlands. Speight's father was a property developer, and his mother an art teacher.  Speight stated that he was a slow learner at school, and was bullied, which led to him becoming the class joker.  With ambitions to become a cartoonist, he left school at age 16 to take a degree in commercial and graphic art.  In 1994, Speight became a presenter on the children's art show, SMart, a role in which he continued until 2008.  He also presented the children's game show, See It Saw It, on the set of the which he met his future fiancée, the actress and model, Natasha Collins.  Collins was hit by a car in 2001, causing her to leave See It Saw It, but began dating Speight in 2003, and they got engaged in 2005.  On January 3rd, 2008, Speight awoke, after a night of partying, to find his fiancée's deceased body in the bath of their shared flat in St. John's Wood, north-west London.  Initially a suspect in Collins's murder, Speight was later found to have nothing to do with her demise.  She was ruled to have died from cocaine toxicity and immersion in hot water.  After failing to turn up to a meeting with Collins's mother on April 7th, 2008, Speight's body was found hanging from the roof of MacMillan House, adjacent to London's Paddington Station, on April 13th, apparently six days after he had died.  He was 42 years old.

Mark Saxelby

Mark Saxelby was an English cricketer who was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, on January 4th, 1969.  A tall left-handed batsman, who bowled right-arm medium-pace, Saxelby started his career with his native county, Nottinghamshire, where he enjoyed several successful seasons, often averaging in the mid-thirties as a batsman, although continual shoulder and back injuries gradually curtailed his bowling.  He then moved to Durham, where he scored 181 on his County Championship debut for his new team.  However, patchy form saw him drop down the batting order, and he soon moved into Minor Counties cricket, winning the MCC Trophy whilst playing for Cheshire in 1996. He played one game for Derbyshire in 2000.  After suffering from depression, Mark Saxelby died in the Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, England, on October 12th, 2000, after ingesting weedkiller.  He was 31 years old.

Sarah Kane

Sarah Marie Kane was an English playwright, whose plays deal with the themes of redemptive love, sexual desire, pain, torture, and death.  Born on February 3rd, 1971, in Brentwood, Essex, England, she produced five plays, one short film (Skin), and two articles for The Guardian newspaper.  A committed Christian in her teenage years, Kane later rejected those beliefs.  She worked briefly as literary associate for the Bush Theatre, London, and for a year was writer-in-residence for Paines Plough, a theatre company promoting new writing.  A lesbian, Kane suffered from severe depression for many years, and was twice voluntarily admitted to the Maudsley Hospital in London.  Two days after taking an overdose of prescription drugs, Kane hanged herself by her shoelaces - on February 20th, 1999 - in a bathroom at King's College Hospital in Camberwell, London, England. She was 28 years old.

Susan Fassbender

Susan Fassbender - who was born as Susan Kathryn Whincup, in Wibsey, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, on April 30th, 1959 - was an English singer, songwriter, and musician. Fassbender was classically trained in piano, clarinet, and timpani, and later also played synthesizers.  In early adulthood, she teamed up with guitarist Kay Russell (later Kay Brown), who had been a member of Bradford-based New-Wave outfit Ulterior Motives; the two became songwriting partners for the rest of Fassbender's career.  After impressing their future manager Alan Brown at a record shop in Bradford, the duo signed up with the independent record label, Criminal Records, and released the single, Twilight Cafe, in 1980.  Following two appearances on Top of the Pops in January, 1981, the song climbed to No. 21 in the British Charts that February.  Despite appearing on various television programmes in Britain and Germany to promote two follow-up singles, Stay and Merry-Go-Round, they both failed to chart.  This disappointment led to the band's second manager to split up Fassbender-Russell, thinking Susan would be more successful as a solo act, with his own musicians as a backing band.  Demos were made, with a view to releasing them as an album at the time, but nothing came of it.  Fassbender and Russell then faded from the music industry, both marrying.  Fassbender married in 1983, raising three children, and taking on her new husband's surname, Baggio.  The two women wrote further songs, both together and apart, but they received no interest from the recording industry.  Tragically, Susan Fassbender committed suicide on May 2nd, 1991. She was just 32 years old.  A collection of early Fassbender-Russell songs - Twilight Cafe (The Demo Collection 1981-1985) - was finally released on Platform Records in 2012; with a follow-up collection - Building A Dream - issued on the same label in 2016.