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.

Kelly Catlin

Kelly Catlin - who was born on November 3rd, 1995, in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A. - was an American professional racing cyclist.  She was one of triplets born to Mark Catlin, a medical pathologist, and his wife Carolyn; her siblings were a brother, Colin, and a sister, Christine.  As children, the triplets had a strict upbringing, with their parents forbidding them watching television, and only allowing them to watch movies whilst running on a treadmill.  When they were eight, they would only receive their $20-a-month allowance if they exercised for thirty minutes a day, five times a week.  At high school, Catlin was a socially-awkward but driven athlete and student.  She earned a perfect score on her S.A.T. and was a first-chair violinist in her school orchestra, as well as being a competitive badminton player, and excelling at skiing, fencing, and shooting.  During her teens, Catlin became more withdrawn, preferring to study and train alone, rather than socialise with her peers.  Whilst still in 11th Grade, she began taking classes at the University of Minnesota, eventually earning two degrees there in mathematics and Chinese.  At seventeen, she took up cycling, and very quickly excelled at the sport.  She joined the Rally UHC Cycling team, winning Gold in the Team Pursuit at the 2016 UCI Track World Championship, and then finished second in the Team Pursuit at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics that same year.  In both 2017 and 2018, Catlin took first place in the Team Pursuit and third in the Individual Pursuit at the UCI World Championship.  In the Autumn of 2018, she matriculated at Stanford University, studying for a graduate degree in computational and mathematical engineering.  However, in October of that year, Catlin crashed and broke her arm, with another crash leading to a concussion.  She subsequently complained of headaches, dizziness, nausea, and light-sensitivity.  On January 31st, 2019, Catlin locked herself into her room with two helium canisters and attempted to commit suicide by inhaling the gas.  She passed out, but awoke several hours later, after which she was rushed to Stanford Hospital, where she was held for seven days.  After being released to her Stanford apartment, Catlin seemed to develop renewed optimism, and attended mandatory therapy classes.  She explored options for further psychological treatment, although these were not followed through.  Catlin's concussion symptoms, and hypoxic brain damage from her suicide attempt, began to make it difficult for her to train, which led to her being ruled out from competing in the UCI Track World Championship due to be held in Poland in late February.  She was devastated, and contemplated ending her cycling career.  On the morning of March 9th, 2019, Catlin's mother called Stanford police, concerned that her daughter had not responded to phone calls and texts for a couple of days.  On the police's arrival at the university, Catlin's lifeless body was found in her apartment.  She had committed suicide by helium asphyxiation the previous evening.  Kelly Catlin was just 23 years old.

Isabella Blow

Isabella Blow - who was born on November 19th, 1958, in Marylebone, London, England - was an English magazine editor.  Born as Isabella Delves Broughton, she was the eldest child of Major Sir Evelyn Delves Broughton, a military officer, and his second wife, Helen Mary Shore, a barrister.  Blow had two sisters, Julia and Lavinia; her brother, John, drowned in the family's swimming pool at the age of two, which had a profound effect on her.  In 1972, when she was fourteen, Blow's parents separated, with her mother departing the family home and leaving her with her father with whom she didn't get on.  After doing 'A'-levels, Blow enrolled at secretarial college and took various odd jobs.  In 1979, she moved to New York City, studying Ancient Chinese Art at Columbia University for a year, before moving to Texas, where she worked for the fashion designer, Guy Laroche.  In 1981, Blow married her first husband, Nicholas Taylor (whom she divorced in 1983), and was introduced to the editor of U.S. Vogue, Anna Wintour, soon becoming her assistant at the magazine.  Returning to London in 1986, she began working for Michael Roberts, the fashion director of Tatler and The Sunday Times 'Style' magazines.  In 1989, Blow married her second husband, the barrister and art dealer, Detmar Hamilton Blow.  Her wedding headdress was designed by milliner Philip Treacy, whose talent she recognised, and she set him up in business at her London flat.  Wearing Treacy's hats became a part of her flamboyant style.  In 1993, Blow worked with photographer Steven Meisel on his Babes in London shoot.  Blow discovered the fashion designer Alexander McQueen (who committed suicide in 2010), and launched the career of the model Sophie Dahl.  She supported both the fashion- and art-worlds, with the artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster creating a shadow portrait of her which was displayed in the National Portrait Gallery.  In 2002, she was the subject of an exhibition entitled When Philip met Isabella, which featured drawings and photographs of her wearing Treacy's hats.  Blow was also by now the fashion editor of Tatler, and consulted for DuPont Lycra, Lacoste, and Swarovski.  In 2004, she had an acting cameo in the film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.  She and her second husband separated that year, with both partners going on to have affairs, although they reconciled eighteen months later.  During this time, Blow was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, undergoing electroconvulsive therapy for the condition.  She continued to work on projects, but was soon afterwards diagnosed with ovarian cancer.  She was upset that Alexander McQueen didn't take her along when he sold his brand to Gucci.  Blow's increasing depression was exacerbated by financial troubles and finding out she was infertile.  In 2006, she made two suicide attempts, the second of which led to her breaking both ankles, and several more in 2007.  On May 5th, 2007 - at a party at her home in Hilles House, Stroud, Gloucestershire - Blow announced that she was going shopping.  Instead, her sister found her collapsed on the bathroom floor.  She was rushed to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, where she died the next day.  Initially reported to be from ovarian cancer, Blow's death was ruled to be a suicide after ingesting the weedkiller, paraquat.  Isabella Blow was 48 years old.

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath - who was born on October 27th, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. - was an American poet, novelist, and short-story-writer.  After having her first poem published at age eight, Plath had numerous more printed in local publications over the next few years.  At age eleven, she began a journal, and showed early promise as a painter; she was also diagnosed with an I.Q. of around 160.  Raised as a Unitarian, Plath became ambivalent about religion after her father's death when she was eight.  Graduating from high school in 1950, she then attended Smith College in Massachusetts where she became editor of The Smith Review and guest editor of Mademoiselle magazine.  Becoming depressed and angry after failing to meet poet Dylan Thomas at a meeting, Plath slashed her legs to see if she had enough "courage" to kill herself.  Following electroconvulsive therapy for depression, Plath attempted suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping tablets on August 24th, 1953.  After six months in psychiatric care, she returned to college, graduating in June of 1955.  She was then awarded a scholarship to Cambridge University in England, where she spent the next two years.  Plath met the English poet Ted Hughes in February, 1956; the two were instantly attracted, and married on June 16th that year in London.  In June of 1957, the couple moved to the U.S.A., where Plath taught at her old college and resumed psychoanalytic treatment for her depression.  They travelled across the U.S.A. and Canada in 1959, returning to live in London, England that December.  Their first child, Frieda, was born on April 1st, 1960, with Plath's first volume of poetry, The Colossus, following in October.  In February, 1961, Plath's second pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, with Plath later claiming that Hughes had beaten her two days earlier.  That August, Plath finished writing (it was published in 1963) her semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, before the couple immediately moved to North Tawton in Devon, where Plath gave birth to her second child, Nicholas, in January, 1962.  Plath and Hughes had rented their London flat to two poets, Assia and David Wevill.  Plath had a car crash in June of 1962, which she described as one of many suicide attempts.  In July, she discovered that her husband was having an affair with Assia Wevill, and separated from him in September.  Plath now entered a period of great creativity, writing at least 26 poems between then and February, 1963.  In December of 1962, Plath returned to live in London with her children, her depression worsening during one of the coldest Winters in one-hundred years.  During January of 1963, Plath spoke to her doctor about her depression; he prescribed her anti-depressants, but failed to persuade her to enter hospital, instead arranging for a live-in nurse to help her look after her children.  The nurse tried to gain access to the property on February 11th, 1963, but was initially unable to do so.  With the help of a workman, she eventually broke in, only to discover Plath dead with her head in the gas oven.  She had sealed the rooms between her and her sleeping children to prevent them inhaling the fumes.  An inquest ruled that Plath had committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.  On March 16th, 2009, her son, Nicholas - a wildlife biologist - hanged herself after suffering from depression.  Sylvia Plath was just 30 years old.

Michael Ryan

Michael Robert Ryan - who was born on May 18th, 1960, at Savernake Hospital in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England - was a British man who killed sixteen people and injured fifteen more during a shooting rampage in the town of Hungerford, Berkshire, in 1987.  At the time of his birth, his mother, Dorothy, was 34, and his father, Alfred, was 55.  An only child, he apparently had a distant relationship with his father, a building inspector, although he was very close to, and doted on by, his mother, who worked as a dinner-lady and a waitress.  As a child, Ryan was a loner with few friends, who developed an interest in toy soldiers and the military, which later spiralled into an obsession with guns.  He was bullied at school, singled-out for being different.  Ryan enrolled at college, but the bullying of him continued, and he dropped-out without gaining any qualifications, making it difficult for him to get a job and participate in society.  In 1978, he was granted a shotgun certificate, and subsequently began practicing shooting at local gun clubs.  In April of 1987, Ryan began employment as a labourer, working on footpaths and fences near the River Thames; he left the job that July, returning to claiming unemployment benefits.  By August, 1987, Ryan was the owner of eight legally-held firearms.  On the sunny afternoon of August 19th, 1987, Michael Ryan drove out to Savernake Forest, seven miles west of Hungerford, where he spotted Susan Godfrey picnicking with her two young children.  He locked the children into their mother's car, before shooting Godfrey dead with an AK-47 rifle.  Ryan then drove back to Hungerford, stopping off at a garage to fill his car with petrol, and shooting at the cashier, although he at first missed and then his gun jammed.  Back in his home town, he set his own home on fire, and attempted to flee in his car, but it wouldn't start.  Ryan then began walking around the neighbourhood, shooting apparently randomly at passers-by.  By the time he stopped shooting at 1.47 p.m., Ryan had killed sixteen people, including his own mother after she had told him to stop what he was doing.  He then ensconced himself inside John O'Gaunt Secondary School, where he had once been a pupil.  Ryan later became engaged in conversation with one of the police officers who had surrounded the building.  At one stage, he was heard to call out, "It's funny.  I killed all those people, but I haven't the guts to blow my own brains out."  At 6.52 p.m., a muffled gunshot was heard from within the school buildings, and Ryan became silent.  Around 8 p.m., armed police broke into a barricaded room, where they found Ryan lying dead from a gunshot to his right temple.  In the wake of the massacre, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 was passed, banning the ownership of semi-automatic centre-fire rifles, and restricting the use of shotguns with a capacity of more than three cartridges.  Michael Ryan was 27 years old.

Thomas Hamilton

Thomas Watt Hamilton - who was born on May 10th, 1952, in Glasgow, Scotland - was a Scottish youth-club leader, shopkeeper, and mass-murderer, who shot dead seventeen people in the small town of Dunblane in 1996.  Hamilton's mother, Agnes Graham Hamilton, a chambermaid, was divorced from her husband, Thomas Watt, by the time Hamilton was born.  He never knew his father, and grew up with his mother's adoptive parents, believing they were his biological parents; they legally adopted him at the age of two.  He also thought that his mother was his biological sister, until he was told the truth when he was twenty-two.  At the age of eleven, Hamilton moved with his adoptive parents from Glasgow to Stirling.  As a teenager, he joined a rifle club and the Boys' Brigade.  He obtained a number of 'O'-Levels, and then attended college, becoming an apprentice draughtsman in 1968.  In 1972, Hamilton opened a D.I.Y. shop in Stirling, which he ran for thirteen years.  By then a Venture Scout himself, in July of 1973, Hamilton was appointed as Assistant Scout Leader of the 4th / 6th Stirling Troop.  Later that year, he was seconded to be leader of the revived 24th Stirlingshire Scout Troop.  However, concerns soon emerged regarding Hamilton's behaviour, including complaints of Scouts being forced to sleep in close proximity to Hamilton in his van during hill-walking expeditions.  In May of 1974, Hamilton's Scout Warrant was withdrawn, and he was blacklisted by the Association, with the County Commissioner saying that he was "suspicious of his moral intentions towards boys".  In February, 1977, he requested that the Scout Association hold a Committee of Inquiry into his complaint that he had been victimised, but the request was denied.  Hamilton persistently maintained that the Scouts had ruined his reputation by dismissing him, and that their actions were linked with those of other organisations such as the police.  From the late 1970s, Hamilton became increasingly involved in running boys' clubs, and he set up and organised fifteen of these from February, 1981, until his death.  Once again, there were many complaints about Hamilton's behaviour towards the boys, including that he was photographing and videoing them without their parents' permission.  In 1993, his shop business failed, which he blamed on the rumours circulating about his behaviour.  By 1995, Hamilton's boys' clubs were also in decline, partially due to dwindling attendance, as parents were reluctant to put their boys in his charge.  At this time, however, his interest in firearms was rekindled, and he purchased 1,700 rounds of 9mm and 500 rounds of .357 ammunition between September, 1995, and January, 1996.  He also bought a 9mm Browning pistol, and a .357 Smith and Wesson revolver, and began practicing regularly at the Stirling Rifle and Pistol Club.  In early 1996, several acquaintances described Hamilton as appearing depressed.  At around 9.30 a.m. on March 13th, 1996, Hamilton arrived in his van at Dunblane Primary School, immediately severing the cables on a telegraph pole which served local houses.  He then entered the school carrying four legally-held handguns.  During the next three to four minutes, Hamilton shot dead sixteen pupils and one teacher, injuring fifteen others.  He then committed suicide by shooting himself in the roof of the mouth.  The event, which became known as the Dunblane Massacre, was the deadliest mass-shooting in British criminal history, and led to the banning in Great Britain of all privately-owned handguns.  Thomas Hamilton, who was never married and had no children, was 43 years old.

Charles Boyer

Charles Boyer - who was born on August 28th, 1899, in Figeac in south-west France - was a French-American actor who appeared in more than eighty films between 1920 and 1976.  The son of Augustine Louise Durand and Maurice Boyer, a merchant, Boyer was described as a shy smalltown boy who discovered movies and theatre at the age of eleven.  Performing comic sketches for soldiers whilst working as an orderly during World War I, Boyer's first film was the French silent movie L'homme du large in 1920.  With the coming of sound, his deep voice and French accent made him a romantic star.  Moving back and forth between France and Hollywood in the 1930s, Boyer married the British actress Pat Patterson only three months after meeting her in 1934.  His international breakthrough came with the film Mayerling in 1936.  He then played opposite Marlene Dietrich in that same year in The Garden of Allah and I Loved a Soldier, and with Greta Garbo in Conquest and Claudette Colbert in Tovarich in 1937.  In September, 1939, Boyer was drafted into the French army, but was discharged in November, with the French government believing he would be better employed making films.  However, by the early 1940s, Boyer had begun losing his hair and developed a paunch, whilst also being noticeably shorter than his leading ladies like Ingrid Bergman.  He became a naturalised citizen of the United States in 1942.  In 1943, Boyer's only child - Michael Charles Boyer - was born.  Continuing to star in films, such as Gaslight with Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten, during the 1940s, by the end of that decade Boyer was no longer the star he was, with the 1948 film with Ingrid Bergman, Arch of Triumph, failing at the box office.  He made his first appearance on Broadway in Red Gloves - which ran for 113 performances - in 1948-'49.  Boyer then moved into television, being made rich by becoming one of the pioneering producers and stars of the anthology show, Four Star Playhouse, which ran from 1952 to '56.  He continued to appear in films and on stage, in both the U.S. and France, throughout the 1950s and '60s.  He was nominated for the Tony award as Best Actor (Dramatic) in the 1963 Broadway production of Lord Pengo, which ran for 175 performances, although Man and Boy, during the same year, only went for 54 performances.  Boyer's son, Michael, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at the age of 21 in 1965, after his girlfriend had left him.  Continuing into the 1960s and '70s, Boyer's career had lasted longer than many romantic stars, earning him the nickname "the last of the cinema's great lovers".  In March, 1970 - finding living in Los Angeles traumatic after his son's death - Boyer returned to live in Europe.  One of his last roles was in the 1974 French film, Stavisky, which won Boyer the New York Film Critics' Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor, and also received the Special Tribute at the Cannes Film Festival.  His last role was in the 1976 film, A Matter of Time, directed by Vincente Minnelli, and starring Vincente's daughter Liza Minnelli, as well as Ingrid Bergman.  After being diagnosed with a brain tumour, Boyer's wife died of cancer in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A., on August 24th, 1978.  Distraught by her death, Boyer took an overdose of the barbiturate Seconal two days later whilst at a friend's home in Scottsdale, Arizona.  He was taken to hospital in Phoenix, where he died on August 26th, 1978.  Two days before his 79th birthday, Charles Boyer was 78 years old.  He was interred in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California, alongside his wife and son.

Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Michael Bourdain - who was born on June 25th, 1956, in Manhatten, New York City, U.S.A. - was an American celebrity chef, author, and documentarian.  The older of two boys born to Gladys and Pierre Bourdain, he described his childhood as being happy and loving.  Whilst on a family holiday in France in his youth, Bourdain tasted his first oyster on a fisherman's boat, which he credits as stimulating his love of food.  After graduating from high school in 1973, Bourdain enrolled at Vassar College in New York, but dropped out after two years.  His interest in cooking was kindled whilst he worked at several seafood restaurants in Massachusetts during his college years, and he subsequently trained at The Culinary Institute of America, graduating in 1978.  From there, he went on to run several restaurant kitchens in New York City.  Whilst at high school, Bourdain began dating an older girl, Nancy Putkoski, whom he described as "a bad girl" and "part of a druggy crowd"; the pair married in 1985.  Bourdain himself became a regular user of many recreational drugs, from cannabis to heroin.  His first book, a culinary mystery called Bone in the Throat, was published in 1995, but sold poorly, as did the follow-up, Gone Bamboo.  However, subsequent books, all about food as well as his travels around the world, were much more successful.  His 2001 book, A Cook's Tour - written to tie-in with his first television series of the same name - became a bestseller.  Bourdain thereafter hosted many food-themed television programmes, working for the Travel Channel from 2005 to 2013, and for CNN from 2013 to 2018.  He was known for his put-downs of other celebrity chefs, but was quick to praise those he admired.  Smithsonian Magazine described Bourdain as "the original rock star" of the culinary world, and he became known as a "bad boy" of cooking for his frequent use of expletives and sexual references on his No Reservations television show.  After twenty years of marriage, Bourdain divorced from his first wife in 2005, marrying Ottavia Busia in 2007.  Busia bore Bourdain his only child - a daughter named Ariane - that same year.  Previously a heavy smoker, Bourdain gave up cigarettes in 2007 for the benefit of his daughter's health, but started smoking again towards the end of his life.  Although Busia sometimes travelled with Bourdain, and even appeared in a few of his T.V. shows, the strain of Bourdain being away filming 250 days a year put a strain on the relationship, resulting in the couple separating in 2016, after which Bourdain entered into a relationship with Italian actress, Asia Argento.  In 1998, Bourdain became executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles restaurant in Manhatten, but the business went bankrupt in 2017.  In early June of 2018, Bourdain was in Strasbourg, France, filming an episode of his Parts Unknown programme.  On June 8th, his friend Eric Ripert became concerned that Bourdain had missed breakfast and dinner.  Ripert subsequently found Bourdain hanging in his room at the Le Chambard hotel in Kayersberg, near the city of Colmar, from an apparent suicide.  An inquest heard that Bourdain's body contained no traces of narcotics, and his suicide appeared to be an impulsive act.  Anthony Bourdain was 61 years old.

Chris Morgan

Christopher Morgan - who was born on July 29th, 1952, in Cardiff, Wales, U.K. - was a Welsh journalist and television- and radio-presenter. Educated at Cardiff High School, and at Atlantic College in the Vale of Glamorgan, he was the oldest of four children born to parents who were both bank cashiers. Following sixth-form, Morgan attended the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he stood as a Labour Party candidate for the local authority, as well as becoming treasurer of the National Union of Students. After graduating with a Master of Theology degree in 1976, he moved into the media the following year by joining the BBC's Religious department. In 1978, he began training as a journalist at BBC Wales, working as a reporter and presenter on both radio and television, eventually becoming one of the main presenters on the flagship BBC Wales news programme, Wales Today. A committed Anglo-Catholic Christian, Morgan was a close friend of the future Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and was best man at Williams's wedding in 1981. Moving to London in 1990, Morgan became a reporter for Thames News and TV-AM; whilst also, for seven years between 1990 and 1997, presenting the Radio 4 Sunday-morning programme, Sunday, which focused on religious and moral issues. Morgan was appointed Religious Affairs correspondent for The Sunday Times in 1997, a post he held until his death. From the year 2000, he began contributing to a number of television news programmes on religious affairs, and appeared regularly on BBC News 24, Sky News, and CNN. In 2005, Morgan's mother - to whom he was very close, and whom he telephoned at least three times a day - passed away. Without a wife or children to depend on for support (Morgan never married), he began to become quite depressed, although he seemed to keep much of his sadness to himself, and managed to maintain a facade of competent professionalism. However, by 2007, Morgan began to suffer from bouts of depression, for which he sought psychiatric help, even being sectioned at one point. He became more reclusive, often not returning phone calls or e-mails. In the Spring of 2008, Morgan contributed a couple of articles to The Sunday Times, this return to productivity leading friends to believe he was returning to some measure of good health. Sadly, his recovery was shortlived, as - on the afternoon of Friday, May 30th, 2008 - Morgan's body was found by British Transport Police on the track at Kings Langley railway station in Hertfordshire, having been in collision with a Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston train. His death was ruled a suicide. Chris Morgan was 55 years old.