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.

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.

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.

Laurie Bird

Laurie Bird - who was born on September 26th, 1952, in Glen Cove, New York, U.S.A. - was an American actress and photographer.  When she was only three years old, Bird's mother committed suicide at the age of 26.  Her disciplinarian father, an electrical engineer, severely restricted Bird's social activities, resulting in her running away from home many times.  In response, he had her placed in an institution for neglected girls.  Bird attended Jamaica High School in Queens, New York, until she was fifteen.  Described by Hollywood columnist Dick Kleiner as "look[ing] like an innocent Hayley Mills", Bird made her acting debut in the 1971 Monte Hellman-directed film, Two-Lane Blacktop, in which she appeared alongside James Taylor, Warren Oates, and Dennis Wilson.  Following this success, Bird appeared in another Monte Hellmann film, 1974's Cockfighter, again starring alongside Warren Oates.  Although this film was less commercially-successful, film critic Michael Atkinson was later to say, in his 2008 book Exile Hollywood, "In two films, she made more of an impression, left more of a synaesthetic presence, then many actors do in a career".  During this time, she developed a romantic relationship with Monte Hellman.  Bird was also the stills photographer on Cockfighter.  In 1977, she performed in her third and final film, taking a minor role as Paul Simon's girlfriend in the Woody Allen comedy, Annie Hall.  From 1974 until 1979, Bird was in a relationship with Simon's frequent musical collaborator, Art Garfunkel, the couple sharing an apartment together.  She appeared on the cover of Garfunkel's 1975 album, Breakaway, and also shot the cover photo for his 1977 album, Watermark.  On June 15th, 1979 - whilst Garfunkel was in France, making the Nicolas Roeg movie Bad Timing - Bird died from a deliberate overdose of Valium at their penthouse in Manhatten, New York City, U.S.A.  Deeply affected by her death, Garfunkel later said, "She was beautiful, in a lonesome, haunted way, and I adored her.  But I wasn't ready for marriage and she wasn't very comfortable being Laurie.  She wasn't happy with herself.  Her mother died by suicide at 26, and so did she".  Garfunkel dedicated his 1981 album, Scissors Cut, to Bird, with a photo of her appearing on its back cover.  Monte Hellman dedicated his 2010 film, Road To Nowhere, to her, also.  Laurie Bird was just 26 years old.

Mary Millington

Mary Ruth Maxted (née Quilter) - who was born on November 30th, 1945, in Kenton, Middlesex, England - was an English model and pornographic actress.  Quilter was born out of wedlock, growing up without her father, and had to nurse her terminally-ill mother for more than ten years; she began her porn career to pay for her mother's care.  She was bullied at school due to the stigma of being 'illegitimate', and suffered from low self-esteem throughout her youth.  Quilter left school at age fifteen, and married Robert Maxted in 1964.  Being too short at four feet and eleven inches to be a fashion model, she became a glamour model instead, appearing in various pornographic magazines and films in the late 1960s and early '70s.  In 1974, she met the adult magazine publisher David Sullivan, with whom she began an adulterous affair, and took on the stage name Mary Millington.  She continued to appear in his films and magazines for the rest of the 1970s.  Millington's final film appearance was in the Sex Pistols' The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, which was released in March, 1980.  She had always been prone to neurosis and depression, which was exacerbated by her cocaine habit.  After reaching the age of 33, Millington found herself being replaced in Sullivan's magazines by younger models, and increasingly found herself working behind the counter in her own sex shop, which was frequently raided by the police.  Her mother's death in 1976 also affected her deeply, resulting in unpredictable mood swings and a breakup with Sullivan.  Millington's life thereafter descended into a downward spiral of depression and drug use.  A few months before her death, she received a large tax bill, which she was unable to pay, and she also became increasingly kleptomaniacal, with arrests for shoplifting in June of 1979, and another for stealing a necklace on the day before she died.  On August 19th, 1979, Millington was found dead on the bed of her home in Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey, by her husband.  She had taken an overdose of the tricyclic antidepressant anafranil, paracetamol, and alcohol.  Four suicide notes found near her body essentially blamed the police and the taxman for hounding her into an early grave.  Mary Millington was just 33 years old.

Pete Ham

Peter William Ham, who was born on April 27th, 1947, in Townhill, Swansea, Wales, U.K., was a Welsh singer, songwriter, and guitarist.  The son of William and Catherine Ham, he formed his first rock group, The Panthers, around 1961.  Undergoing several name changes, they became The Iveys in 1965, moving to London the following year after being talent-spotted by The Mojos' manager, Bill Collins.  With Ham becoming the band's chief songwriter, they toured around the U.K. for the next three years, coming to the attention of both The Kinks' Ray Davies (who produced some of their early tracks) and The Beatles' personal assistant Mal Evans (who signed them to The Beatles' Apple Records label).  Changing their name to Badfinger, the band's first single release was a Paul McCartney composition, Come and Get It, which became a worldwide top-ten hit.  They followed this with three more Ham-composed singles in 1970 and '71, which all did well around the world.  Ham's greatest success as a songwriter came with the song Without You, co-written with bandmate Tom Evans, which became a worldwide number-one hit for Harry Nilsson in 1972, and has become a widely-covered standard; Ham received two Ivor Novello songwriting awards related to the song in 1973.  In 1974, Badfinger transferred to Warner Brothers Records, releasing possibly their finest album, Wish You Were Here.  Shortly thereafter, Warner Bros. sued the band's manager, Stan Polley, after an advance payment vanished, and, after Polley disappeared, the band were left penniless.  Ham found himself unable to pay mortgage payments on the new house which he shared with his pregnant girlfriend, Anne Herriot, and her son.  Believing that his finances had been wiped out, Pete Ham hanged himself in his garage in Weybridge, Surrey, England, on April 24th, 1975.  Five weeks after his death, Anne gave birth to Ham's daughter, Petera.  Fellow bandmember, Tom Evans, also committed suicide by hanging in 1983.  Only three days before his twenty-eighth birthday, Pete Ham was just 27 years old.

Nick Drake

Nicholas Rodney Drake was an English singer, songwriter, and musician.  Born on June 19th, 1948, in Rangoon, Burma, he came to England to live with his parents in the village of Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire, in 1950.  His parents were Rodney, an engineer, and Molly, who recorded numerous songs of her own, which were not released until after her death; his sister was the actress Gabrielle Drake.  After prep school and Marlborough College, Nick won a scholarship to Cambridge University.  At Marlborough, he was a talented sprinter, and played for the house rugby team.  School friends described him as confident and "quietly authoritative", although aloof and difficult-to-get-to-know.  Before and during his time at Cambridge, he began smoking cannabis and probably took L.S.D., becoming involved in the local music scene.  Meeting record producer Joe Boyd, who offered him a recording contract, Drake dropped out of Cambridge in his third year, and released his debut album, Five Leaves Left, in 1968.  The album sold poorly.  Moving to London, he played a few poorly-received and -attended gigs, rarely engaging with his audience.  Friend Brian Wells suspected Drake may have been using heroin at this time.  His second album, Bryter Layter, released in 1971, was also a commercial failure, which increased his depression, a psychiatrist prescribing anti-depressants, which he was reluctant to take, and he was described as showing "the first signs of psychosis".  By this time, Nick Drake rarely left his flat, except to buy drugs.  In 1972, Drake's final album, Pink Moon, came out, selling even-less-well than its predecessors.  As with previous releases, he was reluctant to partake in any promotional interviews or concerts.  Suffering from depression and burnout, Drake returned to live with his parents, existing on a £20-a-week retainer from Island Records.  Early in 1972, he was hospitalised for five weeks; initially believed to be suffering from major depression, his former therapist thought he may have had schizophrenia.  In 1974, Drake began recording sessions for a mooted new album, although his performances were not at their former level, and he expressed bitterness that he wasn't rich and famous by now.  His weekly retainer had now ceased, and he had lost touch with most friends.  In November of 1974, Drake's closest female friend, Sophia Ryde, sought to end their relationship.  Nick Drake retired early to bed on the night of November 24th, 1974, but went downstairs around dawn to get some pills to help him to sleep.  About midday on November 25th, Molly Drake, Nick's mother, entered his room to wake him, but found his lifeless body lying across his bed.  There was no suicide note, although a note to Sophia Ryde was found nearby.  A coroner's inquest in November stated his cause of death as, "Acute amytriptyline poisoning - self-administered when suffering from a depressive illness", although several friends thought the overdose may have been accidental.  Nick Drake was just 26 years old.