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.  

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.

Danny Kelleher

Daniel John Michael Kelleher - who was born on May 5th, 1966, in Southwark, London, England - was an English cricketer.  The son of John Kelleher and his wife, and the nephew of Harry Kelleher - who had played cricket for Surrey and Northamptonshire in the 1950s - Danny Kelleher was educated at St. Mary's Grammar School in Sidcup and at Erith College of Technology.  He represented Kent Schools at both rugby and cricket, and toured British Columbia with Kent Under-17s in 1983.  Kelleher was talent-spotted whilst playing at Dartford Cricket Club, joining Kent in 1985, and making his first-team debut two years later.  A popular and exuberant medium-fast bowler, Kelleher had a highly-promising first season, topping Kent's bowling  averages in 1987 with 34 wickets at an excellent average of 25.82.  That season, he took the only two five-wicket hauls of his career: 5 for 76 against Surrey at Tunbridge Wells, and a career-best 6 for 109 against Somerset at Bath.  In 1988, Kelleher scored a 42-ball 50 against the touring West Indians, with four sixes and five fours.  The following summer, 1989, he attained his highest first-class score: 53 not out against Derbyshire at Dartford.  However, as injuries began to affect his form, Kelleher found himself in and out of the side, and he was released by Kent at the end of the 1991 season.  Surrey signed him on a match-only contract the following summer, but he was unable to break into their side, and was released in 1993 having made no first-team appearances in two years.  Around this time, his girlfriend, an actress, also walked-out on him.  In 34 first-class matches, Keller scored 565 runs at an average of 15.27, with two 50s, and took 77 wickets at an average of 32.89.  In 31 List A (Limited-overs) matches, he scored 91 runs at 9.10, and took 22 wickets at 41.81.  Kelleher found a post coaching cricket in Argentina in 1994, but was unhappy there, and returned to England for the final time for a Christmas family gathering that year.  From there onwards, Kelleher's life began to gradually decline.  He wrote to several counties asking for a trial, but received no offers, although he did play a few second-team games for Glamorgan.  Kelleher's father said: "He became more depressed and anti-social, and developed a bit of a drink problem... He was a shy lad, who hid it under an extrovert bravado."  During 1995, Kelleher was prescribed anti-depressant tablets, and began to withdraw from his family, keeping himself to himself, and often not returning phone calls.  He made two suicide attempts, described by his father as, "Nothing more than cries for help".  On December 12th, 1995, having not seen his son for a while, John Kelleher went round to Danny's flat in Barnehurst, south-east London, only to come across his dead body, with bottles of alcohol and pills, and a suicide note, nearby.  Kelleher had killed himself by taking an overdose of Prozac.  Grahame Clinton, Kelleher's former coach at Surrey, later said: "Danny was a talented boy who always gave 100% on the field.  But he was also idle, and not prepared to put in the effort when he was not playing."  Clinton went on to say that he thought that most county clubs cared little about their former players.  Danny Kelleher was just 29 years old.

Annie St. John

Ann Florence Heywood - who was born on September 8th, 1954, in Blackpool, Lancashire, England - was a British television presenter.  Growing up in Blackpool, Lancashire, she attended Blackpool Collegiate Grammar School for Girls and the Rose Bruford Drama School.  As a young woman, she worked as a mahout (an elephant rider, trainer, or keeper) at the Blackpool Tower Circus, and performed at repertory theatre in Bolton, Salisbury, and at the Young Vic in London.  In 1976, she married the actor, Michael St. John.  Annie first made her name on television in 1978, working as a hostess on the first two series of the networked Yorkshire Television gameshow, 3-2-1, before joining HTV West in 1981 as a newsreader and continuity announcer.  Her popularity in the West-Country was such that viewers launched a Save Our Annie campaign when she left the station in 1983 to join Tyne Tees Television in Newcastle.  During her time at Tyne Tees, St. John continued to freelance for HTV West and also for London Weekend Television.  As well as announcing duties, she presented various regional programmes, including Ask Oscar; a weekly What's On programme; It's Nearly Saturday; and the advice series, Problems.  By the late 1980s, St. John had become one of the main anchors of the nightly regional news programme, HTV News, alongside Bruce Hockin and Richard Wyatt, whilst still pursuing her continuity role.  She also presented a request show for the local independent radio station, Radio West.  In November of 1990, after colleagues became concerned when she failed to turn up for work, HTV director of programming Derek Clark and a staff rigger went to her flat in Baltic Wharf, Bristol, where they found St. John naked and semi-conscious on a bed, clutching a teddy-bear, having taken an overdose of champagne and drugs.  She was able to confirm to an ambulanceman that she had taken 80 tablets from two bottles that were found by her bed.  Apparently, St. John suffered a heart attack shortly after arriving in hospital, which left her in a vegetative condition.  On Monday, December 10th, 1990 - 38 days after taking the overdose - she died in hospital.  St. John's funeral was held at St. Mary Redcliffe Church in Bristol, and she was cremated in the city.  Her grave is located at Carleton Cemetery in her hometown of Blackpool.  Survived by her husband of 14 years, Michael, an inquest later recorded a verdict of suicide.  It also transpired that St. John had been having an affair with Nick Kerswell, an HTV journalist, for six months before her death; although, on the evening of her overdose, she had been sharing a drink for forty minutes with her estranged husband.  Her husband later said that she had mentioned having a row with someone, but didn't want to dwell on it, and otherwise she seemed fine.  A briefcase found in her house contained several letters and photographs addressed to Kerswell, which he claimed to have destroyed after reading.  Pathologist Nicholas Rooney attributed St. John's death to bronchial pneumonia caused by a cerebral haemmorhage.  Annie St. John was just 36 years old.

Faron Young

Faron Young was an American country music singer, songwriter, and producer, as well as an actor, who was active from the early 1950s until the mid-1980s.  Born on February 25th, 1932, he was the youngest of six children born to Harlan and Doris Young in Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S.A.  Starting to perform whilst still at school, he initially imagined a career as a pop singer, before switching his allegiance to country music after watching Hank Williams on T.V.  After leaving college, Young's first releases were on Gotham Records, although by early 1952 he had signed for Capitol Records, where he was to record for the next ten years. Moving to Nashville, his first hit, Goin' Steady, reached number 2 on the U.S. Country Charts in October, 1952.  The following month, Young was drafted into the U.S. Army.  Whilst stationed at Fort McPherson, he met his future wife, Hilda Macon, whom he married in November, 1954, after being discharged.  The couple had three sons and a daughter together.  From 1954 to 1962, Young recorded mainly honky-tonk records for Capitol, the most famous being Willie Nelson's Hello Walls, which was a crossover hit in 1961, and won a gold disc for selling over a million copies.  In the mid-1950s, he also appeared as an actor in four low-budget films.  After drifting for a while musically, Young had a renaissance in 1971, when his song Four in the Morning gave him his fifth and final number-one hit on the U.S. Country chart, and was also a surprising number-three hit on the U.K. pop charts.  In 1972, he was charged with assault for spanking a girl in the audience whom he claimed had spat at him whilst he was singing on stage.  Young's later life was plagued with depression and alcoholism.  In 1984, he fired a pistol into the roof of his home.  When he refused to seek help for his drinking problems, Young's wife divorced him in 1986 after 32 years of marriage.  On December 9th, 1996, Young shot himself in the head at his home, dying in Nashville, Tennessee, the following day.  A combination of feeling he had been abandoned by the music industry, as well as despondency over his declining health, were cited as reasons for his suicide.  His ashes were spread by his family on land owned by singer Johnny Cash and his wife, whilst the Cashes were away.  Faron Young was 64 years old.

Capucine

Germaine Hélène Irène Lefebvre - who was born on January 6th, 1928, in Saint-Raphaël, Var, France - was a French fashion model and actress who appeared in 36 films and 17 television productions between 1948 and 1990.  Attending school in Saumur in western France, she gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in foreign languages.  In 1945, at the age of 17, she was spotted by a commercial photographer, and began modelling for Givenchy and Christian Dior, adopting the mononym "Capucine" - the French word for the nasturtium flower.  Capucine made her film debut with an uncredited role in Jean Cocteau's The Eagle with Two Heads in 1948.  In 1949, whilst performing in the film Rendevous in July, she met the actor Pierre Trabaud, marrying him the following year, although they divorced only eight months later; she never married again.  Film producer Charles K. Feldman brought Capucine to Hollywood in 1957 to learn acting and study English; she apparently also had an affair with Feldman.  Capucine was nominated for a Golden Globe for the film Song Without End , and was William Holden's love interest in The Lion in 1962.  On the set of The Lion, she began dating Holden, and split up with Feldman.  After moving to Switzerland in 1962, Capucine played two of her most-famous roles in the comedies The Pink Panther and What's New Pussycat.  The death of Feldman in May of 1968 led to her career losing momentum, although she continued appearing in films and on T.V. until 1990.  Capucine's two-year affair with the married Holden ended due to his increasing alcoholism, although they remained friends until his death after a fall whilst drunk in 1981, and he left her $50,000 in his will.  Director Federico Fellini said about Capucine that, "...she had a face to launch a thousand ships...but she was born too late.", whilst Luchino Visconti, rejecting her for a part in the 1971 film Death in Venice, said, "She has a horrible voice, and too many teeth.  She looks like a horse, a beautiful horse...".  Capucine spent the last 28 years of her life living in an eighth-floor apartment in Lausanne, Switzerland.  According to neighbours, she led a reclusive life with her three cats, rarely leaving home, and spending much time reading.  Apparently suffering from ill-health and depression during her last years, on March 17th, 1990, Capucine jumped to her death from her balcony.  She was 62 years old.

Larry Walters

Lawrence Richard Walters - who later became publicly-known by the nickname "Lawnchair Larry" - was an American truck driver who was born on April 19th, 1949, in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.  After failing to become a pilot in the U.S. Air Force due to poor eyesight, Walters took employment as a driver for a television commercial production company.  He had dreamed of flying in an air balloon since the age of thirteen, and, on July 2nd, 1982, attempted to make his dream reality.  Walters strapped 43 helium-filled weather balloons to his garden chair in the backyard of his home in San Pedro, Los Angeles, before settling himself in, carrying only sandwiches, drink, a camera, a C.B. radio, a parachute, and a pellet gun which he intended to use to shoot out some of the balloons so he could descend gently to the ground after floating for a while over his property.  Unfortunately, the wire holding the chair to the ground broke prematurely, sending Walters shooting upwards, eventually reaching a height of about 16,000 feet (over three miles).  He had planned to fly 300 miles into the Mojave Desert, but instead found himself drifting into the approach path to Long Beach Municipal Airport, where he was spotted and reported by two passing aircraft.  Feeling cold and dizzy at such an altitude, Walters shot some of the balloons, and began descending, eventually becoming entangled in power lines in Long Beach, about ten miles from where he took off, and having been airborne for around an hour.  He was cut free by rescuers, the broken power line blacking out parts of Long Beach for twenty minutes.  Walters received a $4,000 fine for his troubles, which was reduced on appeal to $1,500.  He subsequently became a minor celebrity for a while, quitting his job as a driver, and guesting on mainstream American talkshows, and was briefly in demand as a motivational speaker.  Timex watches paid him $1,000 in 1992 to appear in print advertisements.  However, his girlfriend of fifteen years left him, and Walters could only find sporadic employment as a security guard, as well as doing volunteer work for the United States Forest Service.  He had a love of nature, and spent time hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains.  On October 6th, 1993, Larry Walters walked to one of his favourite spots in the Angeles National Forest, and took his own life by shooting himself through the heart.  He was 44 years old.

Nicolette Powell

Nicolette Elaine Katherine Powell (née Harrison) was an English aristocrat and debutante, the first wife of the 9th Marquess of Londonderry, and later the wife of the musician Georgie Fame.  She was born in 1941, the daughter of the stockbroker Michael Harrison and his wife, the former Maria Madeleine Benita von Koskull, a Latvian baroness.  Following in her mother's footsteps, she was presented to the Queen as a debutante in 1958, the year this practice ended.  On May 16th, 1958, Nicolette married Alexander Vane-Tempest-Stewart at her parents' home of Netherhampton, and subsequently became known as the Most Honourable Nicolette Vane-Tempest-Stewart, the Marchioness of Londonderry.  The couple made their home at Wynyard Hall, and quickly had two daughters: Lady Sophia Frances Jane Vane-Tempest-Stewart, born on February 23rd, 1959; and Lady Cosima Maria Gabriella Vane-Tempest-Stewart, born on December 25th, 1961.  In 1965, Nicolette's father died, and it was around this time that she began a relationship with the singer Georgie Fame (real name: Clive Powell).  She gave birth to a son - James Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh - in 1969.  In 1971, it was discovered that the father of her son was Georgie Fame, resulting in Powell's husband divorcing her, causing significant unwanted publicity.  Powell's daughter Cosima later revealed that her own biological father may have actually been Robin Douglas-Home (nephew of the former Prime Minister, Alec), who committed suicide in 1968.  On February 25th, 1972, Nicolette married Georgie Fame at Marylebone Registry Office, and gave birth to a second son, James Michael, in 1973.  Nicolette Powell (or "Nico", as she was known) and her new husband lived quietly, out of the public eye, with Powell enjoying her role as wife and mother.  However, as her children achieved independence and left home, she became increasingly depressed, feeling, as her husband said: "...redundant because all her children had grown up and no longer needed her constant attention."  In addition, her elderly mother's mental faculties began to decline.  On Friday the 13th of August, 1993, Nicolette Powell parked her car near the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England.  After handing a note and her car keys to her two daughters, who were admiring the view, Powell plunged 250 feet to her death from the central span of the bridge.  Her suicide note said that she saw "no purpose in life" now that her children had grown up and left home.   A small group of mourners attended a brief memorial service for her in the parish church of St. Andrew in the village of Stoke Trister near Wincanton in Somerset, followed by a private cremation ceremony in Salisbury. Nicolette Powell was 52 years old.

Kelly Jean Van Dyke

Kelly Jean Van Dyke - who was born on June 5th, 1958, in Danville, Illinois, U.S.A. - was an American actress and adult film performer.  From an acting family, she was the daughter of Jerry Van Dyke and his first wife, Carol Johnson; the niece of Dick Van Dyke; and the first cousin once removed of Shane Van Dyke.  As a child actress in the 1960s, Van Dyke appeared in the television series My Mother The Car and Accidental Family.  Under the stage name Nancee Kelly, she later emerged as a star of various pornographic movies.  She married Jeffrey Archer in 1981, before divorcing, and then wedded the actor Jack Nance in May of 1991.  In an unpublished magazine interview from 1990, Van Dyke claimed she was raped by her father Jerry Van Dyke from the age of 12, and that he would bring over his actor friends, Robert Mitchum and Martin Landau, to join in the fun.  She claimed that she began taking sleeping pills at that time to numb the pain, and that she had been addicted to some kind of drug ever since.  It was reported that - on November 17th, 1991 - Van Dyke was expressing suicidal thoughts whilst talking on the phone to her husband.  Unfortunately, a lightning storm knocked out the telephone lines in Bass Lake.  Her husband called the police, who broke into her Los Angeles apartment forty-five minutes later, only to find that Kelly Van Dyke had hanged herself.  She was just 33 years old.

Terence Donovan

Terence Daniel Donovan was an English fashion photographer and film director.  Born on September 14th, 1936, in Stepney, East London, England, he was famous, along with fellow photographers David Bailey and Brian Duffy, for capturing the mood of the 'swinging '60s'. Between the ages of eleven and fifteen, Donovan studied at the London County Council School of Photoengraving and Lithography, joining the Royal Photographic Society in 1963. He socialised with many celebrities of the time, often photographing his models against the gritty urban surroundings of his home town.  He shot for many top fashion magazines, branching out into film production in the 1970s, eventually directing over 3,000 commercials, as well as the rarely-seen 1973 cop film, Yellow Dog. Donovan also made documentaries, as well as music videos - the most famous of which was probably for Robert Palmer's song "Addicted To Love".  He was a black belt in judo, co-authoring a popular book on the subject, and also enjoyed painting.  Donovan was married twice: the first marriage, to Janet Cohen, was short-lived, and produced a son, Daniel Donovan - a keyboardist; the second, to Diana Dare, produced a daughter - the actress Daisy Donovan, and a son - the co-founder of Rockstar Games, Terry Donovan.  On November 22nd, 1996, Terence Donovan hanged himself in Ealing, London, England.  An inquest concluded that steroid drugs he had been taking for a skin condition had caused him to develop depression.  He was 60 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.

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.

Dana Plato

Dana Plato - who was born as Dana Michelle Strain, on November 7th, 1964, in Maywood, California, U.S.A. - was an American actress and model.  She was born to Linda Strain, an unwed teenager, but was adopted by Dean and Florine Plato in June, 1965.  At the age of three, her adoptive parents divorced, and she was raised by her mother.  Plato was included in a list of VH1's "100 Greatest Kid Stars", and became best-known for playing Kimberley Drummond in the popular television sitcom, Diff'rent Strokes, which aired from 1978 to 1986.  From the age of seven, Plato began appearing in T.V. commercials - over 100 in all - before going into acting.  Whilst a teenager starring in Diff'rent Strokes, she struggled with drug and alcohol problems, using cannabis and cocaine, and taking an overdose of diazepam at the age of 14. Later in her career, Plato appeared in various B-movies, while also posing for Playboy, and starring in softcore pornography films.  In December, 1983, she moved in with her boyfriend, rock guitarist Lanny Lambert, and married him on April 24th, 1984; she gave birth to her only son soon afterwards, which led to her being written out of Diff'rent Strokes.  After a series of personal problems, including her mother's death and her own divorce, Plato held-up a video store in 1991 with a pellet gun, demanding she be given the money from the cash register.  For this, she was given five years' probation.  In 1992, she was arrested again, this time for forging a diazepam prescription, serving 30 days in jail, and entering a drug rehabilitation programme.  Plato subsequently moved to Las Vegas, where she struggled with unemployment and poverty, and twice became engaged, including to her manager, with whom she lived in a motor-home in Florida.  On May 7th, 1999, Plato appeared on the Howard Stern Show, talking about her personal problems.  The following day - May 8th, 1999 - Plato took a lethal overdose of Lortab (a painkiller) and Soma (a muscle-relaxant), whilst visiting her fiancee's mother's home in Moore, Oklahoma, U.S.A.  She was 34 years old.

Wendy O. Williams

Wendy Orlean Williams was an American singer, songwriter, and actress, who was born on May 28th, 1949, in Webster, New York, U.S.A.  At school, where she played the clarinet, Williams was recalled as a "shy and pretty girl" and "an average student".  She had the first of many run-ins with the law for sunbathing topless at the age of fifteen, and left R. L. Thomas High School in Webster before graduating.  Apparently feeling like an outcast, and misunderstood by her strict parents, Williams left home at age sixteen, hitchhiking to Colorado, and then onto Florida and Europe, taking several jobs on her travels, and also being arrested many times for shoplifting and possessing counterfeit money.  Arriving back in New York City in 1976, she met radical artist Rod Swenson, who became her manager, and she began performing in his live sex shows, and later in adult films.  Swenson and Williams became romantic partners for the rest of her life, with Swenson recruiting her to front his punk-rock band, The Plasmatics, in 1977.  Williams became known for her theatrical and sexually-provocative on-stage antics, resulting in several arrests and obscenity charges.  Although she drank and experimented with mind-altering drugs in her early-adult years, Williams later became more "straight-edge", giving up drug use and smoking, as well as being teetotal.  She had been a vegetarian since 1966.  Between 1984 and '86, Williams released two solo albums.  In 1985, during the height of her popularity, Williams was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.  In 1986, she starred in the indie-film, Reform School Girls, and in 1987 in the television show, The New Adventures of Beans Baxter.  Williams toured for the last time with The Plasmatics in 1988, and put out another solo album that same year.  She retired from the music business in 1990, and moved to Storrs, Connecticut, with Rod Swenson the following year, working as an animal rehabilitator and in a food co-op.  Williams attempted suicide in 1993 by hammering a knife into her chest, which lodged in her sternum; changing her mind, she asked her partner to take her to hospital for treatment.  In 1997, she tried again, this time by taking an overdose of ephedrine.  On April 6th, 1998, Swenson returned home to find Williams missing, having left a package for him containing some of his favourite things and sealed letters from her, including suicide notes.  Swenson began searching nearby woods for her, eventually finding Williams's dead body after about an hour as darkness fell.  She had shot herself in the head with a pistol, and had apparently been feeding wild squirrels moments before she died, as well as putting a bag over her head to spare her partner the horrible sight.  Wendy Williams was 48 years old. 

Screaming Lord Sutch

David Edward Such, who was born on November 10th, 1940, in Hampstead, London, England, was an English musician and serial parliamentary candidate.  In the 1960s, inspired by Screamin' Jay Hawkins, he changed his stage name to "Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow", despite having no connections to the peerage.  Such released a series of records throughout his life, with little commercial success, and despite a self-professed lack of vocal talent; he and his band The Savages had a horror-themed stage show in which Sutch would dress up as Jack the Ripper or appear out of a coffin. Sutch's 1970 album, Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends, was voted in a 1998 BBC poll as the worst album of all time.
Sutch appeared as an election candidate for various political parties in the 1960s and '70s, before forming the Official Monster Raving Loony Party in 1983, and declaring himself leader.  In all, he appeared in 40 elections between 1963 and 1997, winning none, with his highest vote share being in the Rotherham by-election of 1994, when his party received 1,114 votes, for a 4.2% votes share.
Such had a history of depression, and committed suicide by hanging on June 16th, 1999, at his mother's home in Harrow, Greater London, England.  He was 58 years old.  At the inquest, his fiancee Yvonne Elwood said he had, "manic depression".  Such was survived by a son, Tristan Lord Gwynne Sutch, who was born in 1975 to American model, Than Rendessy.

Del Shannon

Charles Weedon Westover was an American rock 'n' roll and country musician and singer-songwriter, best-known for his 1961 U.S. Billboard No.1 hit, Runaway. Born on December 30th, 1934, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A., Westover had several jobs, and played guitar and sang in several bands, before changing his name to Del Shannon, whereafter he had his biggest hit with his co-written song, Runaway, which hit number-one in several countries. After several more hits, Shannon's career began to stall in the 1970s, partly due to his alcoholism; and, despite continuing to record and perform, he began to suffer from depression during the 1980s.  On February 8th, 1990, Shannon shot himself dead with a .22 calibre rifle at his home in Santa Clarita, California, U.S.A.  He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered.  He was 55 years old.

Margaux Hemingway

Margot Louise Hemingway was an American fashion model and actress.  She was the daughter of Byra Louise (nee Whittlesey) and Jack Hemingway, the eldest son of the writer Ernest Hemingway, and was the older sister of actress Mariel Hemingway.  Born on February 16th, 1954, in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., she became a successful and popular supermodel in the mid-1970s, appearing on many magazine covers, and becoming the spokesmodel for Babe perfume. She also had a career as an actress, appearing in various films between 1976 and 1996.  After a skiing accident in 1984, Hemingway gained 75 pounds in weight, ending up at nearly 200 pounds (about 14 stone), and became increasingly depressed.  In 1987, she checked into the Betty Ford Center for persons with substance dependence.  Attempting a comeback, she appeared on the cover of Playboy magazine in May, 1990, and took roles in several B-movies.  She was married twice, the first at age 21, the marriages lasting only three and six years, respectively.  Hemingway had fraught relationships with family members, and struggled with alcoholism, depression, bulimia, and epilepsy, as well as suffering from dyslexia.  It was also variously alleged that she had been molested by her Godfather and father. On July 1st, 1996, Hemingway's badly-decomposed body was found at her penthouse apartment in Santa Monica, California, U.S.A. The coroner's toxicology report ruled she had died from an overdose of phenobarbital, an epilepsy medication. Hemingway, who was the grand-daughter of Ernest Hemingway and the grand-niece of Leicester Hemingway - whose family had a history of drug abuse and suicide - was 42 years old.

Revilo P. Oliver

Revilo Pendleton Oliver was an American professor of classical philology, Spanish, and Italian, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Born on July 7th, 1908, in Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S.A., he later became a writer, becoming known as a polemicist for white-nationalist and right-wing causes. Oliver attracted national notoriety in the 1960s, after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, when he wrote an article suggesting that Kennedy's murderer, Lee Harvey Oswald, was part of a Soviet conspiracy against the United States, for which he was called to testify before the Warren Commission investigating the murder.  On August 20th, 1994, suffering from leukemia and extreme emphysema, Oliver committed suicide in Urbana, Illinois, at the age of 86.

Kurt Cobain

Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer, songwriter, and musician, who was born on February 20th, 1967, in Aberdeen, Washington, U.S.A.  One of two children of Margaret (a waitress) and Donald (a mechanic) Cobain, Kurt came from a musical and artistic family, becoming interested in drawing and music from an early age.  At the age of nine, his parents divorced, which had a profound negative effect on Cobain.  Initially living with his father and his new wife, for the next few years he had an unsettled life, spending periods also living with his mother and with other family and friends.  When he failed to graduate from high school, Cobain's mother threw him out, and he subsequently had periods of homelessness in his late teens.  After forming musical bands with friends, Cobain eventually founded the group Nirvana in 1987.  They produced their debut album, Bleach, in 1989, although it failed to chart on initial release.  However, the 1991 follow-up, Nevermind, propelled by its lead single, Smells Like Teen Spirit, entered the mainstream, popularising what became known as "grunge" music.  Following relationships with Tracy Marander and and punk-rocker Tobi Vail, Cobain met Courtney Love of the band Hole in 1989 or 1990.  The pair married on February 24th, 1992, with Love giving birth to their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, on August 18th of that year.  The Los Angeles County Department of Children's Services took the couple to court, claiming that the Cobains' drug use made them unfit parents.  Cobain had chronic bronchitis and severe pain from an undiagnosed stomach condition.  He began dabbling in drugs at the age of thirteen, and became addicted to heroin by the end of 1992, claiming the heroin helped alleviate his stomach pain.  In 1993, Nirvana released their third and last studio album, In Utero, which topped both the U.S. and British charts.  Despite these successes, Cobain continued his alcohol, drug, and solvent abuse.  He overdosed on heroin several times.  Whilst on tour in Munich, Germany, in March of 1994, Cobain was diagnosed with bronchitis and severe laryngitis, and flew to Rome for medical treatment.  The next morning, March 4th, his wife awoke to find Cobain had overdosed on champagne and Rohypnol.  After five days in hospital, Cobain was released and returned home to Seattle.  His wife claimed this was his first suicide attempt.  On March 18th, Cobain's wife called the police, saying he was suicidal and had locked himself in a room with a gun; police arrived, and confiscated several guns and a bottle of pills.  A week later, Cobain's wife organised an intervention, with Cobain eventually agreeing to travel to a rehabilitation centre in Los Angeles.  On March 31st, after one night at the centre, Cobain absconded from the facility and flew back to Seattle.  Over the next couple of days, Cobain was spotted at several locations around the city.  On April 8th, 1994, an electrician, who was visiting Cobain's property in Lake Washington Boulevard, Seattle, Washington, found the singer's dead body lying on the ground.  He had committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.  A high concentration of heroin and traces of diazepam were found in his body.  A coroner's report suggested he probably died on April 5th.  Kurt Cobain was just 27 years old.