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.

Imogen Hassall

Imogen Hassall - who was born on August 25th, 1942, in Woking, Surrey, England - was a British actress and model who appeared in thirty-three films in the 1960s and '70s.  Born into an affluent family of artists and businessmen, her godfather is said to have been the composer Ivor Novello.  After attending Elmhurst Ballet School and the Royal Ballet School, at the age of sixteen Hassall moved to New York City to study, before returning to England to attend the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art between 1960 and 1962, following which she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company for one season.  Hassall appeared in the comedy The Reluctant Peer at the Duchess Theatre in 1964, before gaining parts in British action T.V. series of the 1960s, including The Saint, The Avengers, and The Persuaders!.  In her first significant film role, in 1967, she played Tara in The Long Duel, and received further public attention when playing a dominant cave-girl in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth in 1970.  Also in 1970, Hassall played major roles in Carry On Loving and the horror film Incense for the Damned, and in 1973 starred alongside David Jason in the comedy film, White Cargo.  In 1972, she gave birth to a baby girl, Melanie, but the child died after only four days; Hassall married the baby's father, the actor Kenneth Ives, in 1974, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1978.  In 1979, she married another actor, Andrew Knox, but the marriage lasted less than a year, and she lost the baby she was expecting; Knox himself committed suicide in 1987.  Hassall's private life was a regular subject of interest in tabloid newspapers.  She was known for playing sexy, scantily-clad characters on film and T.V., and this, along with the skimpy outfits she wore to film premieres, led to Hassall being dubbed "The Countess of Cleavage".  After her failed relationships, the death of her child, her miscarriage, and with her career in decline, Hassall became depressed.  Following previous suicide attempts, Hassall was found dead at her home in Wimbledon, London, England, on the morning of November 16th, 1980.  She had been due to meet her friend - the actress, Suzanna Leigh - that day for a holiday trip to Mombasa, but failed to turn up.  She had apparently taken an overdose of Tuinal sleeping tablets.  Imogen Hassall was just 38 years old.

Bob Grant

Robert St. Clair Grant - who was born on April 14th, 1932, in Hammersmith, London, England - was an English actor, comedian, and writer.  After training as an actor, and doing national service, Grant made his stage debut in 1952 at the Court Royal, Horsham.  In 1954, he married Jean Hyett, although the marriage ended in divorce.  Grant's first London appearance was at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1956, and he spent several years at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, before getting the lead role in the musical Blitz! at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End for two years.  He married for the second time, to Christine Sally Kemp, in 1962, but again the marriage ended in divorce.  In 1964, Grant appeared at the Piccadilly Theatre in Instant Marriage, a musical farce, for which he also wrote the book and lyrics.  He continued to perform in films, on radio, and on stage, before landing the role for which he was most famous: as the lecherous bus conductor Jack Harper in the T.V. sitcom, On The Buses.  The series ran for 74 episodes between 1969 and 1974, with Grant co-writing 12 of the episodes.  Hugely successful, the show spawned three feature films, all of which Grant starred in.  He was in a relationship with his On The Buses co-star, Gaye Brown, but split with her to eventually marry Kim Benwell, his third and final wife.  Such was Grant's fame at this time, that huge crowds gathered outside the registry office where they married.  After On The Buses finished, Grant found himself typecast, and struggled to get other parts.  He acted in pantomimes and musicals, but a self-penned pilot show didn't lead to a T.V. series, and Grant never acted on television again.  In 1980, he acted in several radio plays and a Shakesperian play on stage.  Lack of work and mounting bills led Grant to suffer from depression during the 1980s, and on one occasion he disappeared from his home for five days; he had caught a ferry to Ireland, intending to kill himself, but returned unharmed.  In 1990, a new version of On The Buses was planned, featuring most of the original cast, but this fell through due to lack of funds.  A further long gap in employment led to a suicide attempt in 1995, with Grant being found just in time as he lay unconscious over the steering wheel of his car, which was filled with carbon monoxide fumes.  After recovering, Grant and his wife moved to the small village of Twyning in Gloucestershire, thereafter living a reclusive life.  Grant's last acting role was in Funny Money at Devonshire Park Theatre from July 1998.  As more bills continued to arrive, and work didn't, Grant despaired.  On November 8th, 2003, he went into the garage of his home in Church End, Twyning, and attached a hose to the exhaust pipe of his car.  Shortly afterwards, Grant was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in his fume-filled car.  Bob Grant was 71 years old.

Carl Sargeant

Carl Sargeant - who was born in 1968 in St. Asaph, Flintshire, North Wales - was a Welsh politician, who was the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children in the Welsh Government.  Before becoming an Assembly Member, Sargeant worked as a process operator at a chemical manufacturing plant, as well as being a quality and environmental auditor, and training as an industrial firefighter.  He was married, to Bernie, had a son and a daughter, and was school governor.  Beginning his political career as a member of Connah's Quay Town Council, he was elected A.M. for Alyn and Deeside in 2003.  In 2007, he was appointed Chief Whip of the Labour Group and a Deputy Welsh Minister for Assembly Business, and in 2009 was made Minister for Social Justice and Local Government in the Welsh cabinet.  In 2014, the then-First Minister, Carwyn Jones, received an anonymous letter from someone, alleging that Sargeant was "not fit to be around women"; Joned warned Sargeant about his conduct, and told him to moderate his drinking.  In May of 2016, Jones was told by a party colleague that a woman had made complaints about Sargeant, although she did not want to pursue the matter.  Following the 2016 National Assembly election, Sargeant was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children.  In October, 2017, Carwyn Jones was told of rumours of inappropriate behaviour by Sargeant towards two women, involving "unwanted attention, inappropriate touching or groping".  Jones neglected to ask Sargeant for his side of the story, and sacked him from his position on November 3rd.  Devastated by the turn of events, Carl Sargeant was found dead, hanged, at his family home in Connah's Quay, Flintshire, on November 7th, 2017.  An inquest revealed the existence of text messages between two Labour councillors suggesting that Sargeant had done something that could have resulted in a prison sentence.  It was also revealed that another anonymous letter had been written after Sargeant was supposedly seen with a woman in a pub garden, and there was also talk of an incident at a wedding reception, although the coroner described these claims as "rumour, multiple hearsay, and speculation".  In 2019, Carwyn Jones told The Guardian that a total of nine women had made allegations of misconduct against them by Sargeant, although Sargeant's wife and family believe him to be innocent of all allegations, and suggested that there have been attempts to slur him after his death.  Carl Sargeant was 49 years old.

Robin Douglas-Home

Cecil Robin Douglas-Home - who was born on May 8th, 1932, in London, England - was an English-born Scottish aristocrat, jazz pianist, and author.  He was the eldest son of the Honourable Henry Douglas-Home from his first marriage to Lady Margaret Spencer; the nephew of the former British Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home; and the older brother of Charles Douglas-Home, the editor of The Times newspaper.  Douglas-Home was a jazz pianist and a leading society figure in the 1950s and '60s.  In the 1950s, he had a relationship with Princess Margaretha of Sweden, but was apparently refused permission to marry her by her mother, Princess Sibylla.  However, Margaretha's nanny later stated in her memoirs that the reason for the couple's breakup was simply that the princess did not want to marry him.  Douglas-Home instead married the 18-year-old fashion model Sandra Paul in 1959, and in 1962 they had a son, Sholto, who was conceived at Frank Sinatra's mansion in Palm Springs, Florida.  A talented writer, Douglas-Home was invited by Sinatra to write his first authorised biography, which was published in 1962, and he subsequently wrote four novels, the first of which, Hot for Certainties, won the Authors' Club's Best First Novel Award in 1964.  He also wrote articles for journals and magazines such as Queen and Woman's Own.  Shortly after the birth of his son, Douglas-Home fathered a son by Nicolette Vane-Tempest-Stewart, the Marchioness of Londonderry, the truth about which would remain secret until the late 1990s.  In 1965, Douglas-Home divorced his wife, the breakup being the subject of a documentary by Alan Whicker.  Around this time, he began a relationship with Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II.  Margaret was at this time concerned about the deterioration of her own marriage to Antony Armstrong-Jones, Lord Snowdon, and sought solace in a one-month affair with Douglas-Home.  Their liaison ended rather abruptly, when the princess decided to try to salvage her relationship with Snowdon.  Eighteen months after his split with princess Margaret, and having suffered with clinical depression for some years, Robin Douglas-Home took his own life on October 15th, 1968, at his country home in West Chiltington, West Sussex, England.  He was just 36 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.

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.