Margot Kidder

Margaret Ruth Kidder - who was born on October 17th, 1948, in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada - was a Canadian-American actress and activist.  One of five children, she moved frequently throughout Canada due to her father's occupation as an explosives expert and engineer.  At age twelve, her mother took Kidder to New York to see the musical Bye Bye Birdie, which stimulated her interest in theatre and film.  At fourteen, Kidder attempted suicide by swallowing a bottle of codeine capsules after her boyfriend broke up with her.  About this time, she took up acting, graduating from high school in Toronto in 1966, the same year in which she had an illegal abortion after finding herself pregnant.  Kidder then relocated to Vancouver to study at the University of British Columbia, but dropped out after one year, returning to Toronto to work as a model.  Kidder made her film debut in the 1968 Canadian film The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar.  Her 1969 appearance in the drama series Corwin earned her a Canadian Film Award for "outstanding new talent".  In the 1970s, Kidder began a relationship with the film director Brian De Palma, and he cast her in the lead role in his acclaimed 1973 film, Sisters.  Kidder won two Canadian Film Awards for Best Actress in 1974, and that same year made her directorial debut with the 50-minute film, Again.  In 1975, she was hired to direct a documentary short film about the making of the film The Missouri Breaks, but was fired from the project.  After becoming romantically involved with the novelist and director Thomas McGuane, Kidder gave birth to their daughter, Maggie, in October, 1975.  The couple married on August 2nd, 1976, but divorced on July 21st, 1977.  In 1978, Kidder was cast in her most-iconic role as Lois Lane in the box-office smash, Superman, winning a Saturn Award for Best Actress in the process.  The Amityville Horror in 1979 further cemented Kidder as one of Hollywood's leading ladies.  She married the actor John Heard that year, but they separated after only six days of marriage, and divorced in 1980.  The 1980s saw Kidder star in three sequels to the original Superman film.  Early in the decade, she was romantically linked to the comedian Eddie Murphy and the Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, although neither relationship lasted long.  In 1984, she produced and starred in the Canadian T.V. film, Louisiana, having already married the film's director Phillipe de Broca in France in 1983.  Once again, this marriage - Kidder's third and final - was shortlived, ending in divorce in 1984.  Kidder received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in 1988, although she rejected the recommended lithium treatment.  1990 saw her seriously injured in a car accident on the set of a T.V. series she was making, rendering her partially paralysed for a while, and unable to work for two years.  The lawsuit she launched, from which she received no settlement, left her in subsequent financial difficulties.  Whilst working on her autobiography on her laptop computer in April, 1996, a virus wiped out all her hard work, and she travelled to California hoping a company there would be able to retrieve the lost work.  They were unsuccessful, and Kidder then entered a manic state, disappearing for four days.  She was found in a distressed state, having lost caps on her teeth after an attempted rape, and was placed in psychiatric care.  However, Kidder continued to act regularly up until 2017, as well as lending her support to environmental and anti-nuclear causes.  She became an American citizen in 2005, and spent her later years living alone with her dogs in a log cabin.  On May 13th, 2018, Kidder was visited by her friend, Joan Kesich, who found her unresponsive at her home in Livingston, Montana.  Kidder's agent initially stated that, "she passed away peacefully in her sleep", but an inquest later revealed her death was a suicide as "a result of a self-inflicted drug and alcohol overdose".  Kidder was cremated, and her ashes scattered at her favourite locations in Canada, as well as in the wilds of Montana, amongst the bears and wolves she so loved.  Margot Kidder was 69 years old.

Ted Moult

Edward Walker Moult - who was born on February 11th, 1926, in Derby, England - was a British farmer, who later became a well-known television- and radio-personality in the United Kingdom.  The eldest of the six children of William Moult, Ted grew up on the family's farm in Derbyshire.  He left Derby School in 1944 at the age of 17, and by the age of 22 had his own dairy farm at Sinfin on the outskirts of Derby.  Moult first came to public attention in the 1950s, when he appeared on BBC Radio's general knowledge quiz, Brain of Britain.  Despite being knocked out in the first round, his quick wit and "gift of the gab" was noticed by BBC producers.  This quirky mixture of eccentric farmer, sharp intelligence, and comedic timing, proved a hit with audiences, and he was invited onto discussion programmes such as Any Questions?, and panel games such as Ask Me Another and What's My Line?  By the mid-1960s, Moult had become a household name.  He was credited with introducing the concept of "pick-your-own"  strawberries at his farm in 1961, and was the subject of This is Your Life with Eamonn Andrews in February of 1964.  Moult's media appearances continued throughout the 1960s and '70s, being a regular guest on Call My Bluff and Celebrity Squares.  He was the presenter of the Farming documentary programme from 1959-'69, as well as playing the Story Teller in the children's show Play School from 1964-'71.  Moult also took small parts as an actor, appearing in a 1980 episode of the television series All Creatures Great and Small, and playing the part of Bill Insley in the BBC Radio 4 farming-themed soap opera, The Archers, from 1983-'86.  In 1976, he starred in a popular television commercial for Jacob's Cream Crackers, and in the 1980s fronted a series of adverts for Everest double-glazing.  Moult's autobiography, Down To Earth: The Life and Views of Ted Moult, was published in 1973, and in 1983 he appeared as a celebrity guest on darts-themed gameshow, Bullseye, winning £180 for charity.  In 1986, several weeks of wet weather lead to worry for arable farmers like Ted trying to gather their harvests.  His wife said that the normally cheerful Ted had become withdrawn, and that, "he suddenly became massively depressed, and his judgement seemed to fail.  All his optimism seemed to evaporate.  It was almost as though a curtain fell over his life."  Moult had persuaded himself that he was never going to get his grain into the barn.  On the morning of September 3rd, 1986, he locked himself into his office and shot himself dead.  He was survived by his wife, Marie Rose - known as Maria - (1932-2014), and several (at least four!) children.  After a private funeral, his life was celebrated at a public ceremony in Derby Cathedral.  He was buried in the parish churchyard in Ticknall, the small village where he farmed.  Ted Moult was 60 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.

Albert Trott

Albert Edwin Trott - who was born on February 6th, 1873, in Abbotsford, Victoria, Australia - was an Australian cricketer, who had the unusual distinction of playing international cricket for both Australia and England.  One of eight children of Adolphus and Mary-Ann Trott, Albert's older brother, Harry, also played Test cricket for Australia.  A keen and determined cricketer from a young age, after only three first-class games for Victoria, Trott made his debut for Australia in the Third Test against England at Adelaide in 1895.  Playing with his brother Harry, and batting at number ten, Trott scored 110 runs without being dismissed in this match, whilst also taking 8 for 43 in England's second innings.  At the end of this series, which England won 3-2, Trott's Test batting average stood at 102.5, making it surprising he was not selected for the 1896 tour of England under the captainship of his brother, Harry.  Instead, Trott sailed to England independently, playing for M.C.C. from 1896, and for Middlesex from 1898.  In late 1896, he briefly returned to Australia, where he married 21-year-old Jessie Rice in 1897, before settling with her in England permanently.  In 1898, Trott became the leading wicket-taker in England, and in 1899 was one of Wisden's cricketers of the year after achieving the double of 200 wickets and 1,000 runs in the season.  Between December, 1898, and April, 1899, Trott played two matches for England against South Africa in South Africa which were retrospectively awarded Test status.  In those games, he scored 23 runs at 5.75, and took 17 wickets at 11.64.  When the Australians toured Britain in 1899, Trott, playing against them for M.C.C., achieved the feat for which he is still best-remembered: batting against Monty Noble, he hit a delivery over the Lord's pavilion and out of the ground, something not matched by any batsman since.  At this stage, Trott was considered the leading bowler in the world, and one of the top all-rounders, although he never played Test cricket again because both Australia and England both considered him, essentially, a foreigner.  He settled into a comfortable terraced house in Willesden, with his wife bearing him two daughters, Jessie and Mabel.  Trott's bowling quickly declined from its peak in 1899, when he took 239 wickets, to 1905, when he took only 62.  He drank heavily, and his weight increased rapidly, and he became known for his extramarital liaisons with women.  He had a brief renaissance in 1907, when, in his benefit match against Somerset, he took four wickets in four balls, and then took a hat-trick later in the same innings - the first time that two hat-tricks had been taken in the same first-class innings (and something that has only been achieved once since).  However, the subsequent early finish meant that the game only raised £800, leading Trott to comment that he had "bowled himself into the poorhouse".  Retiring in 2010, Trott took up umpiring, although by this time his wife had left him and returned to Australia with their children.  Trott himself left the family home, moving into lodgings.  In August of 1913, Trott received news that his father had entered an asylum, where he died that November.  His own health was also declining, as he developed dropsy, as well as a heart condition which was complicated by kidney pains.  In July of 1914, Trott's heart problems lead to him being hospitalised, but he discharged himself on July 28th.  On July 30th, he asked his landlady to bring him sleeping pills, but the chemist refused to supply them without a prescription.  Trott reportedly said, "I don't think I can get through another night", and proceeded to write his will on the back of a laundry ticket.  Following this, broke and broken, and wracked by days of pain, Albert Trott shot himself in the temple with a pistol at his lodgings in Harlesden, Middlesex, England.  He was 41 years old.       

Huw Weekes

Huw Weekes - who was born on January 22nd, 1957, in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales - was a British journalist and broadcaster.  The son of Philip Weekes, a senior National Coal Board official, Weekes was brought up in Aberdare.  He began his journalistic career at the age of eighteen as a cub reporter on the Weston Mercury weekly newspaper in Weston-Super-Mare in the south-west of England, before joining the Bristol Evening Post.  Weekes's first broadcasting job was as a reporter on BBC Radio Newcastle in 1980.  In 1982, he joined Yorkshire Television as a sub-editor, graduating to a presenter's role on YTV's nightly news magazine, Calendar.  Following another presenting role at Tyne Tees Television, Weekes returned to south Wales in 1988, joining HTV Wales in Cardiff.  He stayed with HTV for thirteen years, becoming a well-loved newsreader on the channel.  He was described by HTV Wales Controller and Programmes Director, Elis Owen, as "...a first-class journalist, an excellent broadcaster, and a good colleague.", and "...one of the cornerstones of the HTV news operation for many years, and was well-known and popular...".  Weekes settled in Llantwit Major in the Vale of Glamorgan with his wife, Sue, and his three children: Jennifer, Robert, and Alice.  In September of 2000, Weekes - who was described by a work colleague as "an up-and-down kind of person" - was diagnosed with clinical depression.  On the evening of January 17th, 2001, one of Weekes's work colleagues - fellow newsreader, Tara Eugene - received a phone call from Weekes, saying that he had driven to a remote car-park with a bottle of wine and some sleeping-pills, and was planning to ingest them and freeze to death.  Weekes also said that a car had then pulled-up nearby, which he took as a sign not to go through with his plan.  Miss Eugene later tried to contact Weekes at his flat, without success, before contacting Weekes's sister to inform her of his distress.  His sister got no answer when she called at his Cardiff flat, assuming he had gone to bed, as he had to be in the news studio early the next morning.  Weekes had been due to arrive at work in Cardiff at 5 a.m. on January 18th, as he was scheduled to read the morning news bulletins, but he failed to turn up.  Concerned colleagues called his home, but to no avail.  Later that day, Weekes's dead body was found on Boverton Beach, where he used to play with his children, just two miles from his Llantwit Major home.  An inquest revealed that he had died by drowning after taking an overdose of Temazepam sleeping pills and some alcohol.  There were also rumours that Weekes and his wife had been having marital difficulties.  Huw Weekes was just 43 years old.

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.

Stuart Adamson

William Stuart Adamson - who was born on April 11th, 1958 - was an English-born Scottish rock guitarist and singer, most-famous as the the frontman of the pop-rock band, Big Country.  Born in Manchester, England, to Scottish parents William and Anne (nee Muir), at the age of four Adamson's family relocated to the small mining town of Crossgates (about a mile east of Dunfermline) in Fife, Scotland.  Educated at Beath High School in Cowdenbeath, Adamson formed the Dunfermline band Tattoo in 1976, before creating Skids, who performed in the Edinburgh area, in 1977.  Skids' biggest success was the song Into The Valley which reached number 10 in the U.K. singles chart in March of 1979.  After four charting singles that year, Adamson quit the band in 1980, forming Big Country the following year.  The band's first hit, Fields of Fire, reached number 10 on the U.K. singles chart in 1983, and was also a success in New Zealand and the U.S.  The subsequent album, The Crossing, powered by the single In a Big Country, reached at least the top-20 in North America as well as New Zealand and the U.K.  Big Country's following three albums all reached the top ten in the U.K., although were less-successful abroad.  The band continued recording studio albums and touring until 1999, although with gradually-decreasing record sales.  In November of 1999, Adamson went missing for a time, causing Big Country to have to cancel stadium gigs supporting Bryan Adams on a tour of Scotland.  With his first wife Sandra, Adamson had two children - Callum (born: 1982) and Kirsten (born: 1985) - who both became musicians.  Adamson had struggled with alcoholism in his earlier years, but became sober around 1990.  In 1996, he split with his first wife and moved to Nashville, U.S.A., where, in 1999, he married Melanie Shelley, a hairdresser.  Whilst in the U.S., Adamson founded his final band: an alternative-country duo called The Raphaels with Nashville songwriter Marcus Hummon.  Adamson's alcoholism began returning in the early 2000s, and he had been due to face drink-driving charges in March of 2002, and had been ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous.  On November 26th, 2001, Adamson's second wife reported him missing; the pair had been estranged for six weeks at the time, and his wife had filed for divorce on the day he disappeared.  Adamson disappeared after leaving a note for his son Callum on Wednesday, November 7th, saying, "Back by noon, Sunday."  Appeals were put out for his whereabouts, including by his former Big Country bandmate, Bruce Watson.  The last clue to his location was a credit card transaction record, showing that he had checked out of the Best Western Hotel on Music Row, Nashville, on December 3rd.  On December 16th, 2001, Adamson's dead body was found in a room he had booked into in the Best Western Plaza Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii.  According to a local police report, he had committed suicide by hanging himself with an electrical cord from a pole in a wardrobe.  A subsequent Coroner's Office report found that he had consumed a "very strong" amount of alcohol around the time of his death.  Stuart Adamson was 43 years old.