Tributes to ‘total professional’ DesO’Connor
JEWISH COMEDIAN, singer and TV host Des O’Connor died aged 88 last weekend.
The entertainer, born in East London in 1932 to a Jewish mother and Irish father,jokedinhis2001memoir Bananas Can’t Fly that he’d inherited “the chutzpah of the Jews and the blarney of the Irish”.
Mr O’Connor’s agent, Pat Lake-Smith, paid tribute to the “ultimate entertainer” who was “talented, fun, positive, enthusiastic, kind and a total professional.
“He loved life, and considered enthusiasmalmostasimportantasoxygen.He adoredhisfamily—theywereeverything to him,” she added.
He launched his career in 1963 with The Des O’Connor Show and went on to front primetime programmes for more than 45 years.
Heinterviewedthelikesof RobbieWil
liams, Whitney Houston, Frank Sinatra, theBeatles,BarbraStreisand,RobertRedford and Sean Connery.
He hosted staples of British television such as Des O’Connor Tonight, Channel 4’s game-show Countdown and Today With Des and Mel with his co-host Melanie Syke.
In Bananas Can’t Fly Mr O’Connor explained that both of his parents were halachically Jewish: His paternal grandfatherhadcometoEnglandfromCorkin Irelandandmarried CatherineBarrs,the daughter of an East End Orthodox Jewish family. “In 1909, my dad must have been one of the few O’Connors to be bar mitzvahed. He always used to joke that he went to school at St. Cohen’s.”
Mr O’Connor, whose singing career sawhimsell16millionrecords,recorded hitssuchas CarelessHands and Noonebut You. HewasawardedaCBEbytheQueen in 2008. He is survived by his wife Jodie, their son Adam and his four daughters, Karin, TJ, Samantha and Kristina.