OTHERS WHO DIED IN 2012
MARVIN HAMLISCH: Film and stage composer, born on June 2, 1944. He died after a short illness on August 6, 2012, aged 68.
HELEN GURLEY BROWN: Writer and magazine editor, born on February 18, 1922. She died on August 13, 2012, aged 90.
DOMMINTOFF: Prime Minister of Malta, 1971-84, born on August 6, 1916. He died on August 20, 2012, aged 96.
PHYLLIS DILLER: Comedian, born on July 17, 1917. She died on August 20, 2012, aged 95.
NINA BAWDEN, CBE: Author, born on January 19, 1925. She died on August 22, 2012, aged 87.
NEIL ARMSTRONG: Astronaut, born on August 5, 1930. He died on August 25, 2012, aged 82.
MAXBYGRAVES, OBE: Comedian, singer and actor, born on October 16, 1922. He died on September 1, 2012, aged 89.
HALDAVID: Lyricist, born on May 25, 1921. He died on September 1, 2012, aged 91.
CARDINAL CARLO MARIA MARTINI: Archbishop of Milan, 1980 to 2002, born on February 15, 1927. He died on August 31, 2012, aged 85.
ANDYWILLIAMS: Singer, born on December 3, 1927. He died on September 25, 2012, aged 84.
HERBERT LOM: Actor, born on September 11, 1917. He died on September 27, 2012, aged 95.
PROFESSOR ERIC HOBSBAWM, CH: Historian and writer, born on June 9, 1917. He died on October 1, 2012, aged 95.
SYLVIA KRISTEL: Actress, born on September 28, 1952. She died of cancer on October 17, 2012, aged 60.
GEORGEMcGOVERN: United States Democratic politician, born on July 19, 1922. He died on October 21, 2012, aged 90.
HANSWERNERHENZE: Composer, born on July 1, 1926. He died on October 27, 2012, aged 86.
ELLIOTT CARTER: Composer, born on December 11, 1908. He died on November 5, 2012, aged 103.
CLIVE DUNN, OBE: Actor, born on January 9, 1920. He died on November 7, 2012, aged 92.
VALERIE ELIOT: Wife and literary executor of poet T S Eliot, born on August 17, 1926. She died on November 9, 2012, aged 86.
LARRYHAGMAN: Actor, producer and director, born on September 21, 1931. He died on November 23, 2012, aged 81.
OSCAR NIEMEYER: Architect, born on December 15, 1907. He died on December 5, 2012, aged 104.
DAMEELISABETH MURDOCH, AC, DBE: Philanthropist, born on February 8, 1909. She died on December 5, 2012, aged 103.
DAVEBRUBECK: Pianist and composer, born on December 6, 1920. He died on December 5, 2012, aged 91.
SIR PATRICK MOORE, CBE: Astronomer, television presenter and author, born on March 4, 1923. He died on December 9, 2012, aged 89.
RAYBRADBURY: US author, born August 22, 1920. Died June 6, 2012, aged 91.
Ray Bradbury wrote more than 500 works of science fiction. He gained much admiration for his economical prose style that raised the reputation of the genre. His work often contained fearful predictions – such as the bookburning society depicted in his first novel Fahrenheit 451 – and a passionate nostalgia for the safer world of the past.
GITTA SERENY: Investigative journalist and biographer, born in Austria March 13, 1921. Died June 14, 2012, aged 91.
In her articles and books, Gitta Sereny revisited some of the darkest moments of 20thcentury history, and sought explanations for the worst of human behaviour. Subjects of her intensive research and interviewing included the Nazis Albert Speer and Franz Stangl, commandant of the Treblinka death camp, and Mary Bell, who killed two small boys on Tyneside in the 1960s when she was only 11.
MICHAEL WESTMACOTT: British mountaineer, statistician and economist, born April 12, 1925. Died June 20, 2012, aged 87.
As a member of the British team making the historic first ascent of Everest in 1953, Mike Westmacott had the hard but unglamorous task of ensuring safe passage through the most dangerous sections of the mountain. He engineered a tortuously winding route that minimised risk to the porters ferrying loads up the mountain.
NORAEPHRON: US writer and film director, born May 19, 1941. Died June 26, 2012, aged 71.
A well-regarded New York journalist and humorist, Nora Ephron documented the breakup of her marriage to the Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein in the novel Heartburn (1983). She achieved international recognition for her scripts for such films as When Harry Met Sally (1989).
YITZHAK SHAMIR: Prime minister of Israel, 1983-84 and 1986-92, born October 15, 1915. Died June 30, 2012, aged 96.
Shamir, Israel’s long-serving prime minister, was a senior leader of the terrorist Stern Gang before Israel achieved nationhood.
ERNEST BORGNINE: US actor, born January 24, 1917. Died on July 8, 2012, aged 95.
For more than 50 years Borgnine was a dependable character actor, often playing the heavy. He had the title role in Marty (1955), the story of a lonely butcher who finds love with a teacher. The film and Borgnine’s gentle, low-key performance, won critical praise and awards.
MAEVEBINCHY: Irish writer, born May 28, 1940. Died July 30, 2012, aged 72.
Maeve Binchy was the Queen Mumof literature. Her unique, populist quality, analogous perhaps to Jane Austen scripting an episode of Coronation Street, was her ability to open up small, enclosed worlds in which hope, disappointment, despair and banality were embodied in the usually suburban lives of characters whose deepest wish was only to be happy and to find love in an imperfect world.
GOREVIDAL: US author, born October 3, 1925. Died July 31, 2012, aged 86.
A dandy who was an idiosyncratic mixture of radical and conservative, Gore Vidal blended the writing of fiction with politics, literary criticism, television punditry and drawing-room gossip.
SIR BERNARDLOVELL, OBE, FRS: British radio astronomer, born August 31, 1913. Died August 6, 2012, aged 98.
Bernard Lovell led the team that built the radio telescope at Jodrell Bank, near Macclesfield in Cheshire. Construction of the telescope was Lovell’s main task from 1950 until 1957. When completed after a long series of technical and financial problems, it was the world’s largest of its kind.