A final farewell

Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin Leslie Grantham Clockwise from left: Ken Dodd, Burt Reynolds, Roger Bannister, after becoming the first man to run the mile in under four minutes, and the Chuckle Brothers with Barry, front, and Paul, behind Emma Chambers She received an OBE earlier in the year in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to drama and charity.

BBC presenter Rachael Bland also died in September at the age of 40 after a two-year battle with breast cancer.

Her husband Steve wrote on Twitter: “Our beautiful, courageous Rachael died peacefully this morning surrounded by her close family. We are crushed but she would want me to thank everyone who took an interest in her story or sent messages of support.”

Rainbow children’s programme presenter Geoffrey Hayes died in October from pneumonia at the age of 76. He appeared alongside puppets Zippy, George and Bungle in more than 1,000 episodes of the ITV show from 1974 until 1992 and said the secret to Rainbow’s popularity was that it was full of “magic, innocence and imagination”.

French singer Charles Aznavour sold more than 180 million records and enjoyed international success. He died at the age of 94 shortly before a planned tour of France and Switzerland.

Laverne & Shirley actress and the director of hits like Awakenings and A League of Their Own, Penny Marshall died aged 75 this month. And this year we also lost comic book legend Stan Lee who died at the age of 95. The Marvel Comics co-creator was responsible for super heroes like Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk. Hugh Jackman, who played Wolverine in the Marvel film franchise, said simply: “We’ve lost a creative genius.” Margot Kidder and Denis Norden