LIVES IN BRIEF

THIS week: a star of Dixon of Dock Green, a former premier league footballer, and the publisher of the Satanic Verses

THE actor Peter Byrne, pictured, who has died aged 90, was best known as one of the stars of the beloved long-running police drama Dixon of Dock Green. The series, which ran for 21 years from 1955, focused on PC George Dixon, played by Jack Warner, but an ever so slightly harder edge was provided by Byrne as young detective Andy Crawford.

Byrne, who was born in London, had made his name on radio, appearing with the comedian Will Hay, and in repertory theatre, before moving into television. He left Dixon of Dock Green just before the final series in 1975, and later appeared in an episode of the cult science-fiction series Blake’s 7 as a vivisector developing animals to be used as slaves for humans, and had a recurring role in the BBC sit-com Bread. In later years, Byrne was known for directing and appearing in touring productions of Agatha Christies plays. He is survived by his two stepchildren.

THE footballer Jlloyd Samuel, who has died in a car accident aged 37, was a former Aston Villa and Bolton defender. He made 199 appearances for Villa after signing for the club in 1998 and played 83 times for Bolton between 2007 and 2011. He also won two caps for Trinidad and Tobago.

Samuel was born in San Fernando in south-west Trinidad but moved to England as a youngster and represented London Schoolboys teams.

He played youth football for Charlton before joining Villa.

Samuel was capped by England from Under-18 to Under-21 level and was an unused substitute for a senior international against Sweden in 2004.

He attempted to switch international allegiance before Trinidad and Tobago played at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Although his application was rejected by Fifa because he was over 21 at the time, he later represented the country of his birth.

Samuel joined Bolton in 2007 and also had loan spells at Gillingham and Cardiff before ending his playing career in Iran.

THE publisher Peter Mayer, who has died aged 82, was known for innovative and volatile style and for his knack for finding unexpected best-sellers, including million-selling books as Up the Down Staircase and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. He was also known for publishing Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel The Satanic Verses.

Mayer, who was born in London, broke into book publishing in the early 1960s at Avon Books and had an early success with a reprint of Call It Sleep, a coming-of-age novel from the 1930s. Mayer found a copy at the New York Public Library, tracked down the owner of the book’s copyright and, for $2,500, purchased paperback rights for a novel that went on to sell more than a million copies and was praised as a literary classic.

Mayer then had similar success with Up the Down Staircase, Bel Kaufman’s beloved novel about an idealistic school teacher; Thomas A. Harris’ pop psychology favourite I’m OK — You’re OK and Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull. He was an early fan of John Irving and, at Pocket Books, which he joined in 1976, he acquired the paperback for Irving’s breakthrough The World According to Garp.

Mayer went on to serve as chairman CEO of Penguin from 1978 to 1997, and co-founded Overlook Press, which focused on works otherwise overlooked by major publishers.

He was at the centre of the publication Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. After Penguin released the novel in 1988, Muslims burned copies in the street and demonstrated around the world and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a religious decree, or fatwa, calling for the author to be killed. Rushdie was forced into hiding, the novel’s Japanese translator was murdered, and the Italian and Norwegian translators attacked.