time

Gary Puckett, of the Union Gap, is 80 today. He's currently touring the UK in a sixties show, Tunbridge Wells tomorrow, still plenty of tickets available!

No idea of its origin, but someone has tagged in all the main players.

Its 30 years since the death of Polish actor Vladek Sheybal. Born in Zgeirz, he began acting at an early age. When Germany invaded, as a member of the Polish underground, he was imprisoned, escaped and was recaptured, twice, by the Nazis but survived to return to acting post-war. He left Poland for Vienna, via Paris, after becoming disillusioned by the Communist regime, but finding little success moved to Britain. He soon found work directing, one production at Oxford University attracting the attention of the BBC, which lead to more work on British TV. His British film debut came with 1963's From Russia With Love, as the chess grandmaster Kronsteen, recommended by Sean Connery. He became a familiar face on TV and cinema screens, often playing Russian/Eastern European 'baddies', or enigmatic, sinister characters. He died suddenly from an aortic aneurysm, aged 69.

US Olympic shotputter, Bill Nieder reportedly dead aged 89. He won Bronze in 1956, and Gold in 1960. He also set three world records, including the first ever put beyond 20 metres. He tried boxing after his track career, but in his first competitive bout was knocked out and immediately quit the sport. Post retirement, he worked for 3M, developing artificial tracks and selling the first ever synthetic Olympic track to the 1968 Olympic organisers. In 2011, it was reported that, aged 77, he helped subdue a passenger attempting to gain access to the cockpit during a flight. Doesn't appear to be a Scavenger hunt pick.

She might suffer some ironic avian catastrophe.

I hadn't heard that before, but strikes me as an updated "spill the beans". There's sources saying it originated in African-American drag culture, and reached mainstream via Ru Paul's Drag Race, where it's not 'tea' but 't', short for truth, and has evolved to, mean gossip. 'Has receipts' I'm OK with as an alternative to 'has evidence' (as in I understand it's meaning but would never seriously use it), for use if something is denied or questioned.

Its 21 years since the death of Peter Doyle, Australian singer, best known in the UK as a member of The New Seekers. After solo success he joined the New Seekers, formed by former Seeker Keith Potger, which was being rejigged after lack of success in it's original incarnation. After a slow start this line-up found success with Never Ending Song of Love, a cover of the Delaney & Bonnie hit, which reached number 2 in the UK. Further success followed with the Coca Cola advertising I'd Like to teach the world to Sing, and Beg Steal or Borrow, the UKs 1972 Eurovision entry, - Doyle became the first Australian to represent any nation in the contest in doing so. He left the New Seekers the following year, apparently dissatisfied with the lack of financial reward, and re-embarked on a sols career, initially in the UK< before returning to Australia. He joined US band Regis in 1982, where he spent 5 years, before once more returning to Australia, working with The Ra,m Band. He began to suffer with ill-health in the 1990s, which curtailed his musical output, and died of throat cancer aged 55.

President of the Mexican Hunting Federation, Mario Alberto Canales Najjar, was killed by a buffalo after he shot it. Karma. Except the buffalo still ended up dead as well.

Its 27 years since the death of British actor Gary Bond. Predominantly a stage actor, after making his debut at Worthing's Connaught aged 23. Major roles soon followed at the Royal Court and Prospect Theatres, as well as the Regent's Park open air theatre. He was the original Joseph, in Rice & Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in Edinburgh, before taking up the role in the West End. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and appeared at the Chichester Festival Theatre and Bristol Old Vic, before teaming up with Rice & Lloyd Webber again, replacing David Essex as Che Guevara in Evita. It was he who suggested his friend Marti Webb as a replacement for Elaine Paige as Evita, when the workload began to take its toll. His third collaboration with Lloyd Webber was in Aspects of Love in 1993, by which time he had been diagnosed HIV positive. Aside from his stage work, he appeared in three feature films, firstly as Private Coe in Zulu (1964), then as Smeaton in Anne of a Thousand Days (1969) and finally as the protagonist John Grant in the critically acclaimed Australian film Wake In Fright (1971), where he was touted as the new/next Peter O'Toole. The film has the rare honour of being screened in two different Cannes Film Festivals (1971 & 2009), with Bond receiving praise both times. He made appearances in many well-known TV shows, e.g. Z Cars, Hart to Hart, No Hiding Place, Bergerac (his last TV role) as well as TV plays and movies. He was openly gay within acting circles, and was the partner of Jeremy Brett for a number of years, and was also reportedly a partner of Ian McKellan early in their respective careers; for the last 16 years of his life he was the partner of American artist EJ Taylor. Bond died aged 55, from AIDS-related conditions, exactly one month after Jeremy Brett.

The late Charlie Watts

and Laurence Harvey's mom mum mother in The Manchurian Candidate, despite being only three years older.

Joss Ackland. Why not.

It's one year since Gillian Cribbins (Mrs. Bernard) died.

Its 29 years since the death of Scottish entertainer Andy Stewart. Stewart decided on a career in the entrainment industry after appearing in the Arbroath Abbey Pageant, aged 16, and embarked on a course to train as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, during which time he won a prize for comedy. He was adept at impersonations, a talent he'd demonstrated as a child, and which would feature in his later career. His novelty hit Donald Where's Your Troosers includes an Elvis Presley impersonation. He's best known as the archetypal Scotsman, as host of The White Heather Club, in the 1950s & '60s, which began as a 'traditional' Hogmanay celebration, before turning into a weekly variety show, initially in Scotland, then nationwide. International recognition followed, as his song A Scottish Soldier became a hit in Canada, Australia & New Zealand (and was also the walk-on music for wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper). Recurrent health problems lead to him retiring in the1970s, undergoing several heart and stomach operations including triple bypass surgery in 1976 and 1991. In 1989, following much promotion by Simon Mayo Donald... was reissued, reaching number 4 in the UK chart. In 1991 Stewart came out of retirement and embarked on a tour and more recording; in 1993 he did Summer Season in Edinburgh and performed at a benefit concert at Usher Hall Edinburgh for Children's Hospice Association Scotland. He died from a heart attack the following day, aged 59.

It's 49 years since the death of Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Born to cotton pickers in Arkansas, she began as a child singing gospel and playing guitar, alongside her mother in a travelling evangelical troupe. She first recorded aged 23, four tracks for Decca Records, their first gospel recordings. One of the tracks, Rock Me, is cited as influencing Elvis Presley, Little Richard & Jerry Lee Lewis. She was ostracised by a segment of the Gospel community for performing in secular settings, such as Harlem's Cotton Club (alongside Cab Calloway); her 1944 recording of Strange Things Happening Every Day is considered by some as the first rock n roll record. In 1970, she suffered a stroke, severely affecting her ability to perform, and had a leg amputated as a result of diabetes. In 1973, on the eve of a scheduled recording session she suffered a further stroke, and died aged 58. She was posthumously inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 as an "early influence".

ftfy.

Betty Boothroyd is 93 today. Once a Tiller Girl, she entered parliament as MP for West Bromwich in a 1973 by-election. She served as Deputy Speaker under Bernard Weatherall from 1987, before being elected speaker in 1992, following Weatherall's retirement. Not only was she the first female speaker, she was also the first to eschew the traditional Speaker's wig. She resigned both her psoition and her seat in August 2000 and was elevated to the House of Lords the following year as Baroness Boothroyd of Sandwell.

Its 40 years since the death of Argentine actor Fernando Lamas. Beginning his career in Argentine he relocated to Hollywood, signing a contract with MGM, playing 'Latin-lover' type roles, and occasional singing roles in musicals. His first starring role was in The Merry Widow, opposite Lana Turner. More leading roles followed opposite Elizabeth Taylor, Rosalind Russell and Esther Williams and more, but never felt he shook off the @latin-lover' tag. He also appeared on Broadway, gaining a Tony nomination for Happy Hunting with Ethel Merman, and on TV with several roles in Jane Wyman Presents and guesting in Shirley Temple's Storybook, and in The Lucy Desi Comedy Hour, before moving to European cinema. Returning to the US, he mainly appeared in guest roles in TV, also directing episodes, including episodes of Falcon Crest starring his son Lorenzo. He was scheduled to appear in short-lived US show Gavilan, playing opposite Patrick Macnee, but was taken ill, with what was diagnosed as pancreatic cancer, of which he later died, aged 67. He was famously lampooned by Billy Crystal, who frequently appeared as him in Saturday Night Live.

Its 29 years since the death of Irish actor Cyril Cusack. He made his debut as a child, but then went through education before joining Dublin's Abbey Theatre, leading to a theatre, film and TV career lasting 60 years. Fluent in both Irish and English, he had a starring role in the first feature film made entirely in the Irish language (Poitín , 1978). He's also the father of the other acting Cusacks, Sinéad, Sorcha, Niamh and Catherine (but not John), and director Padraig. He died aged 82, from motor neurone disease (ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease).

Peter Robinson, creator of Inspector Banks, reported dead aged 72.

AP have also amended her age (as have I).

Judy Tenuta dead, aged 72. (AP)

Its 30 years since the death of British actor Denholm Elliott. A former RADA student, RAF Officer and WWII POW, he had a 40+ year career, encompassing TV and film, winning BAFTAs for Trading Places, A Private Function and Defence of the Realm, gaining four other film nominations plus 2 for TV, as well as an Academy Award nomination for A Room With A View. He was married twice, briefly to Virginia McKenna then to Susan Robinson and was secretly bisexual; e died aged 70, from AIDS-related tuberculosis, five years after being diagnosed HIV-positive.

Lonnie Johnson is 73 today. Born in Mobile, Al, he attended Tuskegee University before joining the Air Force, then working for NASA in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, working on the Galileo project, amongst others. In 1991 he founded his own company Johnson Research and Development Co., Inc. During his time in the Air Force, he had an idea which would generate $1billion in sales - The Super Soaker. This was produced in conjunction with toy company Larami Corp., which would later be taken over by Hasbro. Johnson would later sue Hasbro for underpayment of royalties on sales, being awarded $73million. He would later tweak the design to enable the guns to fire Nerf projectiles rather than water.

Tottenham Hotspur fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone has died suddenly aged 61, from leukaemia.