Dying Off The Radar

[Spade_Cooley 9,538]

A catch-all thread I've been toying around with for a bit, for when you get stuck down a research hole and find someone of (minor) fame died a few years back with no mention on here, or indeed in the wider media.

 

Anne Sellors, a Sheffield-based drama teacher who shot to viral internet fame due to her IMDB page containing one solitary credit - Woman Who Urinates on Herself in legendary TV movie Threads - died in 2015 aged 63. 

 

Also dying in 2015, this time at the age of 58, Labj Janjua. A journeyman singer for numerous Bollywood movies, a song he recorded for the 1997 film Legalised - "Mundian To Bach Ke" - was remixed by Panjabi MC and rereleased in 2002, going to #1 across the world (#2 in the UK) and selling over 10 million copies. And yet no mention outside of Indian-language entertainment press at the time of his passing.

 

 

[msc 18,479]

Ah, so a place to reference the fact that actor John Carlisle of Omega Factor fame (and one of those "Oh that guy" faces from the 1970s) died in 2011 so far off the radar the only reference was the Equity magazine in late 2014!

 

 

As you can see from his imdb, he managed to die completely off the radar despite the fact he was still acting at the time!

[maryportfuncity 10,654]

53 minutes ago, msc said:

Ah, so a place to reference the fact that actor John Carlisle of Omega Factor fame (and one of those "Oh that guy" faces from the 1970s) died in 2011 so far off the radar the only reference was the Equity magazine in late 2014!

 

 

As you can see from his imdb, he managed to die completely off the radar despite the fact he was still acting at the time!

 

 

What, he was literally acting when he died? 

 

So that would be a heart attack on stage in a subsidized touring production playing a local theatre on a wet Tuesday night, then. 

 

I.e. nobody saw it but once they'd established he was dead the snack sales went up because the paramedics shared a bag of Maltesers. 

[Handrejka 1,904]

Jill Melford, British actress with a fair number of credits in the type of cult show where fans usually note this things died without fanfare nearly two years ago. She was also the daughter of actor Jack Melford and the ex-wife of well renowned actor John Standing so it does seem surprising that there doesn't seem to have been an obituary as far as I can see. I am perfectly willing to accept that I may have missed it though I did search.  

 

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0577657/

 

Stefan Gryff, a definite 'you'll know the face' actor died in 2017 with, I think, only one brief mention on here and no wider recognition.   

 

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0344793/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_4

 

 

Off topic but on the subject of Threads, Victoria O'Keefe was killed in a car accident a few miles away from where I grew up, so she's probably the celeb who died closest where I lived. 

[Toast 16,147]

This has been mentioned in the A Night To Remember  thread, but I don't think we ever found an obit for Jane Downs, who played Sylvia Lightoller in that film and had a long list of TV credits over six decades!  She had also been married to Terence Alexander and Gerald Harper.

 

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0236185/

 

[Phantom 2,534]

Ruby Muhammad died back in 2011.

Despite there being articles about her claiming she was 112, she died with I think a passing reference in an article in the Sacramento Bee. I believe that was only added as an after thought since the writer had not long before conducted an interview with her.

[Toast 16,147]

Jeanne Mockford is another actress with a long TV resumé who never got a decent obit.  Wikipedia resorted to the probate index as a source for her death.

She's probably best remembered as Senna the Soothsayer in "Up Pompeii" ("Woe, woe, and thrice woe!")

 

 

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0595154/

 

Oh, I say!  The video embedding seems to be working again

[msc 18,479]

This thread could be renamed "TV actors from the 60s and 70s" tbh. Another one who went without a single obit or even mention was Derek Smee, TV regular in the 60s in stuff like The Saint, Sherlock Holmes and, yes, Doctor Who as an early victim of the Autons.

 

 

Was a TV and stage regular into this century, here he is in the famous BBC Ghost Watch in 1992:

 

 

Died in 2014, apparently.

 

A good number of TV actors fall this way, despite best efforts by folk to find them and pay proper tribute.

[Cat O'Falk 3,290]

Cathryn Harrison (granddaughter of Sir Rex Harrison and daughter of Noel Harrison) died in late 2018.

 

With 48 credits (many of them multiple appearances) to her on IMDb, the only news of her death seems to be a small mention in the In Memoriam section of Equity Magazine published in Spring 2019, not then available online.

 

Two people picked up on it.

Britmovie comment.

Twitter comment.

 

 

[Cat O'Falk 3,290]

On 17/01/2020 at 13:22, Toast said:

Oh, I say!  The video embedding seems to be working again

 

It looks like it's gone again.  

 

https://youtu.be/22qZQaBhKYI

 

[Spade_Cooley 9,538]

Those with even a base interest in the weird side of video games should be aware of the legendary Action 52 cartridge, widely regarded as one of the worst video games of all time. The guy who was behind it - Vince Perri - had no history in video games before or after, so perhaps it's unsurprising his death went unnoticed by pretty much everyone in 2012.

[msc 18,479]

Someone I should have noticed died in 2015 but I didn't, and they didn't get a mention on here was Tales of the Riverbank creator Dave Ellison. Just remembered that show there and thought to myself "the guy who came up with it was doing TV interviews a few years back, I wonder if he's still about." The answer is no.

 

 

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,219]

8 minutes ago, msc said:

Someone I should have noticed died in 2015 but I didn't, and they didn't get a mention on here was Tales of the Riverbank creator Dave Ellison. Just remembered that show there and thought to myself "the guy who came up with it was doing TV interviews a few years back, I wonder if he's still about." The answer is no.

 

 

Christ!

I saw that screen shot before I read the text and thought that Hammy Hamster had died!

[msc 18,479]

19 minutes ago, Lord Fellatio Nelson said:

Christ!

I saw that screen shot before I read the text and thought that Hammy Hamster had died!

 

FFS, what'd you take me for, someone who goes round telling little kids the truth about Santa?

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,219]

20 hours ago, msc said:

 

FFS, what'd you take me for, someone who goes round telling little kids the truth about Santa?

What? Santas dead too?

[Pedro67 232]

Santa is/was a hamster ?

[Spade_Cooley 9,538]

The "deceased 2000s top 10 singles" thread has revealed that a member of Simply Red died in 2017 with not a single mention of his death in any press. John Johnson, saxophone player for the group between 1998 and 2008.

[Sir Creep 7,070]

14 hours ago, Spade_Cooley said:

The "deceased 2000s top 10 singles" thread has revealed that a member of Simply Red died in 2017 with not a single mention of his death in any press. John Johnson, saxophone player for the group between 1998 and 2008.

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/jan/08/former-seattle-supersonics-player-john-johnson-die/p

[Handrejka 1,904]

I have never heard of her, or them, but it seems Alex Taylor of The Shop Assistants died in 2005 and it's only just been reported. 

 

https://www.backseatmafia.com/news-shop-assistants-singer-reported-to-have-died/

[harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy 1,689]

8 hours ago, Handrejka said:

I have never heard of her, or them, but it seems Alex Taylor of The Shop Assistants died in 2005 and it's only just been reported. 

 

https://www.backseatmafia.com/news-shop-assistants-singer-reported-to-have-died/

 

Stereotyping I know, but knowing that Glasgow 80s scene it's likely either drugs or suicide. A shame, she/they were a nice little band,  like a less upwardly mobile Primitives. Saw them support JAMC in the searched-for-knives-on-the-door days. 

[Handrejka 1,904]

1 minute ago, harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy said:

 

Stereotyping I know, but knowing that Glasgow 80s scene it's likely either drugs or suicide. A shame, she/they were a nice little band,  like a less upwardly mobile Primitives. Saw them support JAMC in the searched-for-knives-on-the-door days. 

 

Heart attack I think I read somewhere, though that could have been caused by drugs. 

[Spade_Cooley 9,538]

Thought I knew the name and yeah, this is why: Motorcycle Boy got an NME cover in the late 80s because another story got spiked at the very very last minute.

 

[harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy 1,689]

27 minutes ago, Handrejka said:

 

Heart attack I think I read somewhere, though that could have been caused by drugs. 

 

Actually, my bad, they were from down the M8, but the two indie scenes cross-polinated and, as Trainspotting was pretty indicative of 80s Edinburgh, I'd not be surprised if drugs were involved. But let's hope not.

[philheybrookbay 439]

Just watching the reruns of Take the High Road on STV and we've got to the first appearance of actor William Armour back in 1981 playing the regular character Hamish McNeil.

 

But he clearly died off the radar under his real name back in 2017. 

[TheKeysOfMarinus 390]

As noted in the Doctor Who thread, a recent one was Philip Latham who's death was announced by his family in the Telegraph announcements. A regular face in British film and TV between the 50s and 80s, sometimes as a lead - Danger Man, The Saint, The Avengers, Dracula Prince of Darkness, The Pallisers, The Cedar Tree, The Professionals, Lord President Borusa in The Five Doctors. He didn't get a single obit AFAIK. Toby Hadoke didn't even do a tweet for him.