/ Stars that died in 2023

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Jia Hongsheng,, Chinese actor, has committed suicide by jumping.from a building he was 43

Jia Hongsheng



Jia Hongsheng (simplified Chinese: 贾宏声; traditional Chinese: 賈宏聲; pinyin: Jiǎ Hóngshēng; ) was a Chinese actor.


Early life

Jia was born 19 March 1967 – 5 July 2010 in Jilin Sipin, near Beijing, China, to Jia Fengsen and Chai Xiuling, both retired theater actors from northeast China. He had a younger sister, Wang Tong.

Life and career

Jia began acting in the late 1980s, and is probably best remembered in the 2001 Chinese drama film, Quitting, a movie that chronicles his life and his story, in which he struggles to overcome drug and alcohol addiction. He also appeared in other Chinese films.


He graduated from the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing in 1989, and soon gained fame in the late 1980s and early 1990s as an actor in films such as The Case of the Silver Snake and A Woman from North Shaanxi. While rehearsing for a stageplay titled Kiss of the Spider Woman (also directed by Zhang Yang) in the fall of 1992, Jia first became exposed to marijuana and eventually became addicted, while also experimenting occasionally with heroin. Then, in 1995, after filming Weekend Lovers, Jia quit acting completely and lived off his younger sister Wang Tong. He was also an avid fan of The Beatles. He listened to their music obsessively and began to fantasize himself as the son of the lead singer, John Lennon.

In late 1995, his parents decided to move to Beijing in order to help their son quit drugs. Wang Tong also came back to live with her parents and brother in the same apartment. Several efforts made by his parents to penetrate their son's inner world were met with indifference, sometimes even hostility. Over time, however, Jia began to open up. He started to take regular walks with his father, usually buying a bottle or two of beer along the way. Jia Fengsen also bought his son cassette tapes by The Beatles.

In early 1996, Jia relapsed after being off drugs for almost six months. On 19 March of that year, after drinking several bottles of beer for the celebration of his twenty-ninth birthday, Jia slapped his father, claiming it was to teach him the "meaning of life". Jia's family was upset by this and felt he needed to be taught a lesson. They contacted the police, and three officers arrived at their house the next day. Jia was taken into custody and sent to a mental institution.

Upon arrival at the institution, after being placed on medication, his condition improved greatly. He also stopped fantasizing and started to see himself as just an ordinary human being. His doctor determined that Jia was not suffering from schizophrenia but recommended that he stay a little longer to sober completely. He was finally discharged on 19 March 1997, his thirtieth birthday.


Death

On 5 July 2010, Jia jumped to death from Building 19, an apartment building at the Anyuan Beili Community in Chaoyang District in Beijing. He was found dead on the trunk of a car around 6:00pm.






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Pete Morgan, British poet. has died he was 71,

Pete Morgan [1] was a British poet, lyricist and TV documentary author and presenter.

(7 July 1939, Leigh – 5 July 2010)

Morgan's career as a poet began in the mid-1950s when he was 16 and living alone in London. He entered the British Army and rose to the rank of infantry platoon commander while serving in West Germany but began to question this career choice. By the mid-1960s he had become a pacifist and resigned his commission.

In 1964 he moved to Edinburgh, where he started to publish his poems and to perform recitals in public.

Born a Lancastrian, he returned to the North of England in 1971, though this time to Yorkshire, to live and work in the fishing village of Robin Hood's Bay.

Over the years he has emphasized the oral tradition of poetry and song. It is no surprise therefore that some of his poems have been set to music and have been recorded by such artists as Al Stewart ("My Enemies Have Sweet Voices" on the 1970 "Zero She Flies" album), The McCalmans and most recently The Levellers. (During his 1999 UK Tour, Al Stewart invited Morgan to read the lyrics as he performed the above song in the City Varieties Theatre show at Leeds on the 7th. of November).

Morgan's BBC Television series - 'A Voyage Between Two Seas', first screened in 1983, presented a journey across Northern England via the region's waterways. His subsequent TV programme 'The Grain Run', told the story of the Roman supply route from East Anglia to the Yorkshire town of Aldborough.

His most recent book of poetry was August Light ISBN 1-904614-23-X, published in 2006.

His output was slim – only five collections and a handful of pamphlets in 40 years – but Pete Morgan's poetry was admired by Carol Ann Duffy, Ted Hughes and George Mackay Brown, among others, for its sophistication, humour and poignancy. Morgan, who has died aged 71, had his first pamphlet published in 1968 by the Kevin Press. Entitled A Big Hat Or What?, its cover featured a photograph of Morgan looking smart, long-limbed and wearing said large hat.

Morgan's work was included in Faber's Poetry: Introduction series in 1971. When his first full-length collection, The Grey Mare Being the Better Steed, was published in 1973, he was hailed by Edna Longley, in the Times Literary Supplement, as "a genuine original". He was also admired by musicians. Al Stewart set his poem My Enemies Have Sweet Voices to music on his 1970 album Zero She Flies. The McCalmans and the Levellers also turned his poems into songs.

Morgan was born in Leigh, Lancashire, the oldest of three children. His father, who died when Morgan was 11, had been in the army and his mother's family ran a laundry business. He attended Normanton school in Derbyshire and left at 16 to move to London, where he pinned his poems to trees on Hampstead Heath in an early attempt to find an audience.

In 1957 Morgan joined the army. He rose to the rank of infantry platoon commander of the Loyal Regiment, but by the mid-1960s had resigned his commission, having become a pacifist. Moving to Edinburgh, he began performing his poems, appearing at the Traverse theatre as part of the Edinburgh festival in 1965. At his early gigs, he read love ballads and protest pieces that matched the mood of the times, but were more nuanced than those of his contemporaries. He married Kate Smith in 1965 and they had two children, Caitlin and Martin.

In the early 1970s Morgan taught creative writing at Lumb Bank, an Arvon writing house in Heptonstall, West Yorkshire, where he encouraged a young Ian McMillan, among others. McMillan later wrote of the encounter: "He was wearing a denim shirt. He was having a glass of wine and we hadn't even had our tea! On that first night the tutors read their work to us students. Pete stood by the fire. He opened his book and then didn't look at it because the poem, it seemed to me, was written on his heart."

He also became a friend of Hughes, and the pair corresponded and shared a mutual respect for each other's work. Morgan presented a series of arts programmes for BBC North as well as the 1983 series A Voyage Between Two Seas, which explored the waterway system between Leeds and Liverpool.

He continued to publish full-length collections: The Spring Collection in 1979, One Greek Alphabet in 1980, and A Winter Visitor in 1983. A Winter Visitor celebrated the Robin Hood's Bay area of North Yorkshire, where Morgan had resided since 1971, captured in these lines from the poem Gouge:

We live where ice

Gouged out an eye

Inching to its own oblivion

and after ice

came stone and rock

a premonition on the face

of what was greening into new

It was his last collection for more than two decades. After suffering a brain tumour in 1984, Morgan was unable to travel and perform. He wrote at home. He relished "a freedom not to have to write, to keep the poems in (my) head", but also regretted that he had not published more and not appeared more regularly on the poetry-reading circuit.

Morgan maintained a line in self-deprecating humour, and had a rich and sonorous voice that worked beautifully in performance.

In 2001 he collaborated with the cellist Tony Moore on Talking Cello, a programme for Radio 4 that featured a number of Morgan's poems. His final full-length collection, August Light, was published in 2005. He also wrote two plays for theatre.

A sold-out concert celebrating his 70th birthday was held at York University last year. The guests included McMillan and Duffy, who said of Morgan: "Pete's the real thing."

He is survived by Kate, Caitlin and Martin.

Colin Peter Morgan, poet, born 7 June 1939; died 5 July 2010


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Bob Probert, , Canadian ice hockey player (Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks), has died of a suspected heart attack.he was 45

Robert A. Probert was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward. Probert played for the National Hockey League's Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks. While a successful player by some measures, including being voted to the 1987–88 Campbell Conference all-star team, Probert was best known for his activities as a fighter and enforcer, as well as being one half of the "Bruise Brothers" with then-Red Wing teammate Joey Kocur, during the late 1980s and early 1990s.Probert was also known for his off-ice antics and legal problems.

(June 5, 1965 – July 5, 2010)



He actively supported young hockey players in the community, and often bought tickets for kids who couldn't afford to go to Red Wings games.

(June 5, 1965 – July 5, 2010)

Prior to playing with the Detroit Red Wings, Probert was with the Brantford Alexanders of the Ontario Hockey League. After being drafted, he spent one more season with the Alexanders before spending his 1984–85 season with both the Hamilton Steelhawks and the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the OHL
[edit] Detroit Red Wings (1985–1994)

Probert was drafted as the 4th pick in the third round (46th overall) in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft, in which the Red Wings also selected Kocur and Steve Yzerman.

During the 1985–86 and 1986–87 seasons, Probert spent the majority of his time with the Red Wings while occasionally playing for their minor league affiliate at the time, the Adirondack Red Wings of the American Hockey League. In the 1985–86 season, he finished third on the team in penalty minutes behind Kocur and Randy Ladouceur, both of whom played more regular season games than Probert. In the 1986–87 season, Probert accumulated only 24 points, but amassed 221 penalty minutes.

The 1987–88 season saw Probert develop his fighting abilities and reputation as a enforcer with 398 penalty minutes. He also tied for third on the team in points with 62 (Petr Klima also had 62 points). That season, Probert played in his only NHL All-Star Game, and he contributed the most points during the Red Wings' playoff run, in which Yzerman missed all but the final three games with a knee injury.

Probert's career hit a snag in 1989 when he was arrested for cocaine possession while crossing the Detroit-Windsor border.U.S. Customs agents at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel found 14 grams of cocaine hidden in Probert's underpants. He served three months in a federal prison in Minnesota, three more months in a halfway house, and was indefinitely suspended from the NHL. The NHL lifted the suspension at the conclusion of his prison term.

When Probert returned to the Red Wings, he was temporarily one of the alternate Captains of the team along with Gerard Gallant. While his penalty minutes remained high, he also averaged 40 points a season. Though during his last season with the Red Wings, he accumulated only 17 points for the team.

At this time, Probert once again got into trouble with the law. On July 15, 1994, he suffered minor injuries when he crashed his motorcycle into a car in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Police determined that his blood alcohol level was approximately triple the legal limit, and that there were also trace amounts of cocaine in his system.At the time of the accident, Probert had been ruled an unrestricted free agent. On July 19, the Red Wings announced that they would not offer him a contract. "This is the end," said senior vice-president Jim Devellano. "[In] my 12 years with the organization ... we've never spent more time on one player and his problems than we have on Probert."
Chicago Blackhawks (1995–2002)

Probert's first season with the Blackhawks was the last in which he accumulated over 40 points in a season. From then on, his points and penalty minutes gradually decreased. While he never returned to the levels of point production he achieved with the Red Wings, he remained a physical force on the ice and continued many long-term rivalries with other enforcers.

Probert also sustained various injuries during his time with the Blackhawks, most notably a torn rotator cuff injury which caused him to miss most of the 1997–98 season. One of the more noteworthy occurrences of his career with Chicago is that he scored the final NHL goal at the historic Maple Leaf Gardens on February 13, 1999.
Fighting

He saw it as his job to protect his teammates, especially Detroit captain Steve Yzerman. In a recent news story, he recalled a time that he sucker-punched enforcer Kevin Maguire of the Buffalo Sabres after Maguire attacked Yzerman. Maguire then unsuccessfully attempted to avoid Probert.

Some significant tilts in Probert's career include:

* Two long fights with Craig Coxe of the Vancouver Canucks in the mid-1980s.
* A career-spanning series of battles with Tie Domi of the New York Rangers, Winnipeg Jets, and Toronto Maple Leafs. One of Probert's memorable confrontations was also the genesis of Tie Domi's now-infamous belt gesture, where he gestured to the crowd as if he had a heavyweight title belt around his waist. Fights afterwards between Domi and Probert were seen in the eyes of many as Probert "regaining the title" from Domi.
* A career-spanning series of fights with longtime enforcer Stu Grimson, including a fight in December 1993 when the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim made their first visit ever to Detroit.
* A memorable fight on December 17, 1993 with former teammate Joey Kocur of the Rangers, during a brawl involving several players from both teams. Probert and Kocur had grabbed the nearest opposing player without realizing who it was, and continued trading punches even after they identified each other. Later on in Probert's career, he would face Kocur a couple more times when he was with the Chicago Blackhawks.
* A fight on February 4, 1994, against Marty McSorley, then of the Pittsburgh Penguins, lasting nearly 100 seconds.

Retirement

After the 2001–02 season, Probert was placed on waivers by the Blackhawks. Because he was not picked up by another team, he was advised that his role with the Blackhawks would be limited, or even relegated to playing in the minor leagues again. On November 16, 2002, Probert opted to "unofficially" retire so that he could join the Blackhawks radio broadcasting team. He had finished fourth on the NHL's all-time list with 3,300 penalty minutes.

His stint with the Blackhawks radio team did not last long. In February 2003, it was reported that Probert went back to rehab. During the 2002–03 offseason, Probert formally announced his retirement.
Post-retirement
Hockey-related appearances

Probert regularly appeared in charity games, spoke at conventions, and conducted youth clinics. His activities as a Red Wings alumnus were somewhat limited by the fact that, due to his criminal history, he required an immigration waiver each time he wanted to cross the border.

On January 2, 2007, Probert appeared along with many other former Red Wings teammates to honor the retiring of Steve Yzerman's number 19 at Joe Louis Arena. He wore his number 24 Red Wings jersey, and helped former teammate Vladimir Konstantinov onto the ice for the ceremony. The Detroit crowd gave him a very warm welcome, which he later said he appreciated. He stayed on to watch the game with Joey Kocur behind the penalty box.

This was noted as a possible reconciliation with the Red Wings organization. Apparently it worked, as Probert became a late addition to a January 27, 2007, Red Wings Alumni game against the Boston Bruins Alumni at Joe Louis Arena. He scored a goal and two assists, though the Red Wings alumni lost the game 8-6.
Probert recently worked on the Mike Myers 2008 film The Love Guru, making a cameo as a hockey player. He commented on the irony of being given jersey number 28 to wear in the film — the same number worn by longtime rival Tie Domi.

In 2009, Probert participated in the Canadian figure skating reality television show Battle of the Blades which features figure skating pairs comprised of male hockey players and female figure skaters competing against other pairs. Probert was partnered with Kristina Lenko.
[edit] Legal problems

On June 4, 2004, Probert was arrested for allegedly parking his BMW sport utility vehicle on the wrong side of the street and entering into an altercation over drugs with bystanders. Several police officers intervened and had to subdue Probert with taser and stun guns. He was later acquitted on all charges related to this incident.

On July 1, 2005, Probert was arrested at his Windsor-area (Lakeshore) home for breach of peace, resisting arrest, and assaulting a police officer. Probert's attorney, Patrick Ducharme, advised the media, "I anticipate he will be pleading not guilty and going to trial." Probert was arrested again on August 23, 2005, at a bar in Tecumseh, Ontario, for violating two conditions of his probation that he not consume alcohol or be in an establishment that serves liquor. He was released after paying a $200 CAD fine. All charges stemming from the arrest on July 1 were eventually dropped.
Death

On July 5, 2010, Probert was boating on Lake Saint Clair, Ontario, with his children, father-in-law, and mother-in-law when he developed what was described as "severe chest pain" and collapsed at approximately 2:00 pm local time. His father-in-law, Dan Parkinson, a Cornwall, Ontario, police chief, attempted CPR to save his life.He was rushed to Windsor Regional Hospital with no vital signs. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead later that afternoon.

Funeral services were held July 9, 2010 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada and attended by several former teammates and opponents, including Dino Ciccarelli, Tie Domi, Gerard Gallant, Doug Gilmour, Stu Grimson, Joey Kocur, Darren McCarty, and Steve Yzerman, as well as Red Wings general manager Ken Holland and owners Mike and Marian Ilitch. Yzerman delivered the eulogy. In recognition of Probert's love of motorcycle riding, his funeral procession was led by a group of 54 motorcyclists, and his casket was transported on a custom-built motorcycle sidecar. Probert is survived by his wife and four children and nephew.








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Cesare Siepi,, Italian opera singer, has died from respiratory failure he was 87

Cesare Siepi was an Italian opera singer has died from respiratory failure he was 87, generally considered to have been one of the finest basses of the post-war period. His voice was characterised by a deep, warm timbre, and a ringing, vibrant upper register. On stage, his tall, striking presence and elegance of phrasing made him a natural Don Giovanni, among his many other roles. He can be seen in that role on video from Salzburg, under the baton of Wilhelm Furtwängler.

(February 10, 1923 – July 5, 2010)

Early career

Born in Milan, he began singing as a member of a madrigal group. He often claimed to have been largely self-taught, having attended the music conservatory in his home city for just a short time. His operatic career was interrupted by World War II. After his debut in 1941 (in Schio, near Venice, as Sparafucile in Rigoletto), Siepi, an opponent of the fascist regime, fled to Switzerland.

After the end of the war his career immediately took off. Success as Zaccaria in Nabucco at La Fenice in Venice was followed by the first of many engagements at La Scala, Milan. His early engagements there were in the Verdi bass roles, the title role in Boito's Mefistofele under Arturo Toscanini, as Colline in La bohème, and in La Gioconda, La favorite, and I puritani.


International success

His international reputation was established in 1950, when Sir Rudolf Bing brought him to the Metropolitan Opera in New York to open the 1950 season as King Philip II in Don Carlos. He was to remain principal bass at the Met until 1974, adding roles such as Boris Godunov (in English) and Gurnemanz in Parsifal (in German), and singing all the major roles of the bass repertoire.

His debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, was in 1950, and he appeared there regularly until the mid 1970s.


In 1953, Siepi debuted at the Salzburg Festival with a legendary production of Don Giovanni conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler, staged by Herbert Graf, and designed by Clemens Holzmeister. He made an immediate impact in the title role of Don Giovanni which became perhaps his best known role, as it had been for the most famous Italian bass of the generation before, Ezio Pinza. This performance has been released on CD, and a 1954 mounting of this production was filmed in color and released in 1955.


Siepi was a frequent guest at the Vienna State Opera. In 43 performances he sang Don Giovanni, more often than any other singer in modern times except for Eberhard Wächter. In 1967 Siepi was Don Giovanni in a controversially received production staged by Otto Schenk and designed by Luciano Damiani that showed Mozart's masterpiece in the light of the commedia dell'arte, emphasizing the comic and ironic elements of this opera (conductor Josef Krips strongly opposed this production's concept). In Vienna he also sang Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Colline (La bohème), Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra), Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Padre Guardian (La forza del destino 1974 in a new production conducted by Riccardo Muti), Gurnemanz (Parsifal), Mephisto (Faust), Filippo II (Don Carlos), and Ramphis (Aida). His final performance at the Vienna State Opera was in Norma (Oroveso) in 1994.

He was a particularly fine recital artist, especially in Community Concerts under Columbia Artist Management, and a sensitive interpreter of German Lieder. He married Met ballerina Luellen Sibley and they had two children.

Siepi enjoyed a long career, and performed regularly until the 1980s, including lead roles in the ill-fated Broadway musicals Bravo Giovanni and Carmelina. In addition to his studio recordings, there are also many live recordings of performances of his major roles.

Siepi's formal farewell to the operatic stage occurred at the Teatro Carani in Sassuolo on 21 April 1989. Indeed, Capon's List shows live recordings made as late as 1988.

Siepi's last studio recording was as the old King Archibaldo in RCA's 1976 taping of Italo Montemezzi's L'amore dei tre re, with Anna Moffo and Plácido Domingo in the cast.

Siepi, a native of Milan, Italy, died at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia on July 5, 2010 after suffering a stroke more than a week earlier.



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Robert Neil Butler American physician, Pulitzer Prize winner (Why Survive? Being Old in America), founder of NIA, leukemia. has died he was , 83

Robert Neil Butler was a physician, gerontologist, psychiatrist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, who was the first director of the National Institute on Aging. Butler is known for his work on the social needs and the rights of the elderly and for his research on healthy aging and the dementias.
(January 21, 1927 – July 4, 2010)

Background

Having grown up with his grandparents, [1] Butler was shocked by the dismissive and contemptuous attitude toward the elderly and their diseases by many of his teachers at medical school, an attitude he later characterised as "ageism." [2]

He graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University, where he was editor of the Columbia Daily Spectator and a member of the Philolexian Society.[3]

Career

Butler was a principal investigator of one of the first interdisciplinary, comprehensive, longitudinal studies of healthy community-residing older persons, conducted at the National Institute of Mental Health (1955-1966), which resulted in the landmark book Human Aging. His research helped establish the fact that senility was not inevitable with aging, but is a consequence of disease.

In 1975, he became the founding Director [4] of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health, where he remained until 1982. At the National Institute on Aging he established Alzheimer's Disease as a national research priority.

In 1982, he founded the Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, the first department of geriatrics in a United States medical school.[5] In addition, Butler helped found the Alzheimer's Disease Association, the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry, the American Federation for Aging Research and the Alliance for Aging Research.[6]

Butler was the founder, Chief Executive Officer, and President of the International Longevity Center-USA, a non-profit international organization created to educate people on how to live longer and better. [7]

Publications

Butler is best known for his 1975 book Why Survive? Being Old In America, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1976.[8] A 2003 paperback edition is currently available (ISBN 0-8018-7425-4). Other recent books by Butler include Aging and Mental Health: Positive Psychosocial and Biomedical Approaches (with Myrna I. Lewis and Trey Sunderland, 1998), Life in an Older America (2001) (ISBN 0-87078-438-2), and The New Love and Sex After 60 (with Myrna I. Lewis, 2002) (ISBN 0-345-44211-3).

Butler authored 300 scientific and medical articles. [9]

Awards

Butler was the recipient of the 10th Annual Heinz Award in the Human Condition category. [10] The award recognized his work in advancing the rights and needs of the nation's aging citizenry and enhancing the quality of life for elderly Americans.[11]

He received honorary degrees from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and the University of Southern California as well as other awards such as the Lienhard Medal of the Institute of Medicine and a Hall of Fame Award from the American Society of Aging. [12]

Film appearance

Butler is featured in the 2009 documentary film, I Remember Better When I Paint,[13]which examines the positive impact of art on people with Alzheimer's disease and how these approaches can change the way the disease is viewed by society.[14]








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Roberto Piva, , Brazilian poet and writer, has died from complications from Parkinson's disease he was 72

Roberto Piva was a Brazilian poet and writer. He died from complications from Parkinson's disease.

(September 25, 1937, São Paulo – July 3, 2010, São Paulo)


Roberto Piva The personal story of the poet Roberto Piva starts and revolves around the city of Sao Paulo. He grew up and graduated from the capital and the ancient estates of the father, in the State of São Paulo.. His first poems were published in 1961, when he was 23. Around this time, she joined the famous Anthology of Novíssimos of Massao Ohno, in which he threw several Brazilian poets beginners, who later developed a poetic work of importance. Piva graduated in sociology. In his classes to teenagers in high school used to work the materials from which the poems was read and interpret. It was a very successful professor with a rare vocation as a teacher. In the 1970s, he became producer of rock concerts. Piva lives in Sao Paulo, a city that looks ominous, example of what should not be done against the environment, but it provided all the background for his poetic work.


Bibliography

Booklet

  • Ode a Fernando Pessoa, 1961

Individual works

  • Paranóia, 1963
  • Piazzas, 1964
  • Abra os olhos e diga ah!, 1975
  • Coxas, 1979
  • 20 Poemas com Brócoli, 1981
  • Antologia Poética, 1985
  • Ciclones, 1997
  • Um Estrangeiro na Legião: obras reunidas, volume 1, 2005
  • Mala na Mão & Asas Pretas: obras reunidas, volume 2, 2006
  • Estranhos Sinais de Saturno: obras reunidas, volume 3, 2008

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Dame Beryl Bainbridge, English novelist (Harriet Said..., An Awfully Big Adventure), has died from cancer.she was , 77

Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge, DBE was an English novelist has died from cancer she was , 77.
(21 November 1932 – 2 July 2010[1][2])


Biography

Bainbridge won the Whitbread Awards prize for best novel in 1977 and 1996; she was nominated five times for the Booker Prize. She was described in 2007 as "a national treasure".[3] In 2008, The Times newspaper named Bainbridge among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".[4]


Beryl Bainbridge was born in Liverpool and raised in nearby Formby. Her parents were Richard Bainbridge and Winifred Baines.[5] Although she gave her date of birth in Who's Who and elsewhere as 21 November 1934, she was actually born in 1932 and her birth was registered in the first quarter of 1933.[6] When German former prisoner of war Harry Arno Franz wrote to her in November 1947, he mentioned her 15th birthday.[7]

She enjoyed writing, and by the age of 10 she was keeping a diary.[7] She had elocution lessons and, when she was 11, appeared on the Northern Children's Hour radio show, alongside Billie Whitelaw and Judith Chalmers. Bainbridge was expelled from Merchant Taylors' Girls' School (Crosby) because she was caught with a "dirty rhyme" (as she later described it), written by someone else, in her gymslip pocket.[8] That summer, she fell in love with a former German POW who was waiting to be repatriated. For the next six years, the couple corresponded and tried to get permission for the German man to return to Britain so that they could be married. But permission was denied and the relationship ended in 1953.[7]

In the following year (1954), Beryl married artist Austin Davies. The two divorced soon after, leaving Bainbridge a single mother of two children. She later had a third child by Alan Sharp, a daughter who is the actress Rudi Davies.[7] In 1958, she attempted suicide by putting her head in a gas oven.[3] Bainbridge spent her early years working as an actress, and she appeared in one 1961 episode of the soap opera Coronation Street playing an anti-nuclear protester.

To help fill her time, Bainbridge began to write, primarily based on incidents from her childhood. Her first novel, Harriet Said..., was rejected by several publishers, one of whom found the central characters "repulsive almost beyond belief". It was eventually published in 1972, four years after her third novel (Another Part of the Wood). Her second and third novels were published (1967/68) and were received well by critics although they failed to earn much money.[8][9] Seven more novels were written and published during the 1970s, of which the fifth, Injury Time, was awarded the Whitbread prize for best novel in 1977.

In the late 1970s, she wrote a screenplay based on her novel Sweet William. The movie Sweet William, starring Sam Waterston, was released in 1979.[10]

From 1980 onwards, eight more novels appeared. The 1989 novel, An Awfully Big Adventure was adapted into a film in 1995 starring Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant.

In the 1990s, Bainbridge turned to historical fiction. These novels continued to be popular with critics, but this time, were also commercially successful.[8] Among her historical fiction novels are Every Man for Himself, about the 1912 Titanic disaster, for which Bainbridge won the 1996 Whitbread Awards prize for best novel, and Master Georgie, set during the Crimean War, for which she won the 1998 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. Her final novel, According to Queeney, is a fictionalized account of the last years of the life of Samuel Johnson as seen through the eyes of Queeney Thrale, eldest daughter of Henry and Hester Thrale; it received wide acclaim.[citation needed]

From the 1990s, Bainbridge also served as a theatre critic for the monthly magazine The Oldie. Her reviews rarely contained negative content, and were usually published after the play had closed.[8]

Honours/Awards

In 2000, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). In June 2001, Bainbridge was awarded an honorary degree by the Open University as Doctor of the University.[citation needed] In 2003, she was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature together with Thom Gunn. In 2005, the British Library acquired many of Bainbridge's private letters and diaries.[7]

Last years

Following what Bainbridge claimed was her 71st birthday (it was in reality her 73rd), her grandson Charlie Russell produced a documentary, Beryl's Last Year, about her life. The documentary detailed her upbringing and her attempts to write a final novel (Dear Brutus, which she decided to leave unfinished); it was broadcast in the United Kingdom on 2 June 2007 on BBC Four.

In 2009, Beryl Bainbridge donated the short story Goodnight Children, Everywhere to Oxfam's Ox-Tales project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the 'Air' collection. Bainbridge was the patron of the People's Book Prize.

Death

Bainbridge died on 2 July 2010, aged 77, in a London hospital after her cancer recurred.[11]

Bibliography

Novels

Short stories

  • Mum and Mr Armitage (1985)
  • Collected Stories (1994)

Non-fiction

  • English Journey (1984)
  • Forever England: North and South (1987)
  • Something Happened Yesterday (1993)
  • Front Row: Evenings at the Theatre (2005)

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Dickey Betts died he was 80

Early Career Forrest Richard Betts was also known as Dickey Betts Betts collaborated with  Duane Allman , introducing melodic twin guitar ha...