... THELMA WHITELEY A dedicated and versatile actress of great truth, Thelma Whiteley's powerful personality was always apparent in her performances. She was born in Luton, Befordshire on September 29, 1934 and moved to America with her parents as a child. On her return to Britain she trained at RADA, where she was an out standing student and gave amaz ingly mature performances as Madame ...

... JUNE BRAE Near-contemporary of Margot Fonteyn and one of Britain's first home-grown ballerinas, June Brae has died at the age of 82. Bom in Ringwood, Hampshire, June Bear, as she then was, was taken to Shanghai as a child. It was there, oddly enough, that she first met Fonteyn, a fellow student in classes run by Russian emigre George Gontcharov. Fonteyn often paid tribute to Brae (she changed ...

... ANN HOOD Soprano and mezzo soprano Ann Hood, who died on February 3, was bom in Lancashire. She received her musical training at the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied under Dame Eva Turner and won the Isabel Jay Award. Guest artist at Covent Garden between 1961 and 1963 during which time she sang one of the Genii in The Magic Flute under Otto Klemperer she joined D'Oyly Carte as a ...

... PATRICK BEDFORD Dublin-born actor Patrick Bedford, known as Paddy, has died in New York, aged 67. He had been mainly living in that city since he went to Broadway with the Brian Friel play Philadelphia, Here I Come! in 1966. He started out as an amateur actor in the Father Matthew Hall and the Peacock Theatre, taking his first professional role in Hilton Edwards and Micheal MacLiammoir's ...

... IVAN SHAKESPEARE Ivan Shakespeare was a good writer and a good man. He was kind, generous and unfailingly gracious. His death at the age of 47, from a heart attack, while out jogging, is a great loss. He shared his advice, his contacts and his time as freely as he shared his money for the next round in his local, The Yorkshire Grey, and though he was self- effacing about his own work, he had ...

... MIKE HOBMAN Mike Hobman spent most of his adult life working in, and devoting himself to, the theatre. A jack of all trades and master of many, Mike had more than 30 years experience ranging from teaching drama, to stage management, through to being a tour director and director of productions. Often seen as dogmatic and stubborn in his professional life, the private Mike was extremely r caring ...

... LORD KITCHENER Lord Kitchener, who has died in his native Trinidad aged 77, was a popular figure on the London nightclub scene in the fifties and sixties. He was seldom a starring attraction, more often playing and singing atmospheric background music with a small group. Yet he deserves to be remembered as a true pioneer of calypso in this country. A lilting and often witty musical form which ...

... JULIE MORTON Bom Julie Mellon in baling in 1943, she attended the Pamela Howard School for Dancing at the age of six and aged 11 won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dancing. She graduated to the Royal Ballet Upper School, and at the end of her training, after appearing in various productions, she joined the famous FoWe-Rols company on tour around the UK. It was in this company that I ...

... JAYNE SNOW The actress Jayne Snow has died in Dublin, aged 47. Bom in Solihull, she was educated in Cornwall and grad uated from the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Soon afterwards she met her Irish husband, Brian Snow, and moved with him to Dublin, after spending brief stints in Saudi Arabia and Britain. In Dublin she trained under Deirdre 0'Connell at the Focus Theatre and went ...

... REGINALD JESSUP An actor for over 50 years, Reginald Jessup collapsed and died on February 1 after suffering a heart attack outside the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Jessup did his National Service with the Parachute Regiment and trained as an actor at the Old Vic School. Never a star name, he nevertheless had an interesting and varied career, having two years with the Royal Shakespeare ...

... Willie Ross North east comic and actor Willie Ross has died, aged 61. Willie was a well-known face on television and stage. He formed half of the successful act Lambert and Ross, who split up after two decades in 1988. They toured the northern club circuit, playing cabaret clubs and summer sea sons at the major holiday resorts as well as appearing at Bromley and the London Palladium and ...

... ELAINE BARON Known as the baroness, tiaine Baron collapsed and died in Australia on February 17. From the sixties onwards, she spent at least six months a year in London, working for agents and casting directors and occasionally taking full-time employment. But she preferred temporary assignments and to divide her time between her homeland and her adopted country. Tiny, elegant and always ...