... NICHOLAS BARNES With the sudden death of Nicholas Bames on December 5, entertainment in the west Midlands has been robbed of a unique personality. He was an outstanding singer and actor, a superb dancer and choreographer, a costume designer of high merit and a director of consummate skill. Bom into a theatrical environ ment on May 2, 1960 his mother being the actress Davina Barnes (nee Hannon) ...

... Peter Jeffrey Peter Jeffrey, who died at the age of 70 on Christmas Day, might well have been called one of the most successful actors in Britain, although many may not have been prepared to put a name to his face. The fact is, however, that he was seldom out of work during a career that spanned nearly 50 years, being as adept in modern plays as he was in the classics and as equally at home on ...

... JILL CRAIGIE Pioneenng film director, screen writer and producer Jill Craigie has died aged 85. She was the first woman director to make a real impression in the British film industry with Out of Chaos (1943), a documentary about modem art which featured Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland, and The Way We Live (1946), an account of the problems being encountered in the rebuilding of the city of ...

... TONY BOYD Portly and gravel-voiced, Tony Boyd, who died suddenly on December 21 aged 51, was one of the most eccentric characters in London's theatreland. A showman and agent who grew up in the business, he would have been at home in the pages of a Damon Runyon short story, holding court in nightclubs, backstage and smoky bars populated by journalists and out of work actors. Boyd knew showbiz ...

... MIKE MCKENZIE For many years one of the best- known personalities in West End nightlife, Mike McKenzie has died at the age of 77. McKenzie was London's only rival to the great New York pianist/entertainers like Bobby Short, sharing Short's expansive personality and enor mous repertoire of popular songs from the twenties to the sixties. Bom in Georgetown in the former British Guiana, McKenzie ...

... AL SEALEY Al Sealey, who died suddenly on December 16, was one half of the successful singing duo Cosmotheka, a Midlands-based act familiar to BBC Radio 2 listen ers. Along with his brother Dave, Al had a warmth and charm that made the duo which specialised in folk songs, music hall and showbiz standards popular with older audiences. Throughout the eighties and nineties they were seen in many ...

... MARJORIE ANDERSON Much loved and respected broadcaster Maijorie Anderson, who was partly responsible for the early success of BBC Radio's Woman's Hour, has died at the age of 86. Bom in Kensington, London, Anderson was educated in Felixstowe before training under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art. She was later awarded the London University Diploma. There ...

... JIMMY BLUE One of Scotland's best-known musicians and bandleaders. Jimmy Blue, died recently at Perth, aged 70. He broadcast on radio and television and appeared in theatres throughout Britain as well as overseas. Very popular, he had a long association with the late Scottish singer and comedy performer Andy Stewart, working with him in recorc4>reaking seasons at the Glasgow Empire in the ...

... BENNY PALMER Theatrical agent Benny Palmer, who died on December 25, was one of the busiest members of his profession. At the height of his success, he had more than 100 artists on his books all of whom worked regularly. Based at Hornchurch, in Essex, Palmer had the somewhat bizarre nickname King of the Stags, and it was in the raunchy and male-dominated nightclub world that he reigned supreme ...

... Tony Doyle He was at the peak of his career, winning plaudits and awards on both sides of the Irish Sea. But Tony Doyle acknowledged his acclaim with wry, self-effacing humour. Some 30 years in the busi ness, and after collecting his latest award at a ceremony in Dublin some months ago, he said: I feel like a very old racehorse who has suddenly found himself on his feet so long that he starts ...

... DOROTHY JOAN NESBITT DAVEY Following a short illness, Dorothy Joan Nesbitt Davey, also known as both Carol Davey and Carol Gray, has died at the age of 72. Bom in 1927, she was the first incubator baby to survive at Birmingham Hospital. By the age of four, she was performing cabaret dance spots in Beetle under the name of Little Joan. At nine, she guested with Hughie Green's touring Children's ...

... JACK LE WHITE One of the most versatile of all performers in the heyday of variety, Jack Le White died on December 21, two weeks before his 88th birthday. He had lived in a nursing home for the last four years of his life. Le White was a member of a great circus family, the Whiteleys, being taught the business by his father Henry and making his debut in variety at the age of eight. By the time ...