... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... WILLY COTTRELL Willy Cottrell, a multi-talented British circus and variety performer, died on May 1, follow ing a long illness, at the age of 75. He was a much-liked member of the circus profession, and his funeral in Rhyl, North Wales, was attended by members of the Roberts, Chipperfield, Rosaire and Cottle circus families. Members of the Cottrell family went with Harmston's Circus to the Far ...

... Doris Hare Few actresses can have boasted a 90 year career in the entertain ment business without having a week out of work, but Doris Hare, who died at Denville Hall on May 29 aged 95. was the notable exception. With her broad range she encompassed every thing from spells at the National Theatre and RSC to revue, films. cabaret and. most memorably to television viewers, in the role of Reg ...

... ROBERT DUNBAR Film producer and writer Robert Dunbar, who died recently aged 85, turned down the opportunity of a university education in favour of an apprenticeship in the film industry when British cinema was already a world force. Bom in Gravesend, Kent, on June 6, 1914, Dunbar was educated at Bryanston School, and on joining Gaumont-British was seconded to Germany as general assistant on a ...

... SHAY GORMAN Dublin actor Shay Gorman has died in London aged 76. Gorman, of Dorset Street, Dublin, started his career at the Gate Theatre. In the forties, he toured the USA with the Dublin Players, and later travelled to Australia with the Old Vic Company. His television credits include dramas The Manageress and Boys from the Black Stuff and, more recently, the Channel 4 cult comedy Father Ted ...

... JOHN ABINERI After a courageous and good- humoured struggle against motor neurone disease, my father actor John Abineri died on June 29. Born on May 18, 1928, John had a long career, spanning five decades. After his National Service in the Army, during which he ran three theatres rehabilitating servicemen who had been in the theatrical profession, he studied acting at the Old Vic theatre ...

... MOLLY SOLE Molly Sole, who was known as Macclesfield's First Lady of the Theatre, died recently aged 85. Throughout her long career she was much admired for her admin istration skills, as well as her industry, loyalty and warm-hearted good humour and optimism. In addition to her regular duties, she also co-authored a book enti tled To Church on Sunday, and contributed stories to BBC Radio's ...

... WALTER SPARROW Versatile actor Walter Sparrow, who worked constantly on stage, film and television, died recently aged 73. From compering shows in small London clubs, he rose to give acclaimed performances at the National Theatre and in Hollywood movies. Born in Eltham, London, on January 22, 1927, Sparrow drifted into the business by doing stand- up routines several nights a week before ...

... JACK THOMSON Jack Thomson, who died recently in St Columba's Hospice in Edinburgh, had a long and varied career, not all of it in the theatre; though he always thought of him self as a theatre man. After working at Perth Theatre, he moved on to Stratford-upon Avon, to work as a stage manager, which is where I first met him in the summer of 1952. By 1954 he had moved to London, and was in the ...

... DANNY ARNOLD 'Sheriff' Danny Arnold, known for his 14 summer seasons at the Golden Garter Saloon, Cliftonville, and later for four seasons with Cowtown USA at Great Yarmouth, has died a few weeks before his 81st birthday. He was bom on July 18, 1919 in Penetanguishene, a tiny town in Simcoe County, Ontario, the oldest of four children, three of them being still alive. A churchgoer from ...