Recent necrology, December 2014

Some well-known people who have died recently

  • Joe Cocker, 1944-2014
    English rock and blues singer known for his gritty voice and his spasmodic body movement in performance
  • Leslie Dew, 1930-2014
    Christchurch transport historian and author
  • Kent Haruf, 1943-2014
    American novelist whose spare prose gave life to quiet human drama in the fictional town of Holt
  • Cover of PlainsongMichael Kennedy, 1926-2014
    Northern Editor of the Daily Telegraph who became a highly-renowned music critic and biographer of Elgar and Vaughan Williams
  • Virna Lisi, 1936-2014
    Italian actress who abandoned a promising Hollywood career to pursue more challenging roles in Europe
  • Lydia Mordkovitch, 1944-2014
    Russian violinist who made her name in Britain by drawing out the darker side of 20th-century composers
  • Cover of Anthem for Doomed YouthIvor Richardson, 1930-2014
    Eminent New Zealand jurist, legal writer and member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
  • Jon Stallworthy, 1935-2014
    Poet and literary scholar whose biography of Wilfred Owen shaped public understanding of the First World War
  • Jean Watson, 1933-2014
    New Zealand author and humanitarian, whose charitable work in India was recently featured in the documentary Aunty and the Star People
  • Billie Whitelaw, 1932-1014
    Actress and muse of playwright Samuel Beckett who terrified as the hellish nanny of The Omen