Cecil Parkinson, who has died aged 84 after suffering from cancer, rose from humble origins to become an archetypal figure of 1980s Conservatism, with a string of ministerial appointments in government.
These culminated in his becoming trade secretary at the start of Margaret Thatcher’s triumphalist second administration, following her landslide, post-Falklands general election victory in 1983.
Legendary singer David Bowie has died at the age of 69 after battling cancer in secret for 18 months.
The star, who released a new album last week, was known as the creator of glam rock and was one of the most successful artists of the 20th century.
A spokesman for Bowie said this morning: 'David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer.
The Motörhead frontman’s reputation as one of rock’s most infamous hell-raisers belied his keen intelligence and interest in social and political issues.
Few musicians have walked the rebel’s walk with as much conviction as the Motörhead frontman Lemmy, who has died aged 70 after a short battle with cancer. Despite his high-profile image as a hell-raiser, Lemmy’s influence as a musician and songwriter should not be underestimated.
Jim Slater was once the most influential figure in the City, and certainly one of the most feared. The godfather of “asset-stripping” – gaining control of a company then selling off its underperforming assets – he made and lost a fortune before reinventing himself as a children’s author. “I don’t deny asset-stripping, though the phrase is used as a smear,” he once said. “If a firm has its assets stripped it means they have not been properly used.”
Born in 1929 in Cheshire, he was brought up in Wembley, north London; his father was a builder. He attended Preston Manor County Grammar School, whose motto is “Duty before rights”. An able maths scholar, he was good at chess and collected stamps. He left school at 16 to train as an accountant, though somewhat half-heartedly. His training was interrupted by two years’ National Service, which proved a transformative experience. “In the Army, I met many no-hopers, going nowhere. It made me realise I must get down to it,” he told Hunter Davies in The Independent in 1992.
Maureen O’Hara, who died on Saturday, was Ireland’s first great Hollywood star and appeared in over 50 films.
Ranked among the world’s most beautiful women, she is best known in Ireland for her role as the headstrong Mary Kate Danaher in The Quiet Man - “the sexiest film ever made” according to the director John Ford.
Omar Sharif, whose surname means "noble" in Arabic, was born on 10 April 1932, as Michel Demetri Chalhoub in Alexandria, Egypt, to a Melkite Greek Catholic family of Syrian-Lebanese descent.
His father, Joseph Chalhoub, was a wealthy merchant of exotic woods who settled in Egypt in the early 20th century, where Omar was born and raised. His mother was a noted society hostess with Egypt's King Farouk a regular visitor, before he was deposed in 1952.
Lisbon's Red Cross Hospital says former First Lady Maria Barroso Soares, whose husband Mario Soares was a two-term head of state has died. She was 90.
After democracy was introduced in 1974, Maria Barroso became a lawmaker while her husband became foreign minister and prime minister.
Daniel Patrick Macnee died a natural death at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, at age 93, with his family at his bedside, according to his son, Rupert.
Macnee was best known for playing the internationally recognized, charmingly elegant, quintessentially English, and slightly mysterious character of John Steed in the 1960s’ British television series, The Avengers.
