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People You Thought Were Dead

blessmycottonsocks said:
Just a shame for him that impressionists have fallen out of fashion.
He was a very entertaining comedian and I hope he's enjoying his long and well-earned retirement.
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Just checked Mike Yarwood's Wiki entry and was sorry to see he has been treated for depression and is now in a nursing home.

Another of his contemporaries was Scottish impressionist Stanley Baxter, who is still with us aged 97, but his wiki account reports that he too had his personal problems.

So many talented funny guys seem to have been hiding a far-from-funny side to their persona.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
Just checked Mike Yarwood's Wiki entry and was sorry to see he has been treated for depression and is now in a nursing home.

Another of his contemporaries was Scottish impressionist Stanley Baxter, who is still with us aged 97, but his wiki account reports that he too had his personal problems.

So many talented funny guys seem to have been hiding a far-from-funny side to their persona.
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Surprised to hear that Stanley Baxter is still alive. Sad that they are having problems late in life but that's old age I guess.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
Just checked Mike Yarwood's Wiki entry and was sorry to see he has been treated for depression and is now in a nursing home.

Another of his contemporaries was Scottish impressionist Stanley Baxter, who is still with us aged 97, but his wiki account reports that he too had his personal problems.

So many talented funny guys seem to have been hiding a far-from-funny side to their persona.
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Yarwood did well with the impressions when the main players were all male. This changed, and Yarwood couldn't get as much work. He turned to drink.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
Just a shame for him that impressionists have fallen out of fashion.
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I expect it's more the case that, as for the majority of impressionists, the people they mimic have fallen out of the spotlight of celebrity or notoriousness.
Also the well-known politicians that get lampooned are very much 'here today, gone tomorrow'.
The world moves on.
If an impressionist doesn't keep up with the times then their act is no longer relevant.
Who remembers 'Stella Street' which dealt with impressions of people after they had been popular?
 
Trevp666 said:
I expect it's more the case that, as for the majority of impressionists, the people they mimic have fallen out of the spotlight of celebrity or notoriousness.
Also the well-known politicians that get lampooned are very much 'here today, gone tomorrow'.
The world moves on.
If an impressionist doesn't keep up with the times then their act is no longer relevant.
Who remembers 'Stella Street' which dealt with impressions of people after they had been popular?
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These two were brilliant.
 
escargot said:
Yarwood did well with the impressions when the main players were all male. This changed, and Yarwood couldn't get as much work. He turned to drink.
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He was a huge TV star in the 70's and early 80s my parents used to watch his show, then he just kind of disappeared which I always found strange

A precursor I guess to the throwaway celerity culture we have nowadays
 
With all the news about the Titan tragedy, the news channels have been full of experts discussing the matter and I was surprised to see underwater explorer Bob Ballard being interviewed. I was sure he'd died a couple of years back.
 
Erinaceus said:
I only really remember him doing Harold Wilson, so once he died the work probably dried up.
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Yarwood was on a chat show where Wilson turned up to surprise him. (Yeah, course. ;))

Wilson smoked a pipe and when he lit it, he'd sort of roll his eyes upwards. Yarwood had this mannerism off to a T so when Wilson lit up on the show Yarwood was about half a second behind him with it. The audience were screaming with laughter.

Two points about Wilson are relevant here.

One is that he carried the pipe to light when he needed a short pause to think.

The other is that he was very astute about the use of the media and especially TV in getting his message across. He knew that being gently mocked on a national entertainment show did his image no harm at all.
 
It's fair to mention that Harold Wilson was one of only four Prime Minsters that have won four general elections.
(The others being Robert Walpole, Lord Liverpool, William Ewart Gladstone.)
When he resigned in 1976 it is likely that he already knew of his early stages of Alzheimer's that he eventually died with in 1995, age 79.

Politics aside (of course) reading about his life, achievements, rumoured conspiracies and plots, failed TV career, etc, is fascinating.

And I had thought he carked it much earlier than the 1995 that he did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Wilson
 
With regard to Mike Yarwood, he appeared on a show with Bob Monkhouse which was films in front of an audience of new and upcoming comedians of the time (was filmed in 2003, so not exactly new).

Both open up about mental and physical issues, and Yarwood addresses his absence from the scene.

Interesting and entertaining if you've got an hour to spare.

 
BaronHardacre said:
With regard to Mike Yarwood, he appeared on a show with Bob Monkhouse which was films in front of an audience of new and upcoming comedians of the time (was filmed in 2003, so not exactly new).

Both open up about mental and physical issues, and Yarwood addresses his absence from the scene.

Interesting and entertaining if you've got an hour to spare.

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My mate John was friendly with both Bob Monkhouse and Mike Yarwood. Apparently Bob Monkhouse was pretty much the only stage comedian who didn't drink himself almost comatose every night. How any of them are still alive at all is surprising, according to John.

He told me one scurrilous story about a comedian who turned up so drunk to a performance that they had to tell the audience he'd been held up by fog whilst desperately trying backstage to get him sober enough to go on.
 
catseye said:
one scurrilous story about a comedian who turned up so drunk etc
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Was it this lad?
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There was a story about Peter O'Toole getting very drunk one lunchtime and insisting he took a friend to a matinee performance of some play. At one point O'Toole leaned across to his friend and said: "This bit's good, this is where I come on and ...Oh F**k!
 
So, various comments online about Elton John's farewell (?) gig at Glastonbury. He had a number of guests singing along with him. A number of comments saying why wasn't Kiki Dee there? Because she died at the end of last year thinks I confidently. Apparent not. Still alive aged 74. I was so sure...
 
gordonrutter said:
So, various comments online about Elton John's farewell (?) gig at Glastonbury. He had a number of guests singing along with him. A number of comments saying why wasn't Kiki Dee there? Because she died at the end of last year thinks I confidently. Apparent not. Still alive aged 74. I was so sure...
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I wonder if we, or I at least, get similar looking people mixed up and that's where the confusion lies.

For example, I'm thinking that maybe I thought Robbie Robertson (The Band) had died, when it was actually Lou Reed.

Maybe over the months and years we retain a picture in our minds of (in my case Lou Reed) but over time memory fades and we remember the photo but not the headline and then the dead person's image that we saw in the newpaper/internet morphs into someone else. ?
 
gordonrutter said:
So, various comments online about Elton John's farewell (?) gig at Glastonbury. He had a number of guests singing along with him. A number of comments saying why wasn't Kiki Dee there? Because she died at the end of last year thinks I confidently. Apparent not. Still alive aged 74. I was so sure...
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She was in the news a little while back, not sure why and I remember thinking that I'd not heard of her for years. Maybe it was that you saw and assumed it was an obit?
 
The other day I was perusing the tabloid headlines while waiting at the grocery checkout with a friend. One announced "Kevin Costner's Wife Runs Off With His Best Friend!" and I remarked that "run off with" seems a bit unfair, considering that Costner's been dead for so many years. My friend looked at me in puzzlement and said, "Costner is dead???" And of course, he is not, but for a moment there I'd been sure he'd died back in the 90's.
 
Ulalume said:
The other day I was perusing the tabloid headlines while waiting at the grocery checkout with a friend. One announced "Kevin Costner's Wife Runs Off With His Best Friend!" and I remarked that "run off with" seems a bit unfair, considering that Costner's been dead for so many years. My friend looked at me in puzzlement and said, "Costner is dead???" And of course, he is not, but for a moment there I'd been sure he'd died back in the 90's.
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His talent died back in the 90s.
 
Frankly, there are some actors or musicians who want to 'die in harness'. Fair play to them.
There are others that would rather go out 'on a high' rather than beg for parts and 'stay relevent'.
If you've earned enough money to retire comfortably then good for you. Do it if you can.
Some performers carry on, with the same skills and 'fire' that they have always had. Excellent!
But many performers who might retire, cannot let something go. They take on projects that, really, are silly and do not reflect well on the performer.
 
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