A jobbing actor. Born in Chaucer Road, Bedford, he decided to follow his father and grandfather into the legal profession until the age of 23 when a change of heart led him to acting. From his comfortable middle-class upbringing he began to earn less than £5 a week in repertory after training at the Fay Compton Studio of Dramatic Art. He took his mother’s maiden name as his stage name. In 1939 he married blonde impresario June Melville in Highgate. At the outbreak of war he became an air raid warden in Victoria based in Dolphin Square, before he was called up and sent to India. The war wrecked his marriage. In 1947 he met actress Hattie Jacques, who was to become his second wife in April 1952 in Kensington Registry Office. The following year he made his film début in Death In The Hand (1948) as Jack Mottram. It was to be the first of well over 100 films, encompassing everything from comedy to drama to police thrillers to sex films. He appeared in Old Mother Riley’s New Venture (1949) as Karl, A Matter Of Murder (1949) as Ginter, Mother Riley Meets The Vampire (1952), Dangerous Cargo (1954) as Luigi, The Baby And The Battleship (1956), The Good Companions (1957) as Monte Mortimer, Law And Disorder (1958) as Sir Humphrey Pomfret, I Was Monty’s Double (1958), Jack The Ripper (1959) as Dr Tranter, I’m All Right Jack (1959) as Waters, Carlton-Browne Of The F.O. (1959) as Grand Duke Alexis, The Hound Of The Baskervilles as Barrymore, Ben-Hur (1959), School For Scoundrels (1960), The Day They Robbed The Bank Of England as Green, The Bulldog Breed (1960), Doctor In Love (1960) as Dr Mincing, The Rebel (1961), The Pure Hell Of St Trinian’s (1961), The Wrong Arm Of The Law (1962), The Punch And Judy Man (1963), The Pink Panther (1963), The Early Bird (1965) as Colonel Foster, Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines, Or How I Flew From London To Paris In 25 hours 11 Minutes (1965), Casino Royale (1967), The Italian Job (1969), Doctor In Trouble (1970), Au Pair Girls (1972) as Mr Wainwright, The Alf Garnett Saga (1972), Confessions Of A Window Cleaner (1974) as Inspector Radlett, Barry Mackenzie Holds His Own (1974) as Robert Crowther, The Adventure Of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother (1975) as Lord Redcliff, What’s Up Nurse! (1977) as Mr Ogden, Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers (1977) as Colonel Bromley-Pickering, Jabberwocky (1977) as Chamberlain, Rosie Dixon – Night Nurse (1978) as Sir Archibald MacGregor, Who Is Killing The Great Chefs Of Europe? (1978) as Dr Deere and The Fiendish Plot Of Dr Fu Manchu (1980) as Perkins. His marriage to Hattie failed and they parted on very good terms, divorcing in December 1965. In Fulham Town Hall on March 2, 1966, he married Oldham-born Joan Malin, who had been married to the actor Mark Eden (Alan Bradley in Coronation Street) although they went through a separation when she had an affair with his best friend, Tony Hancock. It was his portrayal of the charming Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the BBC sitcom Dad’s Army that brought Le Mesurier his greatest fame. The casting of Arthur Lowe as the pompous lower-middle-class Captain Mainwaring and Le Mesurier as his long-suffering upper-class NCO was inspirational. It was also a joke that BBC boss Huw Weldon failed to appreciate when he first met the cast. He assumed that Le Mesurier was Mainwaring and Lowe Wilson, and that was the original intention until the writers saw the comic potential in reversing the casting. Kind, caring and considerate, John Le Mesurier had time for everyone as long as they were not boring.
CAUSE: In 1977 he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. On July 5, 1983, he began haemorrhaging and was taken to Ramsgate Hospital, where the bleeding was halted. A month later he suffered another haemorrhage and was taken to King’s College Hospital, London. He was discharged in early September. Back at home in Ramsgate he lived on a salt-free diet and continued work on his autobiography, which he never saw published. In early November he was once more readmitted to Ramsgate Hospital, but by then he was too ill to be moved to a private room. His last words were to his wife: “Darling, I’m fed up of it now and I think I’d like to die. It’s all been rather lovely.” He subsequently fell into a coma, from which he never woke. At his request his widow put a notice in The Times that read “John Le Mesurier wishes it to be known that he ‘conked out’ on November 15th. He sadly misses family and friends.”
FURTHER READING: A Jobbing Actor – John Le Mesurier (London: Sphere, 1985); Lady Don’t Fall Backwards – Joan Le Mesurier (London: Pan, 1989).
Roger Leach
Born 1948
Died December 1, 2001
TV cop. Born in Sydney, Australia, Leach became best known playing Sergeant Tom Penny for six years from 1984 in The Bill. After hanging up his uniform, he became a scriptwriter for the show.
CAUSE: He died aged 53 from cancer in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Sir David Lean, CBE
Born March 25, 1908
Died April 16, 1991
Epic director. Born in Croydon, Surrey, Lean was the son of devout Quakers who heartily disapproved of his passion for what they regarded as the ‘sinful’ world of films. While attending a Reading-based Quaker boarding school he sneaked away to go to the cinema without his parents’ knowledge. When he left the school he went to work in his father’s accountancy office but was gripped by ennui and so left in 1927 to become a lowly tea boy at Gaumont. He steadily worked his way up the promotion ladder and by 1931 was editing feature films such as These Charming People (1931), Insult (1932), Song Of The Plough (1933) and Matinee Idol (1933). He also edited As You Like It (1936), Pygmalion (1938), French Without Tears (1939), Major Barbara (1941), One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942), In Which We Serve (1942) and, to prove he had not lost his touch, A Passage To India after a 42-year hiatus. His first directorial effort was Noël Coward’s war epic In Which We Serve (1942) although there is a possibility that he worked uncredited on Major Barbara (1941). His next three films were all Coward movies: This Happy Breed (1944), Blithe Spirit (1945) and Brief Encounter (1945), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Then Lean turned his attention to Dickens and directed Great Expectations (1946), for which he was nominated for a second Oscar, and Oliver Twist (1948), which starred future BBC executive John Howard Davies in the title role and Alec Guinness as a memorable Fagin with Robert Newton as the villainous Bill Sikes. In 1954 he was nominated for an Oscar for Summertime (1955). His production of The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) reunited him with Alec Guinness and brought him international fame, making him a household name and earning seven Oscars, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor (for Guinness). Lean had become the first British director to win an Oscar. It was five years before his next film hit the screen, but Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) was certainly worth the wait. It also picked up seven Oscars, including Best Film and Best Director, and made stars of Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif. Lean worked on his next project for three years and cast Sharif once again, this time in the lead part. Doctor Zhivago (1965) picked up five Oscars, mostly technical. Lean was an unsuccessful nominee. He shied away from the potential casting of Sophia Loren as Lara and also nixed Sarah Miles, calling her “a north country slut,” just two years before he asked her to marry him (and, anyway, she was born in Ingatestone, Essex). His penultimate film was Ryan’s Daughter (1970), which won two Oscars, including a Best Supporting Academy Award for John Mills. It took 14 years to write, prepare and finance his last movie, A Passage To India (1984), for which Lean received Oscar nominations for writing, directing and editing. Lean married six times but only listed five wives: the mystery wife whose existence was revealed only in 1989 was Isabelle, by whom he had his only child, Peter. His other wives were: actress Kay Walsh (b. London 1914; 1940–1949); actress Ann Todd (b. Hartford, January 24, 1909, d. May 6, 1993; 1949–1957) whom he accused of spreading rumours that he was impotent, homosexual and a child abuser and from whom he fled Britain, returning only in 1984; Mrs Leila Matkar (1960–1978), an Indian woman who left her husband and two children for him and whom he regularly cheated on with his mistresses, including Barbara Cole who worked as continuity assistant on Lawrence Of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago (the marriage was all but over by 1962); Sandra Hotz (1981–1985) and Sandra Cooke (1990–1991). He so loved film-making that he once quipped, only half-jokingly, “I hope the mone
y men don’t find out that I’d pay them to let me do this.”
CAUSE: He died at his London home, Sun Wharf, 30 Narrow Street, Limehouse, E14, aged 83 from natural causes. He had begun work on a film to be called Nostromo with Marlon Brando and based on Joseph Conrad’s novel when he died. He was buried at Putney Vale Crematorium on April 22.
Belinda Lee
Born June 15, 1935
Died March 12, 1961
Yet one more tragic beauty. The gorgeous blonde Belinda Lee was born in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, to hotelier Robert Esmond Lee and Stella Mary Graham. She was educated at Rookesbury Park Prep School in Fareham, Hampshire and St Margaret’s in Exeter, Devon before attending the Tudor Arts Academy in Surrey and RADA where she was spotted and enrolled at the Rank Film School and groomed for stardom. She made her film début, Murder By Proxy (premièred in America on May 15, 1954 and in the UK on March 28, 1955), playing Phyllis Brunner. She also appeared in Meet Mr Callaghan as Jenny Appleby, Life With The Lyons (1954) as Violet Hemingway, The Belles Of St Trinian’s (premièred October 1, 1954) as Amanda, The Runaway Bus (1954) as Janie Grey, No Smoking (1955) as Miss Tonkins, Man Of The Moment as Sonia, The Big Money as Gloria, Dangerous Exile as Virginia Traill, The Feminine Touch (1957) as Susan Richards, The Secret Place (premièred on February 6, 1957) as Molly Wilson and Miracle In Soho (premièred July 1957) as Julia Gozzi but, soon after, parts began to dry up for her and she was forced to resort to making sex films on continental Europe. Her later work included: La Venere Di Cheronea as Aphrodite, Le Notti Di Lucrezia Borgia (premièred March 19, 1959), Il Mondo Di Notte (1959), I Magliari (premièred September 23, 1959) as Paula Meyer often considered to be her best role, Ce Corps Tant Désiré (premièred April 17, after filming finished on October 23, 1958) as Lina, Die Wahrheit Über Rosemarie (premièred October 23, 1959) as Rosemarie, Brevi Amori A Palma Di Majorca (premièred December 2, 1959) as Mary Moore, Marie Des Isles (filmed between May 29 and September 7, 1959, premièred January 15, 1960) as Marie Bonnard, Der Satan Lockt Mit Liebe (premièred March 31, 1960), Messalina Venere Imperatrice (1960), La Lunga Notte Del ’43 (premièred September 13, 1960) as Anna Barilari, Giuseppe Venduto Dai Fratelli (1960) and the posthumously released Fantasmi A Roma (premièred April 1, 1961) as Eileen and Costantino Il Grande (1962) as Fausta. On June 5, 1954 she married the photographer Cornel Lucas (b. 1923). They divorced in June 1959 not long after she had an affair with the married society figure Prince Filippo Orsini whom she met while at a party in Fregene, Italy. On January 25, 1958 she reportedly tried to kill herself with an overdose of barbiturates because the affair with Orsini was nearing its end. Rank claimed that the overdose was accidental. Belinda returned to Britain briefly but in March she rented a small villa in Tor Vaianica. On April 6 Belinda was deported from Italy. The Cannes Film Festival was held on May 2–18, 1958 and paparazzi were surprised to see Belinda and Orsini back together. In December 1958 Belinda left Rank and announced her intention to move to France. In January 1960 Belinda told reporters that she had ended the affair with Orsini. Two months later, they were back together again. In May of that year he sold his story to France Dimanche and then on May 26 to the Italian magazine Oggi. In October her new boyfriend, the playboy Gualtiero Jacopetti, was jailed for three months for seducing two underage girls. A German newspaper Bild Zeitung also claimed that he had seduced an 11-year-old Gypsy girl and married her to avoid a jail sentence.
CAUSE: Belinda was killed aged 25 in a car crash near San Bernadino in California. The driver and two other passengers, her boyfriend Gualtiero Jacopetti and Pietro Cavara, survived. Belinda was sitting in the front passenger seat when a rear tyre burst, causing the car to somersault through the air. Belinda was flung through the windscreen landing face first 63 feet from the car. She died of a fractured skull and a broken neck. She was cremated on March 17 in Los Angeles but since no one wanted to claim her remains she lay uncollected for eight months. In November the New York Journal-American reported that Orsini had tried to collect her ashes but permission was refused because he was not a relative. On November 29 Belinda’s remains were taken to Rome and buried in the English Cemetery there.
Bernard Lee
Born January 10, 1908
Died January 17, 1981
Forever M. Born in London, the son of an actor, Lee made his first stage appearance in The Double Event aged six at the Oxford Music Hall, London, in 1914 and later trained at RADA. Apart from army service from 1940 until 1945, he was a regular on the stage. He appeared in almost 100 films. However, to the public at large, he was probably best known for playing James Bond’s no-nonsense boss, M, in 11 films. They were Dr No (1962), From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Live And Let Die (1973), The Man With The Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).
CAUSE: He died in London from cancer a week after his 73rd birthday.
Brandon Lee
Born February 1, 1965
Died March 31, 1993
Dashed hopes for the future. The son of Bruce Lee, 5́ 11˝ Brandon Bruce Lee was born in Oakland, California, but raised in Hong Kong. Like his father, he was a keen student of martial arts. Brandon was expelled from school for bad behaviour. His first film was Long Zai Jiang Hu (1986), by which time he seemed to have put his youthful misdemeanours behind him. He appeared in a couple of Kung Fu television movies in 1986 and 1987 but then did not make a film for three years. He appeared as Michael Gold in Laser Mission (1990) and then went on to make Showdown In Little Tokyo (1991) as Johnny Murata and Rapid Fire (1992) as Jake Lo before making the fateful decision to appear as Eric Draven in a film called The Crow (1994). Speaking not long before his tragic death, Brandon said, “Because we do not know when we will die, we come to think of life as an inexhaustible well, everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”
CAUSE: Brandon Lee allegedly believed that all the males in his family were cursed because his grandfather had annoyed some Chinese merchants. Stories circulated that he was so obsessed with death that he took to driving around Los Angeles in a hearse. He is said to have told friends that he would not live to see his 30th birthday. The Crow was shot with a partially non-union crew on Stage 4 of Carolco (now Screen Gems) Studios, 1223 North 23rd Street, Wilmington, North Carolina. The film set had already had its fair share of mishaps. One crew member was badly burned by a live electrical wire; a grip had a blackout while driving and drove a car through the studio’s plaster workshop and a carpenter accidentally drove a screwdriver through his hand. On another occasion an actor checked a gun that should have been loaded with blanks and found a live round inside the chamber. On the late evening of March 30, 1993, the 50th day of a 58-day shoot, Lee began to prepare to film a scene in which his character is shot repeatedly. Daniel Kuttner, the prop man, filled the pistol to be used with blanks. His fatal mistake was in not checking the gun barrel for blockages. It was not long past midnight when the director called for action. The film was about a vengeful character and this scene was to show how he and his girlfriend had been killed. The rehearsal went well and the cameras began to roll. Drug dealers, one played by Michael Massee, break into Eric Draven’s apartment and discover Draven’s girlfriend. Taking a shine to her, he decides to rape her. Draven comes back into the flat carrying a bag of shopping and sees what is going on. At this point, the drug dealer shoots him. The shopping bag contained a small explosive that would simulate gunfire. Massee was standing about a dozen feet from Brandon Lee when he fired the gun containing the blanks and Lee activated the charge in the shopping. Almost immedia
tely, he collapsed to the floor bleeding heavily on his right side. Filming continued as Lee tried to signal he needed help, the crew, all the while, marvelling at Lee’s excellent ‘performance’. Finally, he managed to call out “Cut, cut, somebody please say cut …”. The director called “Cut” but Lee lay where he had fallen. Initially, the crew thought Lee was having them on until Michael Massee noticed something was horribly wrong. An ambulance was called while studio hands attempted to comfort him. The distraught actor was taken to New Hanover Regional Medical Center, 2131 South 17th Street where he underwent a six-hour operation led by Warren W. McMurry and was given 60 pints of blood. His heart had twice stopped beating: once in the studio and once in the ambulance on the way to hospital. McMurry revealed that Lee “suffered intestinal injuries and major vascular injuries consistent with a bullet wound”. A fragment of bullet was lodged in Lee’s spine. Lee’s girlfriend, writer Eliza Hutton, whom he was due to marry on April 17 after the film wrapped, arrived at the hospital around noon. One hour and three minutes later, Brandon Lee died of his injuries. He was 28. On April 3 he was buried in Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, Washington, next to his father. The Crow was released in the United Kingdom on June 10, 1994. Critic James Cameron-Wilson described it as “a despicable pile of junk, a chaotic, noisy shambles that barely resembles a film.”
Bruce Lee
(LEE JUN FAN)
Born November 27, 1940
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 110
