In Memoriam: The Iconic Artist "Yayoi Kusama" Has Died Aged 97

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who splashed her signature polka dots on paintings, sculptures and museum installations around the world, has died, she was 97. In a statement issued on Wednesday, her representative David Zwirner said Kusama passed away from multiple organ failure at a Tokyo hospital on August 14. 

“She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul,” the studio’s statement said. “We will carry forward Kusama’s wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world.”

Kusama, one of Japan's most respected contemporary artists, was widely exhibited around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Museum Ludwig in Germany.

Repetitive motifs were her trademark, in various shapes, resembling netting, swirls or worms, but most often dots, dancing proudly on her canvases, or as sparkling balls or dots of light in her installations, in all their vibrant psychedelic glory.

"I want to create a thousand paintings, maybe two thousand paintings, as many as I can draw," she said in her childlike but matter-of-fact tone. "I will keep painting until I die." Kusama insisted she drew the way she saw the world: covered with spots, part of the hallucinations she said she had from childhood. 

She was in and out of psychiatric institution for decades, although her sickness did not hold her back as she was one of the first Japanese women to go to New York to pursue her art, in 1957. Although soft-spoken and shy in her mannerisms, Kusama was always unabashedly bold in the assertion of her dotty vision, not only in sticking to the style for decades but also in making it accessible to the masses.

In her later years, as the times caught up with her art, she enjoyed fame. She signed on with fashion brands like Louis Vuitton as well as other licensed products like teacups, T-shirts and key chains with her illustrations, including replicas of her likeness that were used in show windows and other marketing. In 2008, Christie's auctioned her work for $5.8 million. In 2016, she won the most prestigious award Japan gives its artists, the Order of Culture.

Kusama was called pop, avant-garde, feminist, just to name some of the categories thrown at her, most of which Kusama brushed off as not quite representative of her art. She was born in a middle-class family but felt misunderstood, as her parents wanted her to simply get married. They wanted to buy her kimono, not paints and brushes. She knew she had to get away. She chose America.

In New York, the fad was "action painting," characterized by dribbles, swooshes and smears, not dots. She suffered years of poverty and obscurity. But she kept painting dots. She put circles of paper on people’s bodies, and once a horse, in "happening" anti-war performances in the late 1960s, which got some people arrested for obscenity but helped get media attention for her art. 

Over the years, Kusama made quirky but stunningly celebratory works like "Macaroni Girl," a female figure plastered with macaroni, which expresses the fear of food; "The Visionary Flowers," giant sculptures of twisting tulips, and"“Mirrored Corridor," a room with mirrors that delivers an illusion of a field of phallic protrusions speckled with dots. Kusama has also made films and published several novels, said she wasn’t sure where she got her ideas. She just picked up her brush and started drawing. 

Rest In Power Kusama.

In Memoriam: The French Actress And Animal Activist "Brigitte Bardot" Dies Aged 91

Brigitte Bardot, a star of French cinema in the 1950s and 1960s, has died aged 91. Her signature roles - in films such as And God Created Woman - cemented her cultural status as a symbol of the sexual liberation movement that swept across Europe in the latter half of the 20th Century.

She stepped back from the silver screen at 39, with almost 50 films under her belt. "I gave my youth and beauty to men, I give my wisdom and experience to animals," Bardot famously pledged, and spent the remainder of her life campaigning for animal welfare under her Brigitte Bardot Foundation.

Brigitte Bardot, the French actor and singer who became an international sex symbol before turning her back on the film industry and embracing the cause of animal rights activism and far-right politics, has died aged 91.

Her cause of death was not made public. Bardot was briefly hospitalised in October for what her office called a “minor” procedure

Born in 1934 in Paris, Bardot grew up in a prosperous, traditional Catholic family but excelled enough as a dancer to be allowed to study ballet, gaining a place at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris. At the same time she found work as a model, appearing on the cover of Elle in 1950 while still 15. As a result of her modelling work, she was offered film roles; at one audition she met Vadim, whom she would marry in 1952, after she turned 18. Bardot was cast in small roles, with increasing prominence, playing Dirk Bogarde’s love interest in Doctor at Sea, a big hit in the UK in 1955.

But it was Vadim’s And God Created Woman, in which Bardot played an uninhibited teenager in Saint-Tropez, that consolidated her image and turned her into an international icon. The film was a huge hit in France, as well as internationally, and catapulted Bardot into the front rank of French screen performers.

As well as for cinema audiences, Bardot swiftly became an inspiration for intellectuals and artists; not least the young John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who demanded their then girlfriends dye their hair blond in imitation of her. The columnist Raymond Cartier wrote a lengthy article about “le cas Bardot” in Paris-Match in 1958, while Simone de Beauvoir published her famous essay Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome in 1959, framing the actor as France’s most liberated woman. In 1969, Bardot was chosen as the first real-life model for Marianne, the symbol of the French republic.n the early 1960s, Bardot appeared in a string of high-profile French films, including Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Oscar-nominated drama The Truth, Louis Malle’s Very Private Affair (opposite Marcello Mastroianni) and Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt. In the second half of the decade, Bardot took up a number of Hollywood offers: these included Viva Maria!, a Mexican-set period comedy with Jeanne Moreau, and Shalako, a western with Sean Connery.

Bardot also had a parallel music career, which included recording the original version of Serge Gainsbourg’s Je T’Aime … Moi Non Plus, which Gainsbourg had written for her while they were having an extramarital affair. (Afraid of scandal after her then husband, Gunter Sachs, found out, Bardot asked Gainsbourg not to release it. He went on to re-record it with Jane Birkin, to huge commercial success.)

Bardot found the pressure of stardom increasingly irksome, telling the Guardian in 1996: “The madness which surrounded me always seemed unreal. I was never really prepared for the life of a star.” She retired from acting in 1973, aged 39, after making the historical romance The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot. Her primary focus became animal welfare activism, joining protests against seal hunts in 1977 and establishing the Brigitte Bardot Foundation in 1986.

Bardot subsequently sent letters of protest to world leaders over issues such as dog extermination in Romania, dolphin killing in the Faroe Islands and cat slaughter in Australia. She also regularly aired outspoken views on religious animal slaughter. In her 2003 book A Cry in the Silence she espoused rightwing politics and took aim at gay men and lesbians, schoolteachers and the so-called “Islamisation of French society”, resulting in a conviction for inciting racial hatred.

In Memoriam: Rock And Blues Singer-Songrwriter "Chris Rea" Dies Aged 74

Iconic Middlesbrough-born musician Chris Rea, who had hits with Driving Home for Christmas, On the Beach and The Road to Hell, has died at the age of 74, a spokesperson for his family said.

 

The statement said that he died "peacefully in hospital … following a short illness". 

 

Rea blended blues, pop, soul and soft rock on 25 studio albums, featuring hits including The Road to Hell, taken from a UK No 1 album of the same name; Driving Home for Christmas, a perennial seasonal favourite; and tracks such as On the Beach and Josephine that earned popularity in the Balearic dance scene. He sold more than 30 million albums.

 

He was born in 1951 in Middlesbrough to an Italian father and Irish mother, and had six siblings. "To be Irish Italian in a coffee bar in Middlesbrough – I started my life as an outsider," he later said. As a young man he dabbled in music while working labouring jobs, including in his father’s ice-cream factory, and considered being a journalist. He eventually joined a band aged 22, Magdalene, which had previously featured David Coverdale (later of Deep Purple). He then joined another band, the Beautiful Losers, but struck out solo when offered a record deal, releasing his debut single, So Much Love, in 1974.

 

His first flush of success came in the US, where his 1978 song Fool (If You Think It’s Over) reached No 12 and earned him a Grammy nomination for best new artist. He struggled to match that achievement for some years – likening industry machinations in this period to a big manure heap of bubbling stuff. I had no control over it, I didn't know what to do – though the 1985 album Water Sign was a hit across Europe and helped to turn his fortunes around.

 

The late 1980s were his most commercially successful period: finally embraced in the UK despite often sitting outside the dominant trends in pop, 1987's Dancing With Strangers began a run of six UK top 10 albums, two of them reaching No 1.

 

The 1988 compilation album New Light Through Old Windows contained his biggest hit, Driving Home for Christmas, originally recorded in 1986. It made little impact on its first release, but the gentle, sentimental song about the communal pleasure of its title has continued to grow in popularity ever since, reaching a chart high of No 10 in 2021. Rea originally wrote it at a low ebb when he was without a manager, out of a record contract and actually banned from driving – he had to be driven home by his wife from London to Middlesbrough because he couldn't afford the rail fare. He wrote the lyrics on the car journey, but didn’t complete the song until a few years later.

 

Rea's chart success waned somewhat in the 2000s, when, beginning with 2002's Dancing Down the Stony Road, Rea turned away from pop and back towards the Delta blues that had originally inspired him. 

 

Appropriately, given he often fixated on cars and roads in his songs, Rea was a motor racing enthusiast who raced models by Ferrari and Lotus, and participated in the 1993 British Touring Car Championship. For the 1995 Formula One season, he joined the Jordan team as a pit mechanic. "I really didn't want to do the VIP thing, so I was in charge of Eddie Irvine’s right-rear tyre," he later said.

 

Rea suffered a number of health issues during his life. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and eventually had his pancreas removed along with parts of his stomach and small intestine in 2001. The procedure caused him to become diabetic.

 

He had a stroke in 2016, which he described as a  "very scary moment … I got it into my head that my perception of pitch had gone with the stroke. And it took a lot of convincing from people saying there’s nothing wrong with what you're playing." In 2017, he collapsed on stage during a concert in Oxford, and was taken to hospital to recover.

 

Rea is survived by his wife Joan, whom he began dating aged 17, and their daughters Josephine and Julia, both of whom Rea named hit songs after.

In Memoriam: The Prolific Composer And Musician "Chuck Mangione" Has Died Aged 84

Chuck Mangione, the prolific composer and musician who released 30 albums in his career, died on July 22, according a confirmed statement from his family. He was 84.

 

"The family of Chuck Mangione is deeply saddened to share that Chuck peacefully passed away in his sleep at his home in Rochester, New York, on July 22, 2025," the statement, shared today July 24 with the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle.

 

Magione was a celebrated composer and virtuoso flugelhorn and trumpet player, Mangione began taking music lessons at age 8 and played in a jazz combo with his pianist brother, Gap, during his high school years. He and Gap were both heavily inspired by Dizzy Gillespie, a family friend and jazz great, whom their father adored. Gillespie would join the Mangiones for dinner whenever he was in town and became one of Mangione’s biggest influences.

 

Gillespie was so impressed by teenage Mangione's musical prowess that he gave him one of his trademark upswept trumpets. Mangione went on to study at the Eastman School of Music, graduating in 1963 with a bachelor's degree in music education, later returning to teach and direct the school's jazz ensemble.

 

He then parlayed a musical upbringing into a successful solo career, selling millions of records and receiving numerous awards, including two Grammys: in 1977 for best instrumental composition "Bellavia" and in 1979 for best pop instrumental performance "The Children of Sanchez". The latter, a soundtrack for the movie of the same name, also won a Golden Globe.His 1977 single "Feels So Good," off an album of the same name, reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard albums chart in 1978, bested only by the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack.

 

"Feels So Good" also became an ongoing bit on TV's animated "King of the Hill," where it was frequently referenced, with Mangione himself nabbing a recurring voice-acting role. Mangione also composed "Give It All You Got," the theme song for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, and performed it during the closing ceremonies to an audience of several hundred million viewers.

 

"Chuck's love affair with music has been characterized by his boundless energy, unabashed enthusiasm, and pure joy that radiated from the stage," his family’s statement reads: "His appreciation for his loyal worldwide fans was genuine as evidenced by how often he would sit at the edge of the stage after a concert for however long it took to sign autographs for the fans who stayed to meet him and the band."

 

Even before his death, Mangione's wide-ranging music career was memorialized in the American songbook. In 2009, he donated a selection of his music memorabilia to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. 

In Memoriam: The Heavy Metal Star-Icon And Prince Of Darkness "Ozzy Osbourne" Dies At 76

Ozzy Osbourne, the gloomy lead singer and heavy metal pioneer of the band Black Sabbath, dies just weeks after farewell show. The heavy metal star reunited with his Black Sabbath bandmates on stage at Villa Park earlier in July. Died Tuesday, just weeks after his farewell show. He was 76.

A family statement said: "It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time," a family statement said. In 2020, he revealed he had Parkinson's disease after suffering a fall.

Either clad in black or bare-chested, the singer was often the target of parents' groups for his imagery and once caused an uproar for biting the head off a bat. Later, he would reveal himself to be a doddering and sweet father on the reality TV show “The Osbournes.”

As he performed from a throne on stage at Villa Park less than three weeks ago, Osbourne told 42,000 fans: "You've no idea how I feel - thank you from the bottom of my heart." It was a gig put together with performances from some of his favourite acts, including Metallica and Guns N' Roses, for the star's "final bow". 

Osbourne and his fellow original Black Sabbath members - Tony Iommi, Terence "Geezer" Butler and Bill Ward - reunited for the first time in 20 years and were the last to appear on stage for the Back To The Beginning concert on 5 July. 

Born John Michael Osbourne on 3 December 1948 in Aston, Birmingham, he became known as the godfather of heavy metal. The self-styled Prince of Darkness pioneered the music genre with Black Sabbath before going on to have huge success in his own right. He was famous for hits including Iron Man, Paranoid, War Pigs, Crazy Train and Changes, both with the band and as a solo star.

Black Sabbath's eponymous debut album in 1970 made the UK top 10 and paved the way for a string of tracks. They went on to become one of the most influential and successful metal bands of all time, selling more than 75 million albums worldwide.The singer also found a different kind of fame thanks to noughties MTV reality show The Osbournes, which followed the Birmingham-raised star's somewhat chaotic life in Los Angeles with wife Sharon and two of their children, Kelly and Jack.

And he was also known for the famous anecdotes of hellraising during his rock star heyday - most infamously, the tale of how he bit the head off a bat while on stage. Black Sabbath fired Osbourne in 1979 for his legendary excesses, like showing up late for rehearsals and missing gigs. "We knew we didn't really have a choice but to sack him because he was just so out of control. But we were all very down about the situation," wrote bassist Terry "Geezer" Butler in his memoir Into The Void.

Osbourne re-emerged the next year as a solo artist with his album Blizzard of Ozz. In 1981, he released his second album Diary Of A Madman - both were hard rock classics that went multiplatinu

He had Parkinson's disease and had suffered other health problems in recent years, including complications from injuries sustained in a fall in 2019.

After being forced to cancel tour shows, he made a one-off surprise appearance on stage in Birmingham to close the Commonwealth Games in 2022. The Villa Park gig was announced earlier this year by Sharon, who said he was determined to give fans the "perfect farewell". During his career, Osbourne was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame and the US Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame - twice for both, with Black Sabbath and as a solo artist. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame - as well as in Birmingham's Broad Street - an Ivor Novello, and five Grammy wins from 12 nominations. Plus, he received other honours such as the NME's Godlike Genius award, and Classic Rock's Living Legend prize, over the years.

Osbourne leaves behind his wife, Sharon, and their children, Aimee, Kelly and Jack, as well his two older children, Jessica and Louis, from his first marriage to Thelma Riley, and grandchildren

In Memoriam: The Giant Of The Latin American Literature "Mario Vargas Llosa" Dies Aged 89

Legendary Mario Vargas Llosa, has died at the age of 89 in his native Peru, he was a towering figure in Latin American literature and culture.

With more than 50 works to his name, many of which have been widely translated, Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010 when judges dubbed him a "divinely gifted story-teller". His depictions of authoritarianism, violence and machismo, using rich language and imagery, made him a star of the Latin American Boom literary movement that shone a global spotlight on the continent.

Vargas Llosa was born in 1936 to a middle-class family in Arequipa in southern Peru. After his parents separated while he was an infant, he moved to Cochabamba in Bolivia with his great-grandparents. He returned to Peru aged 10 and six years later he wrote his first play, The Escape of the Inca. He graduated from Lima University, studied in Spain and later moved to Paris.

His first novel, The Time of the Hero, was an indictment of corruption and abuse at a Peruvian military school. Written at a time when the country's military wielded significant political and social power, it was published in 1962. Its forceful, menacing imagery was condemned by several Peruvian generals. One accused Vargas Llosa of having a "degenerate mind".

It was based on the writer's own time as a teenager at the Leoncio Prado Military Academy, which he described in 1990 as "an extremely traumatic experience". His two years there made him see his country "as a violent society, filled with bitterness, made up of social, cultural, and racial factions in complete opposition". The school itself burnt 1,000 copies of the novel on its grounds, Vargas Llosa claimed.

His experimental second novel The Green House (1966) was set in the Peruvian desert and jungle, and described an alliance of pimps, missionaries and soldiers based around a brothel.

The two novels helped found the Latin American Boom literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The Boom was characterised by experimental and explicitly political works that reflected a continent in turmoil. Its leading authors, who included Vargas Llosa's Colombian friend and sometime rival Gabriel García Márquez - who pioneered the kaleidoscopic magical realism style of writing - became household names and their works were read around the world.

Famously the two authors did not speak to each other for decades after Vargas Llosa punched García Márquez in the face in a Mexican cinema in 1976. Reports of why Vargas Llosa punched his Colombian friend differ. Friends of García Márquez said the dispute had revolved around García Márquez's friendship with Vargas Llosa's then-wife, Patricia, but Vargas Llosa told students at a Madrid university in 2017 that it had been down to their opposing views on Cuba and its communist leader, Fidel Castro.

They reconciled in 2007 and three years later, in 2010, Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize - the first South American writer to be chosen for the literature prize since Gabriel García Márquez took the honour in 1982.

Much of Vargas Llosa's work is inseparable from the instability and violence in parts of Latin America in the second half of the 20th Century as the region experienced waves of revolutions and military rule. His novel Conversations in the Cathedral (1969) was celebrated for exposing how the Peruvian dictatorship of 1948-56 under Manuel Odría controlled and eventually ruined the lives of ordinary people.

Like many intellectuals, Vargas Llosa supported Fidel Castro but became disillusioned with the communist leader following the "Padilla Affair" when poet Heberto Padilla was imprisoned for criticising the Cuban government in 1971. In 1983 Vargas Llosa was appointed president of a commission investigating the gruesome killing in a village in the Peruvian Andes of eight journalists, which became known as the Uchuraccay massacre. Peruvian officials maintained that the journalists had been killed by indigenous villagers who had mistaken the journalists for members of the Maoist Sendero Luminosa guerrilla group.

Moving further right on the political spectrum, in 1990 Vargas Llosa ran for the Peruvian presidency with the centre-right Frente Democrático coalition on a neo-liberal platform. He lost to Alberto Fujimori, who went on to govern Peru for the following 10 years. Despite the criticism levelled against him over the investigation into the Uchuraccay massacre, Vargas Llosa continued to expose state terror and abuse of power through literature.

His novel "La Fiesta Del Chivo", published in 2000, focused on dictator Rafael Trujillo, who ruled the Dominican Republic for 31 years until his assassination in 1961. The novel won praise from the Nobel Prize Committee for its attention to "structures of power" and "images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat".

Other works were adapted for the big screen. His book Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, based on his first marriage, was adapted in 1990 into a Hollywood feature film, Tune in Tomorrow. His later work covered figures as diverse as Irish nationalist Roger Casement (The Dream of the Celt, 2012).

He spent the latter years of his life in Peru as well as Madrid.

The author appeared in the pages of Spanish gossip magazine Hola after he left his wife of 50 years in 2015 to be with Spanish-Filipino socialite Isabel Preysler. In 2019 he was condemned for blaming the rise in killings of journalists in Mexico - more than 100 in the past decade - on the expansion of press freedom "which allows journalists to say things that were not permitted previously". While he also said that "narcotics trafficking plays an absolutely central part in all of this", some commentators felt that he failed to express sympathy with the victims and their families.

And in 2018 he caused a stir when, in a column for Spanish newspaper El País, he called feminism "the most determined enemy of literature, trying to decontaminate it from machismo, multiple prejudices and immoralities".

He died in Lima on 13 April surrounded by his family and "at peace", his son Álvaro Vargas Llosa announced. With his death, the last of the Latin American Boom's great stars has gone.

In Memoriam: The Damned's Founding Guitarist "Brian James" Dies Aged 70

Brian James, the founding guitarist of the iconical British punk band the Damned, has died age 70. A statement posted to his official Facebook page called him: "one of the true pioneers of music". At this very moment, no cause of death was shared.

 

His Damned bandmate Captain Sensible, AKA Raymond Burns, shared a tribute on X: "We’re shocked to hear that creator of the Damned, our great chum Brian James, has sadly gone. A lovely bloke that I feel so lucky to have met all those years ago and for some reason chose me to help in his quest for the music revolution that became known as punk."

 

Brian James wrote the first official British punk single, "New Rose" – released five weeks before the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK" – and was the lead songwriter on the band's debut album, Damned Damned Damned, which was released in February 1977. That November, James left the group after the release of their second album, the poorly received "Music for Pleasure," and pursued several solo groups, including the brilliants Lords of the New Church, who released three albums in the 1980s.

 

Born as Brian Robertson in Hammersmith, London, in February 1955. After playing in the proto-punk band London SS alongside future Clash member Mick Jones, he formed the Damned with singer Dave Vanian, bassist Captain Sensible and drummer Rat Scabies in 1976. Captain Sensible expanded on his post on Facebook, recalling that when James was recruiting bandmates, he instituted short hair as a rule – a radical departure from the mid-70s hippy look – and had such a "blistering technique" on guitar that he persuaded Sensible to switch to bass. "The next couple of years were a pretty wild ride but Brian's vision of a music revolution had been absolutely spot on … and boy do I feel lucky that he chose me cos I had no plan B if the music game failed."

 

They played their first gig in July 1976, as support to the Sex Pistols at the 100 Club in London. The Pistols' manager Malcolm McLaren kicked them off a subsequent support tour. After departing the group, James collaborated with Iggy Pop as a member of his touring band. Stewart Copeland of the Police performed on his first two solo singles, Ain’t That a Shame from 1979, and Why? Why? Why? from 1982.

 

In 2000, James joined forces with Copeland, Wayne Kramer of MC5, Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses and Clem Burke of Blondie as the Racketeers for the album Mad for the Racket.

 

In 2013, he re-recorded his Damned material for a solo album, Damned If I Do, and toured the record with Rat Scabies (AKA Christopher Millar). In 1988 and 2022, the original members of the Damned reunited for a UK tour.

 

James is survived by his wife, Minna, and son Charlie.

In Memoriam: Legendary Actor "Gene Hackman" And His Wife Found Dead

Legendary and Oscar-winning US actor Gene Hackman, his wife Betsy Arakawa and their dog have been found dead at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

A statement from the Santa Fe County Sheriff in New Mexico said: "On 26 February, 2025, at approximately 1:45pm, Santa Fe County Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to an address on Old Sunset Trail in Hyde Park where Gene Hackman, his wife Betsy Arakawa, and a dog were found deceased." "This is an active investigation - however, at this time we do not believe that foul play was a factor.

Hackman was 95, and his wife - a classical pianist - 63.

In a wide-ranging career spanning more than six decades, Hackman won two Academy Awards for his work on iconical films such as The French Connection and Unforgiven.

He won the best actor Oscar for his role as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in William Friedkin's 1971 thriller The French Connection, and another for best supporting actor for playing Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven in 1992.

A relative latecomer to Hollywood, Hackman's breathrough came in his thirties, when he was nominated for an Oscar for portraying Buck Barrow in 1967's Bonnie and Clyde - opposite Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway - and again for I Never Sang for My Father in 1970. Both films saw him recognised in the supporting actor category. He was also nominated for best leading actor in 1988 for playing the agent in Mississippi Burning.

Hackman played more than 100 roles in total, including supervillain Lex Luthor in the Christopher Reeve-starring Superman movies in the 1970s and 1980s. Hackman acted opposite many Hollywood heavyweights including Al Pacino in 1973's Scarecrow, Gene Wilder in 1974's Young Frankenstein and Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton in 1981's Reds. He also starred in the hit movies Runaway Jury, Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation.

As well as his Oscar wins, Hackman also collected two Baftas, four Golden Globes and a Screen Actors Guild Award. He took a comedic turn playing a conservative senator in 1996's The Birdcage alongside Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, who starred as a gay couple. His last big-screen appearance came as Monroe Cole in Welcome to Mooseport in 2004, after which he stepped back from Hollywood for a quieter life in New Mexico.

Born in California in 1930, Hackman's family moved frequently, and after lying about his age at 16, he enlisted in the US Marine Corps serving for four-and-a-half years. He was stationed in China, Hawaii and Japan before being discharged in 1951. Following his military service, Hackman lived and worked in a variety jobs in New York, and studied journalism and television production at the University of Illinois, before deciding to drop out and move back to California to pursue his childhood acting dream.

He joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California, where he befriended a young Dustin Hoffman. "I suppose I wanted to be an actor from the time I was about 10, maybe even younger than that," Hackman once said. "Recollections of early movies that I had seen and actors that I admired like James Cagney, Errol Flynn, those kind of romantic action guys. "When I saw those actors, I felt I could do that. But I was in New York for about eight years before I had a job. I sold ladies shoes, polished leather furniture, drove a truck. "I think that if you have it in you and you want it bad enough, you can do it."

Hackman moved back to New York in 1963, performing in Off-Broadway productions - including at the Music Box Theatre for the comedy Any Wednesday - and smaller TV roles. But he began to really make his name in the 1970s, becoming a leading man as New York City detective Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle in The French Connection. From then on he became a fixture on the big screen in the likes of 1972 disaster film The Poseidon Adventure.

He also appeared in Children From Their Games at the former Morosco Theatre, Poor Richard at Helen Hayes Theatre and The Natural Look at Longacre Theatre, before later returning in 1992 to perform Death And The Maiden at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.

Hackman and his first wife, Faye Maltese, were together for 30 years and raised three children before getting divorced in 1986. In his later years, he and his second wife, Betsy stayed out of the spotlight, but made a rare public appearance together at the 2003 Golden Globe Awards, where he won the Cecil B. deMille award.

In 2008 he told Reuters that despite the lack of any official announcement, he was "not going to act any longer". He also explained he was focusing his attentions away from the big screen and towards his quieter, calmer passion for writing novels. "I was trained to be an actor, not a star. I was trained to play roles, not to deal with fame and agents and lawyers and the press," he once said.

In Memoriam: Singer And Actress "Marianne Faithfull" Dies At 78

Iconical singer and actress Marianne Faithfull has died at the age of 78, her spokesperson has said. Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family," a statement from her spokesperson said. "She will be dearly missed."

The singer had previously suffered multiple health problems, including bulimia, breast cancer and emphysema caused by decades of smoking. Back in 2020, she contracted Covid-19 and was hospitalised for 22 days. Doctors said they did not expect her to survive - but she pulled through, releasing her 21st album, "She Walks In Beauty," a year later.

Born in Hampstead in December 1946, she was known for hits like "As Tears Go By," which reached the UK top 10 in 1964, and for starring roles in films such the icoinic 1968's "The Girl On A Motorcycle."

She was also famously the girlfriend of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger in the 1960s, inspiring songs such as "Wild Horses" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want." After a period of heroin addiction in the 70s, she resurrected her career with the classic album "Broken English."

Her story is a remarkable portrait of the rock and roll era. She was a doe-eyed poster girl of the 1960s, plucked from obscurity by the Rolling Stones' manager at the age of 16 and given "As Tears Go By," the first song ever written by Jagger and Keith Richards. An international hit, her version was light and breathy, delivered in a folk-pop style that was to become her trademark during the swinging 60s.

With her eponymous debut album and 1966's North Country Maid, she became part of the "British Invasion" of the US pop charts. Meanwhile, and unfortunately for her, the affair with Jagger turned her into a tabloid lightning rod. After they split she fell into drug addiction - at one point living homeless on the streets of Soho. She re-emerged tentatively with the 1976 album "Dreamin' My Dreams" but really hit her stride with 1979's New Wave-influenced "Broken English," on which she showcased the ashen voice and hard-won wisdom that would define the second act of her career. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award.

In recent years, she teamed up with songwriters like PJ Harvey and Nick Cave, who each cited her as an inspiration. Other collaborators over the years included David Bowie, Lou Reed, Jarvis Cocker, Damon Albarn, Emmylou Harris and Metallica, whose drummer Lars Ulrich thanked Faithfull for her "incredible and unique contribution to our music, and for always being so willing to join us in performing it".

Her acting career ran in parallel to music. On stage, she appeared alongside Glenda Jackson in Chekhov's Three Sisters; and played Ophelia in Hamlet – later admitting her nightly descent into madness had been chemically enhanced. She also played God in two episodes of the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, and the devil in William Burroughs' and Tom Waits' musical, The Black Rider.

But music was where her heart lay. Her penultimate album, 2018's "Negative Capabilty," was a meditation on ageing, loneliness and grief – inspired partly by the death of her old friend, and fellow Rolling Stones' paramour Anita Pallenberg; and partly by the terror attacks on the Bataclan nightclub in her adopted home of Paris.

Taking her full circle, the album included a raw and emotional re-recording of As Tears Go By that reduced everyone in the studio to tears, according to producer Rob Ellis. Faithfull received the World Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Women's World Awards, and was made a commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France.

Faithfull's long-time friend, the BBC Radio 2 presenter Bob Harris, called her an "encapsulation of the sixties". He said while she initially was known for being Mick Jagger's girlfriend, through her "people began to see her as an artist, as a creator".

The singer married and divorced three times - to artist John Dunbar in 1965, Ben Brierly of punk band the Vibrators in 1979, and actor Giorgio Della Terza in 1988. She is survived by her son, Nicholas Dunbar.

News: New Order Scoops "Icon Award" At The Rolling Stone UK Awards

The iconical band New Order have scooped the Icon Award at the Rolling Stone UK Awards. The famous Manchester band were honoured last night at a ceremony at London’s Camden Roundhouse, with Phil Cunningham, Bernard Sumner and Tom Chapman accepting the honour from Blur bassist Alex James.

Formed in 1980, the band became one of the most influential bands of the 1980s as a flagship act for Manchester label Factory Records.Their 1983 hit "Blue Monday" was the best-selling 12-inch single of all time. Nile Rodgers, meanwhile, said he was “uncomfortable” and “overwhelmed” after winning the Global Icon Award at the ceremony. 

Other act-winners of the night were the 72-year-old Chic leader Nile Rodgers, he was given the award by Duran Duran singer Simon LeBon, for his more than 50-year career, the artist said: "It’s somewhat overwhelming, at the same time, I feel very shy and nervous. Believe it or not, I’ve never, ever in my life done music for awards or anything like that, so whenever one comes up, I’m really surprised, and half the time I don’t know what to say, but normally I never stop talkin.", "It’s weird, because whenever you get an award, that means you’re sort of in competition with your brothers and sisters that do the same thing, that makes me feel very uncomfortable.”

Fontaines DC and New Order were among the rest of the winners at the awards ceremony at the Roundhouse. The Irish indie band, fronted by Grian Chatten, won the Album Award for best British or Irish album of the year for their LP Romance.

The Artist Award for the best British or Irish act of the year went to Yannis And The Yaw, the solo project of Foals singer Yannis Philippakis. The Song Of The Year Award was picked up by Chase And Status and Stormzy for Backbone, while pop duo Confidence Man picked up the Live Act Award from RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star Bimini Bon Boulash

English Teacher won the Breakthrough Award, former Mercury Prize winners Ezra Collective took home the Group Award, and Brooke Combe won the PlayNext Award for new talent. The Trailblazer Award was won by former Little Mix singer Jade Thirlwall, known as Jade in her solo career, Brixton’s Wide Awake won the Festival Award, and Island Records won the Record Label Award.

The Television Award was won by Toby Jones for Mr Bates vs The Post Office, while semi-biographical Robbie Williams film Better Man won the Film Award. Comedian Jayde Adams hosted the awards, with performances from dance duo Confidence Man, English Teacher, Jade and the cast of Tina – The Tina Turner Musical.

The Event: Pet Shop Boys At The EMAs 2024

Pet Shop Boys will receive their first MTV EMA, Pop Pioneers Award at the 2024 MTV EMA, The event is set to take place on Sunday, Nov. 10, at Co-op Live in Manchester, England. 

The legendary English duo, consisting of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, will also perform on the show with the Manchester Camerata, an orchestra that has been working in Manchester and beyond since 1972.

The award recognizes "their contribution to the world of pop music, including the groundbreaking sonic and visual spectacles they create for their fans. The award also honors their unique style, enduring influence, and their army of steadfast fans around the world," according to a statement.

This 2024 marks 40 years since the first Pet Shop Boys record was released. The duo has notched 22 top 10 hits on the Official U.K. Singles chart (including four No. 1s) and five top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (including one No. 1)."West End Girl"  reached No. 1 on both charts. "It’s a Sin," "Always On My Mind" and "Heart" were their other U.K. to hit the No. 1

The Item: Celebrating The Pet Shop Boys 40 Years Of Career With Fine Bone China Tea Set

Pet Shop Boys are celebrating 40 years of career with a campaign called "Since 1984", with a commemorative set which marks four decades since the duo – starring Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe – emerged on the scene

The duo said: We are promised a series of exclusive products, under this brand, and in true PSB style the first is rather un-rock ’n’ roll – a fine bone china tea set!

The 22-karat gold-plated range has been designed by longtime design partners Farrow and encompasses cups, saucer, tea pot, milk jug and sugar bowl. Each piece is "hand-finished" and decorated with PSB symbols (pointy hats, silhouettes, Chris' glasses from the Suburbia single sleeve, etc) and has been made in the UK by Duchess China.

Each set comes with a certificate of authenticity and prices start at £200 (for a milk jug and sugar bowl). They will be ‘released’ in November and can be pre-ordered vía the PSB site: petshopboys since 1984

News: David Lynch Says He Won't Retire

David Lynch the 78-year-old American filmmaker just posted on social media, that he appreciated everyone that has voiced concern over his health condition, noting that his past as a smoker caused his emphysema, a lung disease with no known cure, sickness or in health, David Lynch will never stop directing. 

 

The came after rumors swirled that the iconic Twin Peaks director was retiring from filmmaking after being diagnosed with emphysema, so Lynch set the record straight on social media informing his fans that while he has been battling emphysema, he’s not retiring.The rumors regarding Lynch’s retirement began after a portion of an interview he did for the September issue of Sight and Sound, the magazine associated with the British Film Institute, began going viral. 

 

In the interview, Lynch revealed that after many years of smoking, he was diagnosed with emphysema. “I’ve gotten emphysema from smoking for so long, and so I’m homebound whether I like it or not,” Lynch said. “And now, because of COVID, it would be very bad for me to get sick, even with a cold.”
 

Yes, I have emphysema from my many years of smoking. I have to say that I enjoyed smoking very much, and I do love tobacco - the smell of it, lighting cigarettes on fire, smoking them. But there is a price to pay for this enjoyment, and the price for me is emphysema. I have now quit smoking for over two years. Recently I had many tests and the good news is that I am in excellent shape except for emphysema," he added.

 

The "Eraserhead" and "The Elephant Man" filmmaker also mentioned he could only walk a short distance before he ran out of oxygen. A representative for Lynch did not respond to a request for comment.

 

For Lynch, it is unlikely that he will ever direct in person again, but he mentioned the possibility of directing remotely. "I would really hate that," he added, admitting that directing virtually would not be desirable for the Oscar-nominated director.