Farewell muses, stars and lonely pandas

BEEN AND GONE
By Nick Serpell
BBC Obituary Unit

Our regular column covering the passing of significant - but lesser-reported - characters of the past month.

Following World War II the British, who then controlled Palestine, severely restricted the number of Jewish immigrants allowed to enter the country. Yossi Harel captained some of the ships which smuggled refugees in defiance of the restrictions. One of his commands was the Exodus, which became famous after the Leon Uris book was turned into a successful film in 1960. Harel later became a senior figure in Israeli intelligence.

The film and TV composer Tristram Cary was one of the pioneers in the development of electronic music. He built the first electronic studio at the Royal College of Music and played a major part in the invention of the synthesiser. He also wrote some of the incidental music for Dr Who. His many more traditional compositions included the scores for films such as the Ladykillers, Quatermass & the Pit and the Hammer horror Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb.

Horror films were also the stock in trade of actress Hazel Court. Born in Sutton Coldfield she aspired to go into comedy but found herself cast in a string of low budget shockers throughout the 1950s. She achieved something akin to cult status after a display of cleavage in the 1957 Hammer production The Curse of Frankenstein. In 1960 she moved to the US where she appeared in the Roger Corman productions of The Raven and The Masque of the Red Death.

Fellow Thespian Willoughby Goddard made a career out of his somewhat rotund shape. He achieved fame after appearing as the villain Gessler in the 1950s children’s series The Adventures of William Tell before going on to play a host of character parts. He was a natural as Mr Bumble in the Broadway version of the musical Oliver and an impressive Cardinal Wolsey in the West End production of A Man for All Seasons. His last major TV appearance was as Professor Siblington in Porterhouse Blue, Tom Sharpe’s savage satire on Oxbridge life.

The Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman, found his true muse in the shapely figure of Joan Jackson. Born Joan Hunter Dunn, she caught his eye in the unlikely surroundings of a wartime ministry canteen. The smitten poet immortalised her in The Subaltern's Love Song, "Miss J. Hunter Dunn, Miss J. Hunter Dunn, Furnish'd and burnish'd by Aldershot sun." His love remained unrequited and she went on to marry a civil servant and move to Singapore.

There was also disappointment in love for the giant panda Taotao who despite many attempts, failed to breed in captivity. Born wild in north-western China she became a star attraction in Jinan Zoo but was destined never to hear the patter of tiny paws. She was believed to have been 36 when she died, far above the life expectancy of giant pandas in the wild. Taotao has been stuffed.

Among others who died in April were Jazz musician Humphrey Lyttleton, LSD inventor Albert Hofmann, French enthnographer and resistance fighter Germaine Tillion , veteran MP Gwyneth Dunwoody, Disney animator Ollie Johnston, John Wheeler, the man who coined the term "black hole", and acting legend Charlton Heston.