Guitars and glamour

BEEN AND GONE
By Nick Serpell
BBC Obituary Unit

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

Pin-up girl Bettie Page became one of the most photographed women of the 20th century. In the drab post-war 1950s her provocative poses, usually in a bikini, delighted many viewers and scandalised others. She appeared as the Playboy centrefold in 1955 wearing nothing but a Father Christmas hat, and her image adorned thousands of student locker rooms. A series of poses showing her tied up and gagged sparked a Congressional investigation and she was hounded by federal agents. In an interview in 1998 she said she had no regrets: "I never thought it was shameful. It's just that it was much better than pounding a typewriter eight hours a day."

Bob Spiers began his directing career on a series of BBC sitcoms including Dad's Army and Are You Being Served. In 1979 he was asked to direct the second series of Fawlty Towers for which he won his first Bafta. He went freelance in 1980 and worked on more cutting edge comedy, notably the Channel Four series The Comic Strip Presents. It was the beginning of a close working relationship with French & Saunders and he won his second Bafta for Saunders' Absolutely Fabulous, directing every single episode. In 1997 he directed Spiceworld, the film built round the careers of the Spice Girls.

American actress Majel Barrett played the part of Number One in the pilot for Star Trek, but her character was dropped before the first series was commissioned. Instead she returned as Nurse Chapel, who had an unrequited crush on the emotionless Mr Spock. She also became the voice of the ship's computer for the various TV incarnations and some of the films. She married the series creator, Gene Roddenberry, in 1969. Years later she re-appeared on the Enterprise as Ambassador Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Shortly before her death, she recorded the voice of the ship's computer for the film, Star Trek XI due for release in 2009.

When the pleasure boat Marchioness sank in the River Thames in the early hours of 20 August 1989, Eileen Dallaglio's daughter Francesca was one of the 51 people who died. Despite, as she put it, being almost destroyed by grief, Eileen began a campaign to find out exactly how the Marchioness had come to be rammed by the dredger Bowbelle. Her unstinting efforts forced the Government to hold a public inquiry into the incident which resulted in an overhaul of safety regulations on the river. In addition, the RNLI set up four lifeboat stations to cover the Thames from Teddington to Gravesend.

The wealthy American heiress and philanthropist Martha Sharp Crawford von Bulow, also known as Sunny, was found collapsed at her home in Rhode Island in December 1980. Her husband Claus was arrested and charged with injecting her with large doses of insulin but, after two trials, he was acquitted when experts determined she had a history of drug and alcohol abuse. Sunny never regained consciousness and remained in a coma until her death 28 years later. Her story was dramatised in the film Reversal of Fortune, starring Glen Close and Jeremy Irons.

Davey Graham was one of the driving forces in the British folk music revival of the 1960s. His fingerstyle method of playing acoustic guitar influenced bands such as Fairport Convention and Pentangle. A self taught musician, he wrote his most famous piece, Anji, at the age of 19. It was later recorded by many artists, including Simon & Garfunkel, who featured it on their 1966 album Sounds of Silence. An eclectic artist he moved from genre to genre as it took his fancy and that, together with a burgeoning drug habit in the late 60s, meant commercial success eluded him. He worked for the mental health charity Mind for many years but had returned to performing shortly before his death.

Espousing a harder guitar style, but no less influential, Delaney Bramlett worked with some of the greatest names in rock music. He is reputed to have taught George Harrison to play the slide guitar which featured on Harrison's hit, My Sweet Lord, and played alongside Duane Allman, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. In 1968, with his wife Bonnie, he formed the band Delaney, Bonnie & Friends, touring and recording with Eric Clapton, for whom he wrote the song Let It Rain. His biggest hit was Superstar which has been recorded by dozens of artists including Luther Vandross and the Carpenters.

Convicted bank robber Tony Hoare really did make crime pay. A not particularly successful getaway driver (he was blind in one eye and had a bad back) he served time in various jails where he became interested in drama. Encouraged by the playwright Alan Plater, who was then a writer on Z Cars, he began writing scripts for television. His was a world where car tyres squealed, villains got fitted up and shooters were always at the ready. His credits included many of the best known police and crime dramas of the period including Softly Softly, The Sweeney, and 20 episodes of Minder.

Among others who died in December were the creator of The Clangers, Bagpuss and Noggin The Nog, Oliver Postgate, actress Kathy Staff, who played Nora Batty in last of the Summer Wine, Nobel winning playwright, Harold Pinter, sultry chanteuse Eartha Kitt and FBI agent Mark Felt, known as Deep Throat, who leaked details of the Watergate break-in to the Washington Post.