29th April to 5th May - Acting Modest in Old Age

Guinness Record Holder and American actress Helen Wagner died of cancer on 1st May at the age of 91. Wagner played Nancy Hughes on the soap opera As the World Turns from the show's debut in April 1956 until her death, 54 years later. Her character was acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records as being the longest-running character played by one actor or actress on television a record almost jeopardised by coffee; Wagner was once fired from the show in 1956 allegedly because the show’s creator did not like the way Wagner poured coffee. Public support led to her reinstatement. On November 22, 1963, during the broadcast of the show, which was aired live, Wagner's performance was interrupted by the voiceover of broadcaster Walter Cronkite announcing that President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas.

The oldest living person, Kama Chinen, who was born in May 1895 has died aged aged 114 years 357 days. From the Japanese island of Okinawa, Chinen was the 28th oldest person ever and the last documented person to have been born in 1895. She held the title of oldest living person from September 2009 until her death. According to government reports there are 40,000 Japanese people over 100 years old, of which over 86% are women. As a result of Chinen’s passing the title of oldest living person belongs to Frenchwoman Eugénie Blanchard aged 114 (born 16 February 1896). The record for longest confirmed human lifespan belongs to another Frenchwoman, Jeanne Louise Calment, who was 122 years and 164 days old when she died in 1997.



British writer, Peter O’Donnell, best known for writing the Modesty Blaise comic strip has died aged 90 in Sussex, England. The famous comic detailing the adventures of Modesty Blaise, a talented young woman with a criminal past, and her trusty sidekick Willie Garvin was serialized from 1963 to 2001. under the pseudonym Madeleine Brent. The character of Modesty was inspired by a girl O’Donnell met during his wartime service in the Middle East. O’Donnell wrote twelve Modesty Blaise novels and, under the pseudonym Madeleine Brent, nine historical romances.

8th to 14th April - A Southerner, a Munchkin and the man who got between Frazier and Ali

American comedy actress Dixie Carter, best known for her role as interior decorator Julia Sugarbaker in the 1980’s southern sitcom Designing Women, opposite Delta Burke, has passed away aged 70. Famous for portraying strong-minded Southern women Carter guest starred in Diff’rent Strokes, the legal drama Family Law and was awarded an Emmy for guest acting in Desperate Housewives as recently as 2007. She is survived by her two daughters and her third husband, the actor Hal Holbrook, who was nominated for an Oscar for the Sean Penn film Into the Wild (2007).

Another actor, Meinhardt Raabe, one of the last remaining Muchkins from the film The Wizard of Oz (1939), has passed away aged 94. The 107cm tall actor played the Coroner in the classic film, his role famous for confirming the death of the Wicked Witch of the West with the verse “As coroner, I must aver, I thoroughly examined her; And she's not only merely dead, She's really, most sincerely dead!”

Arthur Mercante, the man who refereed boxing’s Fight of the Century between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier has passed away in New York State aged 90. Born in Brockton, Massachussets in 1920 Mercante’s childhood friend was future undefeated heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano. Mercante fought in WWII then gained a Masters degree in Physical Education and became a pro-referee in 1954. He is best remembered for the 1971 Fight of the Century. Ali and Frazier, then undefeated boxing superstars, each received a then-record purse of $2.5 million USD for the fight at Madison Square Garden won by Frazier. Mercante refereed his last fight in 2001, aged 81.