The late Swedish singer and actress Lill-Babs, who recently played the character “Gugge” in the Netflix hit “Bonus Family,” once shared a stage with the Beatles. And, it was the lads from Liverpool who actually requested her autograph after the show!
Barbro “Lill-Babs” Svensson was born in Järvsö in 1938 and released her first album in 1954. She became known as the Järvsø Judy Garland but was later given the name Lill-Babs by Simon Brehm, who discovered her on the Morgonkvisten radio show and became her manager.
Lill-Babs, The Telstars and The Beatles took part in the Swedish show Drop-In in 1963
Lill-Babs finished fourteenth when representing Sweden at the 1961 Eurovision Song Contest in Cannes with the song April, April. However, she participated in Sweden’s qualifying Melodifestivalen three times overall (1960, 1961 and 1973), and even entered Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix in 1969.
As the singing career of Lill-Babs flourished throughout the decades, she became a national treasure. But her most recent success was in the critically acclaimed role as Gugge in SVT hit drama Bonus Family (Bonusfamiljen).
As “Gugge” (right) in “Bonus Family”
Lill-Babs passed away at 80 years of age on April 3 of 2018. She leaves behind three daughters: Monica Svensson, Malin Berghagen and Kristin Kaspersen.
The announcement was made earlier today (September 11), informing fans that Chapman died at his home at age 80.
Folk singer-songwriter Michael Chapman has died at the age of 80.
The announcement was made via Chapman’s Instagram page earlier today (September 11). No cause of death was revealed, but the social media post stated that Chapman died in his home.
“Please raise a glass or two to a gentleman, a musician, a husband, a force of nature, a legend and the most fully qualified survivor,” it reads.
His label Paradise of Bachelors also issued a statement on the platform.
“Michael Chapman was a hero and friend to so many, including us,” they wrote, “moving with unmatched grace, vigor, and gruff humor within and beyond his songs and those he inspired from others. We are devastated to hear of his passing today.”
Born in Leeds in 1941, Chapman released his debut album, ‘Rainmaker’, in 1969. Since then, he has issued over 40 full-length albums. His final recorded effort, ‘True North’, was released in 2019 via Paradise of Bachelors.
In his work, Chapman explored roots music, such as blues and folk, through acoustic and electric instruments, issuing multiple instrumental efforts and collaborations over the decades. His work has also been influential to various artists ever since, including Sonic Youth‘s Thurston Moore.
In 2017, Chapman told The Guardian that he had dinner with Moore in 1998, who confessed to him that his 1973 album, ‘Millstone Grit’, helped spark the genesis of Sonic Youth. “He blames the feedback extravaganzas on there for them forming,” Chapman said.
On Instagram, Moore shared a clip from a fireside performance by Chapman via Ecstatic Peace Library. “And this is the last time we saw you by the fire,” he wrote. “We got to know England when (and because) we got to know you. Thank you hero.”
A 2012 compilation album, titled ‘Oh Michael, Look What You’ve Done: Friends Play Michael Chapman’, featured covers of his songs by Moore, Lucinda Williams, Hiss Golden Messenger, and William Tyler, among others.
Chapman also spent his time in recent decades touring with younger contemporaries such as Bill Callahan, Ryley Walker, Daniel Bachman, and the late Jack Rose.
Singer-songwriter Steve Gunn, who went on to produce ‘True North’ for Chapman, told The Guardian that his 1970s albums “were so ahead of their time”. Upon news of his death, the musician tweeted pictures of Chapman, one taken with Gunn.
US label Light in the Attic, who reissued his first four albums in the 2010s, called Chapman “a rare human”.
“Immensely talented, honest, supportive, funny, and always zero bullshit,” they wrote.
Helen McCrory is a famous British actress who has also been honoured with the Order of the British Empire (OBE). She has played some very famous roles such as Cherie Blair in The Queen (2006) and The Special Relationship (2010). Helen McCrory also played the role of Françoise in the film Charlotte Gray (2001). But she is definitely most famous for her role of Narcissa Malfoy in three Harry Potter movies. Aside from being a part of the global blockbuster franchise, Helen McCrory also played the role of Mama Jeanne in Martin Scorsese’s family film Hugo (2011). She has also made an appearance in a Bond film, playing the role of Clair Dowar Skyfall (2012). The prolific Helen McCrory also appeared as Polly Gray in Peaky Blinders (2013–present), Emma Banville in Fearless (2017) and Kathryn Villiers in MotherFatherSon (2019). She also played the role of Madame Kali/Evelyn Poole in Showtime’s supernatural drama, Penny Dreadful. Let’s find out more about this incredible actress
When was Helen McCrory born?
Helen McCrory was born on August 17th, 1968 in Paddington in England, UK. She was born to Welsh mother Ann Morgans and Scottish father Iain McCrory. The couple married in 1974 and had three children, with Helen McCrory being the eldest.
Where did Helen McCrory study?
Helen McCrory studied at Queenswood School near Hatfield, Hertfordshire. After that, she took a gap year and lived in Italy. Once she came back to Britain, she started her acting course at London’s Drama Centre.
The star, who has died of cancer, was a “beautiful and mighty woman”, her husband Damian Lewis said.
Actress Helen McCrory, known for her roles in Peaky Blinders and three Harry Potter films, has died of cancer at the age of 52, her husband, the actor Damian Lewis, announced.
He said he was “heartbroken”, and that she was a “beautiful and mighty woman”.
He wrote: “She blazed so brightly. Go now, Little One, into the air, and thank you.”
Harry Potter author JK Rowling led the tributes, writing that it was “simply heartbreaking news”.
McCrory was also known for her long and acclaimed career on stage, and the National Theatre’s artistic director Rufus Norris said she was “unquestionably one of the great actors of her generation”. [ . . . ]
Dr Marc Ellington, DL, Baron of Towie Barclay. Born: December 16 1945 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Died: February 17 2021, aged 75
There’s a photo in the Great Hall in Towie Barclay Castle of two men sharing a real belly laugh –one is a bearded and pony-tailed former folk singer called Marc Ellington, the other is a kilted Duke of Rothesay, better known as HRH Prince Charles. The photo clearly shows two things – firstly, a quite genuine friendship between the two men, and secondly, the fact that Marc Ellington knew everybody.
He was quite shameless when it came to name-dropping, which could be a little disorientating, “Bob” could be a reference to the local doctor in Turriff or Dylan or Marley. He had genuinely played alongside a dazzling array of musical greats, fully half of whom had slept on the floor of his flat at some stage. His daughters Kirstie and Iona once found themselves on a family holiday in Mustique having a singsong with a slim, pale man with mismatched eyes who, according to them, “wasn’t very good”. Thankfully nobody relayed that back to David Bowie.
The Ellington family home, Towie Barclay Castle, near Turriff in Aberdeenshire, is a stunning 16th-century tower house that Marc and wife Karen, an award-winning landscaper and garden designer, bought as a ruin in the late 1960s for a few thousand pounds, then spent years painstakingly rebuilding. The project was funded entirely through Marc’s musical career and kept on track by Karen’s rigorous attention to detail. Their outstanding restoration was given a Saltire Award in 1973.
