Celebrity Deaths

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RE: Celebrity Deaths
Stage and screen actor Michael Pennington has died at the age of 82. Best known as Death Star Commander Moff Jerjerrod in Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the actor was an accomplished Shakespearean and is listed as an Honorary Associate Artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He also co-founded the English Shakespeare Company alongside theatre director Michael Bogdanov. The actor's on-screen career began in 1965 with a supporting part in the BBC mini-series, The War of the Roses. He went on to have more than 70 screen roles across his career, including starring opposite actress Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, for which she won her third Academy Award for best actress.

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RE: Celebrity Deaths
Veteran actor Alan Rothwell, best known for playing David Barlow in the original cast of ITV soap Coronation Street, has died aged 89 after a short illness. Born in Oldham, he starred in the programme from its inception in 1960 until 1969, and later appeared in TV series such as Gideon's Way and The Villains. Rothwell also starred in the Channel 4 soap Brookside as Nicholas Black in the 1980s and became a familiar face to generations of viewers as the presenter of the long-running children's television programmes Picture Box and Hickory House.

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RE: Celebrity Deaths
Actress Jill Curzon, who was best known for her role in the Doctor Who spin-off film Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 AD, has died at the age of 87. Curzon starred as Louise opposite Peter Cushing in the 1966 sci-fi adventure. Her extensive career also saw her appear alongside Hollywood greats such as Cliff Robertson in The Sunshine Patriot and Robert Wagner in It Takes A Thief. British audiences may also remember her from Dr Syn, Alias The Scarecrow and the Morecambe and Wise comedy The Intelligence Men.

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RE: Celebrity Deaths
Scott Hastings, one of Scotland's best and most loved rugby union players, has died at age 61. Alongside his brother Gavin, Hastings was part of the last Scotland side to win a Grand Slam when they triumphed in the 1990 Five Nations. In 2022 Hastings revealed he had been diagnosed with cancer, receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which could not be cured.

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RE: Celebrity Deaths
Dame Felicity Lott, one of Britain's best-loved sopranos, has died at the age of 79. The singer died on 15 May after a recent interview she gave to the BBC in which she announced she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The acclaimed soprano built an international career spanning four decades, in which she performed at opera houses and concert halls around the world, singing works by composers including Richard Strauss, Schubert and Mozart.