Peaches Geldof dies aged 25

From BBC

Peaches Geldof: Irish President Higgins leads tributes

Irish President Michael D Higgins has led tributes to Bob Geldof’s daughter Peaches, who has died at the age of 25.

Actress Susan Sarandon, singer Boy George, politician Martin McGuinness and TV presenter Davina McCall have also offered condolences.

President Higgins extended “my deepest sympathies to Bob Geldof and his family on the sudden and untimely death of his daughter Peaches”.

Geldof, 25, was found dead at her home in Wrotham, Kent on Monday.

Her father Bob, a musician, charity campaigner and TV producer, said his family are “beyond pain” following the news.

Peaches was the second daughter of Geldof and the late TV presenter Paula Yates.

Kent Police said her death was being treated as “non-suspicious but unexplained and sudden”.

A post-mortem is expected to take place in the next few days.

Irish President Michael D Higgins, who was due to meet Bob Geldof this week during a state visit to Britain, said his thoughts were with the family.

“This is such a difficult cross to bear for any family and all of our thoughts are with Peaches’ family and friends at this time. Sabina and I were due to meet Bob Geldof while on the state visit and we are thinking of him at this time of immense loss,” he added.

Writer, TV presenter and model Geldof had two young sons with her second husband, musician Tom Cohen. She was 11 when her own mother died.

In a family statement issued on Monday night, Bob Geldof said: “She was the wildest, funniest, cleverest, wittiest and the most bonkers of all of us.

“Writing ‘was’ destroys me afresh. What a beautiful child. How is this possible that we will not see her again? How is that bearable?

“We loved her and will cherish her forever. How sad that sentence is. Tom and her sons Astala and Phaedra will always belong in our family, fractured so often, but never broken.”

The statement was signed Bob, Jeanne, Fifi, Pixie and Tiger Geldof.

Cohen said: “My beloved wife Peaches was adored by myself and her two sons Astala and Phaedra and I shall bring them up with their mother in their hearts every day. We shall love her forever.”

Bob Geldof was knighted in 1986 for his work in organising Live Aid and other concerts that raised millions for the starving people of Africa. He first gained prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats in the 1970s.

Yates, who was famous for presenting Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast and music show The Tube, died of a heroin overdose in September 2000.

Boy George, who sang on the Band Aid single Do They Know It’s Christmas?, tweeted: “We spoke only a month ago and she looked like an angel.”

Geldof’s connections led to a diverse cross-section of tributes from those on the celebrity circuit and and politicians.

Martin McGuinness, Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister, added his voice by saying: “The loss of Peaches Geldof is very sad for her family & friends – very sorry for them, so tragic.”

Singer Ellie Goulding said: “Even if you think you’ve got it all figured out, some things still can’t be explained or understood. Two beautiful children. RIP Peaches.”

Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon described Geldof as “beautiful” on Twitter, while X Factor winner Sam Bailey tweeted she was “so nice and a great mother”.

TV presenter Davina McCall said it was “unbearable news” while Dermot O’Leary added: “Met Peaches several times. Really sweet girl. So so sad for the Geldof family.”

Pop duo Rizzle Kicks tweeted that they were “absolutely devastated” while musician Gary Numan wrote: “I can’t begin to imagine the pain Bob & Peaches family are going through.”

Former boxing star Barry McGuigan tweeted that he was “shockingly sad” to hear the news.

Entertainer Lionel Blair tweeted that he was “so shocked” at the news, while US socialite Paris Hilton described Geldof as “a beautiful & special soul”.

Members of Girls Aloud also paid tribute.

Nadine Coyle said: “”As a new mummy, I have loved seeing her progress with her babies. A very sad day.”

Nicola Roberts tweeted that she was “unbelievably sad”.

Peaches Geldof’s final tweet was a picture of herself as a young child with her mother

A host of other celebrities also expressed their sadness at her death, including presenters of ITV’s This Morning show Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby.

Schofield, who appeared with Geldof on This Morning, wrote online: “Utterly stunned at the terrible news of the death of Peaches Geldof! The dreadful loss of a really lovely woman”

“My beloved wife Peaches was adored by myself and her two sons Astala and Phaedra” Tom Cohen Peaches Geldof’s husband

Willoughby added: “Just heard about Peaches, so unbelievably tragic. So shocked and sad. Sending my thoughts and love to her family.”

Actor Noel Clarke expressed his shock at Geldof’s death: “Terrible news! So, so young!”

The Saturdays’ Rochelle Hume said her “thoughts were with her babies and family”.

Also among those to pay tribute was Michelle Mone, founder of underwear firm Ultimo, who employed Geldof as a brand ambassador.

She called her “an incredible young woman” and said their relationship remained good despite Geldof being dropped by the company in 2010 after allegations about her taking drugs appeared in newspapers.

“I really did respect her and every time I met her I just felt quite proud of her because she had managed to turn her life around and seemed very happy,” Mone told BBC Radio 5live.

A post mortem into the death of Peaches Geldof will be carried out “in the next few days”, Kent police said.

PHOTO:

Geldof attended a fashion show in London last week

This 1989 image shows Peaches Geldof as a baby with parents Bob Geldof and Paula Yates, and sister Fifi Trixibelle

Geldof married Thomas Cohen, lead singer of the band SCUM, in 2012

Geldof’s final tweet on Sunday was a picture of her as a child with her mother Yates, with the message: “Me and my mum.”

Peaches Geldof on Sport Relief

For more on this story go to:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-26933626

Mickey Rooney dies at 93

By Alan Duke and Todd Leopold, CNN

Los Angeles (CNN) — Mickey Rooney, whose roller-coaster, nine-decade career in show business included vaudeville, silent films, movies, television and Broadway, died Sunday. He was 93.

Rooney died in California, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office said.

Rooney’s career spanned almost the entire history of motion pictures. He made his first film, the silent “Not to Be Trusted,” in 1926 and followed it up with several shorts based on the “Mickey McGuire” comic strip. He was still making movies nine decades later, including “Night at the Museum” (2006) and “The Muppets” (2011).

At the time of his death, he had three more films in the works, according to the Internet Movie Database, including a version of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” with Margaret O’Brien.

Rooney had just completed his last movie role in the next installment of “Night at the Museum” with Ben Stiller.

“He led a full life but did not have enough time to finish all he had planned to do. He had the time of his life and the utmost respect for the cast and crew,” his son Mark Rooney said in a statement to CNN Monday.

He separated from his wife, Jan Chamberlin, two years ago and moved in with his son and his wife, Charlene, according to the statement. “With them he finally found happiness, health and a feeling of safety and was able to enjoy life again.”

“Mickey was finally enjoying life as a bachelor, and the morning of his death, they spoke of all their future plans,” the statement said. “He loved the business he was in and had a great respect for his fellow actors.”

Photos: Mickey Rooney dies at 93

Photos: People we lost in 2014

Actor Mickey Rooney dies at 93

For a period in the 1930s and 1940s, boosted by the popularity of the “Andy Hardy” series of films, Rooney was the No. 1 star at the box office and perhaps the brightest star at MGM — a whole studio of “more stars than there are in heaven,” as the publicity said. Yet he became as famous for many marriages — eight, all told — and his regular tumbles off the Hollywood pedestal as he was for his incredible energy and longevity.

Still, he never stopped getting up.

“I keep going because if you stop, you stop,” he told the UK’s Guardian newspaper in 2009. “Why retire? Inspire.”

Top box-office draw

The diminutive 5-foot, 2-inch Rooney began his acting career shortly after his first birthday, appearing on vaudeville stages with his parents. He was born Joseph Yule Jr. on September 23, 1920, in Brooklyn, New York.

His parents split when he was young, but spurred by his mother, he soon found himself in Hollywood. Before he was 10, he was a star, appearing in dozens of shorts based on the popular “Mickey McGuire” strip.

He worked steadily through the 1930s, with notable turns in a 1935 version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and 1937’s “Captains Courageous,” the latter opposite Spencer Tracy. (Rooney also appeared in Tracy’s 1938 vehicle “Boys Town.”)

But he shot into Hollywood’s stratosphere in his next film series as Andy Hardy in more than a dozen films produced between 1937 and 1946.

Andy Hardy was a good-hearted ball of teenage mischief, always trying to make a few dollars or willing to “put on a show,” no matter what it took: rounding up friends, using a barn, getting some spare parts from his wholesome middle-American neighborhood. Inevitably, he would be called to account with his father, Judge Hardy, played at first by Lionel Barrymore and later by Lewis Stone. Judge Hardy would reiterate the basics of fairness and morality, and Andy — and the movie audience — would have once again learned a valuable lesson.

The films were hugely popular, even more so when Rooney’s character became the centerpiece starting with 1938’s “Love Finds Andy Hardy.” It didn’t hurt that Rooney was paired with Judy Garland for three of the films.

Garland and Rooney also co-starred in several Busby Berkeley musicals, including 1940’s “Strike up the Band” and “Babes on Broadway” a year later.

Many marriages, money troubles

But Rooney’s private life wasn’t always as wonderful as his on-screen persona would indicate. He was married eight times, three times in the 1940s alone. His first marriage, to Ava Gardner, began in 1942 and ended in 1943. In 1944, he married an Alabama beauty queen, Betty Jane Phillips; that one ended in 1948. His third marriage, to Martha Vickers, lasted less than three years.

Throughout, Rooney was known as a spendthrift and a challenging partner. He loved horseracing and routinely spent his earnings at the track, even when there weren’t many earnings to speak of, as there was during a fallow period in the 1950s. As an adult of a certain size, Rooney found it much harder to find roles into which he could channel his prodigious talents.

But he wouldn’t stay unemployed for long. There was a TV series, “The Mickey Rooney Show,” for a season in 1954-55. More important, there was a supporting actor Oscar nomination for 1956’s “The Bold and the Brave.”

Rooney, however, wasn’t very discriminating about his roles. Other films during the late ’50s and early ’60s included forgettable flicks such as “Operation Mad Ball” (1957), “The Private Lives of Adam and Eve” (1960) and “Platinum High School” (1960). He appeared in the classic “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961) but in the unfortunate, broadly acted role of Holly Golightly’s Japanese neighbor, Mr. Yunioshi.

He was one of the cast of a thousand comedians in “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” (1963).

Rooney also made TV guest appearances on such shows as “The Investigators,” “Naked City” and “The Twilight Zone.” On the latter, he played a jockey.

‘He is a showman’

After another 15 years of minor movie parts and TV roles, Rooney’s up-and-down career once again hit the heights. He earned an Oscar nomination for his performance as a horse trainer in 1979’s “The Black Stallion” and dazzled Broadway in the song-and-dance revue “Sugar Babies” — a role, given his start, he was born to play. The show earned him a Tony nomination and ran for almost three years.

Over the years, Rooney earned four Oscar nominations. In addition, he received a special Oscar in 1939 and an honorary one in 1983.

Rooney also triumphed on television in the 1981 TV movie “Bill,” about a mentally disabled man trying to live on his own. That performance garnered him an Emmy.

Video: Interview with Rooney in March

He also found a lasting marriage when he wed Jan Chamberlin in 1978. Chamberlin survives the actor.

However, Rooney once again faced financial struggles as he entered his later decades. They came to national attention when he asked a Los Angeles court to appoint a conservator to protect him from his stepson and stepdaughter. Rooney blamed his financial troubles on a stepson whom he successfully sued.

He also took his case to Congress, delivering emotional testimony to a House committee in March 2011 in which he said family members took control of his life, making him “scared, disappointed, yes, and angry.”

Rooney made his audience laugh and cry when he implored senators to stop what experts call chronic emotional, physical, sexual and financial abuse of elderly Americans by family members and other caregivers.

Rooney called on Congress to make elder abuse a specific crime. “I’m asking you to stop this elderly abuse. I mean to stop it. Now. Not tomorrow, not next month but now,” he shouted from the witness table.

Rooney: A spokesman against elder abuse

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Reva Goetz appointed attorney Michael Augustine as Rooney’s permanent conservator that month. Augustine immediately began seeking entertainment gigs for the aging performer, telling CNN that he had to revive his show business career quickly or would die “in very short order.”

Augustine summed up Rooney’s drive in a few sentences.

“Mr. Rooney’s parents put him on the vaudeville stage when he was 17 months old,” he said in 2011. “If Mr. Rooney were to not work, I think we would be attending Mr. Rooney’s funeral in very short order.

“It’s part of his fiber,” Augustine continued. “He loves it. He is a showman.”

His last months included reunions with old friends, the family statement said.

“Even someone of Mickey’s iconic statue was quite star struck and was extremely thrilled to attend Vanity Fair’s Oscar party recently,” the family said. “Just last week Mickey was ecstatic when they surprised him by reuniting him with one of his great loves, the race track. There they spent time with Mel Brooks and Dick Van Patten. He had exceptional care and a new lease on life.”

For more on this story go to:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/07/showbiz/mickey-rooney-obit/