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Rip, Neil. Mankind will never forget your 'one step'. Fortunately, so far, I have not encountered any conspiracy theory nutcases saying we shouldn't be saluting a liar...

I love those naysayer idiots.

RIP, Mr. Armstrong.

British entertainer Max Bygraves dies at age 89

BRITISH entertainer Max Bygraves, a veteran singer and comedian known for his old-fashioned charm, has died, his agent has confirmed. He was 89.

Agent Johnny Mans said Bygraves, who had suffered from Alzheimer's disease, died in his sleep Friday at his daughter's home in Hope Island, Queensland.

Bygraves won fame in Britain's music halls and theaters after World War II, becoming one of the country's best known variety performers and releasing dozens of popular records.

Famed for his catchphrase "I wanna tell you a story," Bygraves become a staple performer on radio through the 1950s, and later appeared frequently on British television shows and in a small number of films.

"We have lost one of the best entertainers that Britain has ever produced," Mans said. "His death is a great loss to the entertainment profession and a great loss to all of his friends in the industry."

Born to an east London dockworker, Bygraves was awarded an OBE in 1982, and performed regularly for the royal family, first in 1950 for King George VI.

"He was one of the all-time greats of British show business," comedian Jimmy Tarbuck told BBC television.

The performer's career spanned six decades, with Bygraves recording an album in 2001 for the Royal British Legion charity. He was best known for the songs You Need Hands and the novelty hit You're a Pink Toothbrush.

Bygraves also won brief acclaim in the United States, where he toured in the 1950s and appeared alongside Judy Garland at New York's Palace Theatre.

The entertainer emigrated from Britain to Australia in 2005.

Lyricist Hal David dies aged 91

American lyricist Hal David, who worked with Burt Bacharach to write some of the biggest hits of the 1960s and 70s, has died aged 91.

He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre of complications from a stroke, said Jim Steinblatt, a spokesman for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

David met Bacharach in New York in 1957, and they went on to write Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head, Walk On By and I Say A Little Prayer.

Earlier this year, the duo was awarded the prestigious Gershwin Prize for Popular Song at a tribute concert at the White House.

David and Bacharach's songs have been recorded by such artists as Dionne Warwick, Marty Robbins and Tom Jones.

They won an Oscar for Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Grammys and Tonys for the songs from the hit Broadway musical Promises, Promises.

The duo's other hits included Do You Know the Way to San Jose, and (They Long To Be) Close To You, which is best known from a version by The Carpenters.

David is survived by his wife Eunice and his sons Jim and Craig, three grandchildren and two stepsons.

Pop music expert Paul Gambaccini said Hal David would be remembered as one of the greats.

"Hal David is one of the giants of all time of popular music song writing," he told the BBC.

"His list of hits is so impressive. There are so many wonderful songs."

ASCAP president and chairman Paul Williams also paid tribute to David in a statement.

"As a lyric writer, Hal was simple, concise and poetic - conveying volumes of meaning in (the) fewest possible words and always in service to the music," he said.

"It is no wonder that so many of his lyrics have become part of our everyday vocabulary and his songs... the backdrop of our lives."

Dad's Army star Clive Dunn dies at 92

British actor Clive Dunn, best known for playing Lance-Corporal Jones in the popular World War II sitcom Dad's Army, has died at the age of 92.

As Lance-Corporal Jones in Dad's Army - a hit television series in the 1960s and 1970s about a group of local volunteer members of the Home Guard - Dunn was famous for catchphrases such as "Don't panic!" and "They don't like it up 'em".

He also had a number hit song with Grandad in 1971, which he performed several times on TV music show Top of the Pops.

Dunn was born in London in 1920 and enrolled in an acting academy after leaving school.

He played several small roles in films in the 1930s before serving in the army in World War II, ending up in prisoner-of-war and labour camps for four years.

After the war he worked in music halls before enjoying success as Jones in Dad's Army.

Underlining his ability to play characters far older than his real age, he followed Dad's Army with a five-year run in children's comedy series Grandad as an elderly caretaker.

He is survived by his wife Priscilla Morgan and two daughters, Jessica and Polly.

Larry Hagman dead at 81

Veteran American actor Larry Hagman has died at the age of 81.

Hagman, famed for his roles in I Dream of Jeannie and Dallas, passed away at a Dallas hospital, according to media reports.

His Dallas co-stars Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy, who played his wife Sue Ellen and brother Bobby, were at his bedside when died, The Sun newspaper reports.

Hagman revealed last year that he had been diagnosed with throat cancer, saying: "As J.R. I could get away with anything - bribery, blackmail and adultery. But I got caught by cancer."

He underwent treatment for his cancer and was back filming the new Dallas series in January, reprising his role as villain TV viewers loved to hate.

Hagman, who was born in Forth Worth, Texas, shot to fame in 1965 when he landed the role of Anthony Nelson, Barbara Eden's "master", in the popular sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.

His role as the scheming oil tycoon JR Ewing in Dallas, which debuted in 1977, made him one of the biggest stars of television. In the final scene of the 1979 season, Hagman's character was shot by an unknown assailant, launching the landmark "Who Shot JR" storyline and breaking ratings records.

In 1995, Hagman had a liver transplant after nearly 50 years of alcoholism. He later revealed how he used to down bottles of champagne on the Dallas set.

"I was loaded all the time, all the time, all during Genie, all during Dallas I was loaded," he told the BBC in 2001.

"I never got sober. Do the first scene, get it into the can, hopefully by nine o'clock and so I'd reward myself, I'd open a bottle of champagne and start to imbibe."

Hagman, whose mother was Broadway star Mary Martin, married Swedish-born Maj Axelsson in 1954 and the couple had two children.

A heavy smoker as a young man, he later quit and recorded several public service announcements pleading with smokers to stop and urging non-smokers never to start.

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch dead

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, whose philanthropy and charity work saw her become a widely respected and much-loved public figure, has died peacefully at her home aged 103.

She gave her name, influence and money to more than 100 Australian charities and organisations.

Dame Elisabeth was married to Sir Keith Murdoch in 1928 and they had four children - Helen, Rupert, Anne and Janet.

Her community work saw the Queen make her a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1963.

Among her many other accolades, Dame Elisabeth was also awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia and in 2005 she was named Victorian of the Year.

Dame Elisabeth felt the advantage of her wealth was the opportunity to do good for causes she felt passionately about, saying: "Wealth can be misused but generally speaking, it's a tremendous tool in helping the community."

She was a fervent supporter of the arts, academia, medical research, the environment, children and social welfare.

Her interest in genetic disorders also led her to establish The Murdoch Children's Institute.

Dame Elisabeth was also politically active. She supported the carbon tax introduced by the Gillard Government, signing an open letter that supported the policy in 2011.

The youngest of three daughters, Elisabeth Joy Greene was born in 1909 and grew up her family's Melbourne homestead, Pemberley, which was surrounded by an acre of gardens on Toorak Road.

She once said: "My world was my parent's garden."

Dame Elisabeth was spoilt by her father, Rupert, who encouraged his youngest daughter's ambition to join the circus.

Her father had a mischievous spirit, and even allowed her to puff on his pipe and chew tobacco.

But Dame Elisabeth's father struggled with gambling issues, which caused difficulties for her mother Marie as she struggled to keep the family fed and housed.

It was her mother's caring nature and concern for others that set an example Dame Elisabeth would carry throughout her life.

The Dame's compassionate nature was evident from an early age.

She was awarded a tour of the children's hospital after breaking its singlet-knitting record at the age of 16.

Seeing howling babies emerging from theatre upset her so much that she vowed to do all she could to help children.

Not a babe in arms but "a babe with arms" is what the media said when 19-year-old Elisabeth Greene first stepped out with the 42-year-old Keith Murdoch.

Melbourne's most eligible bachelor had spied Dame Elisabeth's photograph in a society magazine and insisted on meeting the young beauty.

Charmed by his eyes, Dame Elisabeth felt at once attracted to the handsome newspaperman, claiming it was love at first sight.

Despite concerns from family and friends about their 23-year age difference, the pair were married in 1928, with the bride electing to wear her sister's hand-me-down wedding dress.

Mr Murdoch's wedding gift to his young wife was Cruden Farm, on the outskirts of Melbourne, in Langwarrin.

The property has been Dame Elisabeth's home for over 80 years and it was there she and her husband raised their four children.

Cruden Farm's resplendent grounds are open to the public several times a year.

As a mother, Dame Elisabeth was the disciplinarian in the family, with her husband being prone to indulging their children.

She believed in "loving discipline" and recalled using the slipper to reprimand a young Rupert.

Dame Elisabeth gave Rupert the opportunity in later years to publicly tease his mother about "the beatings" she gave him.

She believed fervently in the importance of tolerance, understanding and caring - qualities she wanted to instil in her children's upbringing.

In a 2009 interview for ABC TV's The 7.30 Report, Dame Elisabeth confessed that she and Rupert did not always see eye-to-eye but respected each other's opinions.

"I think (we disagree about) the kind of journalism and the tremendous invasion of people's privacy. I don't approve of that," she said.

Following Mr Murdoch senior's untimely death of cancer in 1952, Dame Elisabeth focused on building the new Melbourne Children's Hospital.

Her passion for the project, together with her influence, resulted in the necessary government funding and she had remained a benefactor of the hospital thereafter.

Until recently, Dame Elisabeth was "hands on" in the magnificent gardens of her much-loved Cruden Farm.

When a hip replacement put an end to the digging and planting, she turned to a motorised buggy to get around, saying driving was her last outdoor sport.

"Although I am so old, really very old, people's assumptions are quite wrong. They don't realise that I still have the capacity to enjoy life," she told Andrew Denton in 2009.

Dame Elisabeth's enviable number plates, "12", had been Sir Keith's when he had been courting her.

She found herself constantly discouraging young men who wanted to buy them, telling them: "I went to my wedding with these plates and I am going to my funeral with them."

During a 2008 interview when asked what her husband would have said of her life, Dame Elisabeth replied: "I think Keith would have been proud. I haven't wasted a minute of my life. I've made use of all the time, I think."

Dame Elisabeth is survived by three of her children, Rupert Murdoch, Anne Kantor and Janet Calvert-Jones, and by over 70 descendants.

Her eldest daughter, Helen Handbury, died in 2004.