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James Dibble dead at 87

Updated Mon Dec 13, 2010 9:14pm AEDT

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Dibble made history when he presented the first ABC TV news bulletin in 1956.

Dibble made history when he presented the first ABC TV news bulletin in 1956. (ABC)

* Video: James Dibble remembered (7pm TV News NSW)
* Map: Sydney 2000

Legendary ABC TV newsreader James Dibble has died from cancer aged 87.

Dibble made history when he presented the first ABC TV news bulletin on November 5, 1956.

He presented the ABC TV News in Sydney for 27 years, becoming one of the most recognisable faces on Australian television.

His last bulletin was on June 10, 1983 when he read in front of a live audience of about 80 people in the news studio.

"Just an ordinary bloke, doing his job, and doing it to the best of his ability," Dibble told a civic reception at the time of his retirement.

Dibble was succeeded by Richard Morecroft, who paid tribute to the man he said became the figurehead for an entire era in broadcasting.

"I was a little surprised at how modest a man he was for somebody who had such an extraordinary reputation," he said.

ABC managing director Mark Scott described Dibble as "a gentleman, a fine newsreader, much loved across Australia".

"He was the figure of trust that we all turned to at 7 o'clock every night, bringing the great events of the world and the great events of Australia."

His grand niece, Gillian Rose, said he was a kind and lovely man.

"He was just an amazing man," she said.

"I was born about six months after he actually retired from the ABC, but I always grew up knowing what he'd done, from the looks that we'd get from the people on the street and people coming up and [saying] how much they respected him.

"To me he was just my Uncle Jim."

Dibble attended St Brigid's Primary School and De La Salle College in Marrickville.

He joined the Royal Australian Air Force at beginning of World War II, working as a wireless telegraphist before becoming a news reader for ABC Radio.

Dibble later spent 18 months as federal president of the ABC Staff Association.

He never married and lived with his mother until she died in 1981.

Tags: arts-and-entertainment, television, information-and-communication, broadcasting, abc, television, australia, nsw, sydney-2000

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011 ... 106530.htm
Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty, best known for the hits Stuck In The Middle With You and Baker Street, has died aged 63, The Guardian reports.

He was reportedly hospitalised in November with liver failure.

Rafferty played with Billy Connolly's folk outfit The Humblebum and co-founded the soft-rock group Stealer's Wheel in 1972.

The band's debut featured Stuck In The Middle With You, which was later featured in Quentin Tarantino's film Reservoir Dogs.

Rafferty went on to enjoy a successful solo career.

Baker Street appeared on Rafferty's 1978 album City To City and was still netting more that 80,000 pounds a year more than 30 years on.

In recent years, Rafferty was better known for alcohol-fuelled incidents than his music.

His last album, Another World, was released in 2000.

British actress Susannah York dies

British actress Susannah York, a 1960s beauty who was nominated for an Oscar for the 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, has died at the age of 72, according to a newspaper report.

York had been suffering from cancer and died on Friday (local time) surrounded by family, her son Orlando Wells told The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

"She had advanced bone marrow cancer which she had an operation for. But, last Thursday, she had a scan and then the descent was fast. In the end, her death was painless and quick," he said.

Wells, himself an actor, added: "She was an absolutely fantastic mother, who was very down to earth ... Both [my sister] Sasha and I feel incredibly lucky to have her as a mother."

York acted on the stage, on television and in films, and was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actress in They Shoot Horses, the tale of a disparate group of characters taking part in a dance marathon.

She also starred in the multi-Oscar-winning story of Thomas More, A Man For All Seasons in 1966.

Such a shame; "Baker Street" is still one of my favourite songs.

So sad to lose such a talent to the bottle.


Vale Gerry.

Doctor Who 'Brigadier' Nicholas Courtney dies aged 81

Veteran actor Nicholas Courtney, best known for playing Brigadier Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart in Doctor Who, has died at the age of 81.

He appeared on screen opposite five different Doctors and worked with two more - David Tennant and Paul McGann - on Doctor Who audio stories.

The son of a British diplomat, Courtney was educated in France, Kenya and Egypt.

After leaving school he served in the British Army - as a lowly private - before joining the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.

He did repertory theatre in Northampton before moving to London and breaking into television.

He appeared in several cult television series, including The Avengers and The Saint, before making his first Doctor Who appearance in 1965, playing a character named Bret Vyon.

He returned to the show in 1968 to make his first appearance as the Brigadier opposite the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton.

The stalwart of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT) would periodically return over the next two decades before his final appearance in 1989.

After Doctor Who he had parts in such popular dramas as Minder, The Bill, Casualty and Doctors.

In 1997 he became honorary president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society in recognition of the 107 episodes in which he appeared.

In 2008 he reprised his Brigadier role in Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Courtney died at his London home after a short illness. He is survived by his second wife, Karen, and two children, Philip and Bella, from his first marriage.