(Budapest, Hungary)
Died 9 September 2003
(Stanford, California, USA)
Age at death: 95
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| Tarmey, Bill |
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Born 4 April 1941 (Ardwick, Manchester, England) |
| Played the character of Jack Duckworth in ITV soap "Coronation Street". In 1976 he suffered a "massive heart attack" and ten years later had to undergo bypass surgery. |
| Taylor, Elizabeth |
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Born 27 February 1932 (Hampstead, London, England) |
| Movie star and only friend of Michael Jackson. She has broken her back four times, had surgery for a brain tumour, and was once pronounced dead during the filming of "Cleopatra", following which she had an emergency tracheotomy. She has been married 940 times. |
| Tebbit, Lord Norman |
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Born 29 March 1931 (Ponders End, London, England) |
| Outspoken former chairman of the Conservative Party, whose unemployed father famously "did not riot, he got on his bike and looked for work". Here's one of his more famous, though not wholly memorable, quotes: "The word 'conservative' is used by the BBC as a portmanteau word of abuse for anyone whose views differ from the insufferable, smug, sanctimonious, naive, guilt-ridden, wet, pink orthodoxy of that sunset home of the third-rate minds of that third-rate decade, the nineteen-sixties." It must have taken him hours to write that. |
| Teller, Edward |
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Born 15 January 1908 (Budapest, Hungary) Died 9 September 2003 (Stanford, California, USA) Age at death: 95 |
| Key participant in the so-called Manhattan Project to develop the atom bombs which were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Clearly overjoyed with his success, he then moved on to develop the hydrogen bomb, in the process testifying against his former boss Robert Oppenheimer. In another fantastic contribution to the human race, he masterminded Ronald Reagan's Star Wars project and the son thereof. It's sometimes alleged that Teller was the inspiration for Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. |
| Thatcher, Denis |
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Born 10 May 1915 (Lewisham, London, England) Died 26 June 2003 (Chelsea, London, England) Age at death: 88 |
| Bungling and vaguely drunken former businessman. He married Margaret in 1951, who last year (prior to withdrawing from public speaking) decided against attending a Falklands War 20th anniversary engagement on the grounds of Sir Denis's ill health. In January 2003 he underwent a heart transplant, but in the event, this only proved enough to keep him going until June. |
| Thatcher, Margaret |
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Born 13 October 1925 (Grantham, Lincolnshire, England) |
| Britain's first female Prime Minister, and one of Augusto Pinochet's beer buddies. After her fall from grace in 1990 and subsequent retirement from the House of Commons two years later, the handbag-toting Iron Lady was made an Iron Baroness and is now generally regarded as "a bit nuts" (though whether this is anything new is subject to debate). In 2002 she retired from public life following a number of strokes, and generally hasn't been heard from since. |
| Thornton, Frank |
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Born 15 January 1921 (Dulwich, London, England) |
| TV and film actor, probably best known for his role as Captain Peacock in the long-running department-store-based sitcom "Are You Being Served?" In 1997, when Brian Wilde was taken ill prior to filming a series of "Last of the Summer Wine", Thornton was hurriedly brought in to play Herbert "Truly" Truelove, by way of a replacement for the Foggy Dewhurst character. |
| Thorpe, Jeremy |
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Born 29 April 1929 (London, England) |
| Former Member of Parliament and leader of the Liberal Party. His career was destroyed in the mid-1970s as a result of a scandal in which he and three others were charged with conspiracy to murder his alleged lover Norman Scott. He has suffered from Parkinson's Disease for over twenty years. |
| Thurmond, Strom |
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Born 5 December 1902 (Edgefield, South Carolina, USA) Died 27 June 2003 (Edgefield, South Carolina, USA) Age at death: 100 |
| The oldest and longest-serving US senator, who was a presidential candidate back in 1948. In fact, he's been going for so long that he's been a senator for one fifth of the entire history of the United States. Known for his right-wing views, he was recently back in the spotlight following some comments by fellow Republican Trent Lott, who thinks that the country's problems would all have been solved had Thurmond got into the White House. In 1957 he earned the curious record of undertaking the "longest filibuster in the senate", in which he managed to keep waffling for 24 hours and 18 minutes - in opposition to the Civil Rights Act. No surprise there, then. Finally died in June '03, shortly after retiring and becoming a grandfather for the first time. |
| Todd, Richard |
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Born 11 June 1919 (Dublin, Ireland) |
| Mildly successful film and stage actor, born in Ireland to British parents who bestowed upon him the full name of Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd. Saw active service throughout World War II, and parachuted into France during the D-Day landings. He later went on to appear in "D-Day: The Sixth of June" and "The Longest Day", though perversely he didn't play himself in either film. |
| Tomlinson, Jane |
| Born in Rothwell, Leeds, England (exact date unknown) |
| Terminally ill cancer sufferer who took up running in May 2001, and the following year managed to complete the London Marathon, some triathlon or other, and the Great North Run (a tedious-sounding race around Newcastle, apparently). Was aged 38 in 2002, so presumably born around 1964. |
| Tutu, Desmond |
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Born 7 October 1931 (Klerksdorp, South Africa) |
| Winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, he became Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986. When aged fourteen he caught tuberculosis and had to spend two years in hospital as a result. Reported to be "seriously ill" in 2001, he joked "My presence here gives testimony to the resurrection of the dead!" during a visit to London's Southwark Cathedral at the time. |
| Tyson, Mike |
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Born 30 June 1966 (Brooklyn, New York, USA) |
| Brought up by his single mother in the toughest part of Brooklyn, was winning street fights by the age of 9, weighed 200lbs and could bench-press more than his own weight by the age of 14. Became the youngest undisputed WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight boxing champion ever at 20. Spent 3 years in prison for rape and famously bit Evander Holyfield's ear off. And yet, despite all this, he still speaks with a comically high-pitched, lisping voice. |