Noteworthy – Page 32

Hilary Dwyer, actress, businessperson & film producer

31Mar

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United Kingdom

Hilary Dwyer, actress, businessperson & film producer

Hilary Dwyer aka Hilary Heath ‑ an English actress, businessperson, and film producer – passed away after contracting Covid-19 on 30 March 2020. She was best known for her acting roles in films such as Witchfinder General (1968) and Wuthering Heights (1970). She also performed on the London stage. In 1974, she married the talent agent Duncan Heath, with whom she had two children, and helped to found Duncan Heath Associates, which was later bought by ICM Partners. They divorced in 1989. Later in her career, under her married name, "Hilary Heath", she produced the feature film An Awfully Big Adventure (1995), as well as TV remakes of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1997) and Tennessee Williams's The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003)....

31Mar

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Ecuador, Noteworthy, Profiles

Manuel Adolfo Varas, journalist

Manuel Adolfo Varas Varas ‑ an Ecuadorian broadcaster, sports journalist and lawyer – died on March 30, 2020 from Covid-19. Varas, who co-founded Radio Caravana 750 AM and reported from the station for 39 years, was considered a pioneer of sports journalism in Ecuador and one of the country's best known sports journalists. Varas was a lawyer by training, but spent more than 55 years as a sports journalist and commentator. His career began on the América radio station in 1964. He broadcast from the 1966 Copa Libertadores games. He then worked at a series of stations and radio shows focused on athletics, including Sucesos, Bolívar, Mambo (as a guest commentator), Noticia, and La Fabulosa. He also wrote for El Universo. In 1985, Varas joined with colleagues to found a...

31Mar

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Congo, Noteworthy, Profiles

Joachim Yhombi-Opango, politician

Jacques Joachim Yhombi-Opango, a Congolese politician, died on 30 March 2020 after suffering from Covid-19. He was an army officer who became Congo-Brazzaville's first general and served as Head of State of the People's Republic of the Congo from 1977 to 1979. He was the President of the Rally for Democracy and Development (RDD), a political party, and served as Prime Minister from 1993 to 1996. He was in exile from 1997 to 2007. Yhombi-Opango was born on 12 January 1939 in Fort Rousset (now Owando) in Cuvette Region, in the north of the Congo. He married Marie-Noëlle Ngollo, with whom he had several children. Under President Marien Ngouabi, Yhombi-Opango was Army Chief of Staff (with the rank of major); he was suspended from that position on 30 July 1970, but subs...

30Mar

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Beryl Bernay, journalist

Beryl Bernay (March 2, 1926 – March 29, 2020) was a journalist and children's television creator, as well as a painter, photographer, actor and fashion designer. Bernay was born Beryl Bernstein in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were Russian immigrants. Her father was a garment worker, and her mother, Sade, sold stockings and taught kindergarten. Her father changed the family name to Berney when Beryl was a child, but Beryl changed the spelling to Bernay when she reached adulthood. Bernay took acting classes with Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof. She appeared on Broadway in Tonight in Samarkand in 1955 and later that year in ANTA's Paris production of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth with Helen Hayes and Mary Martin. She returned to Bro...

30Mar

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Joe Diffie, singer

Joe Logan Diffie ‑ an American country music singer – succumbed to Covid-19 on March 29, 2020. After working as a demo singer in the mid 1980s, he signed with Epic Records' Nashville division in 1990. Between then and 2004, Diffie charted 35 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, five of which peaked at number one: his debut release "Home", "If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets)", "Third Rock from the Sun", "Pickup Man" (his longest-lasting number-one song, at four weeks) and "Bigger Than the Beatles". In addition to these singles, he had 12 others reach the top 10 and ten more reach the top 40 on the same chart. He also co-wrote singles for Holly Dunn, Tim McGraw, and Jo Dee Messina, and recorded wi...

30Mar

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Maria Mercader, journalist

Maria Carla Mercader ‑ an American journalist and news producer who worked for CBS News for over three decades – succumbed to Covid-19 on March 29, 2020. For her work producing a CBS feature report about computer spam, Mercader won a business Emmy Award in 2004. In 2020, she died of COVID-19 during its pandemic in New York City. Mercader was born on November 28, 1965, in New York City to Manuel and Gladys Mercader. She studied at Dominican Academy, then at the College of New Rochelle, where she graduated in 1987. Mercader started working for CBS News in 1987 as a page in the company's page program, then began her news career at CBS Newspath, where she produced pieces for distribution at CBS' affiliates. She also worked on the netwo...

Alan Merrill, vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, actor & model

30Mar

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Alan Merrill, vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, actor & model

Alan Merrill ‑ an American vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, actor and model – passed away on March 29, 2020 after contracting Covid-19. In the early 1970s, Merrill was the first Westerner to achieve pop star status in Japan. He was the writer of, and lead singer on, the first released version of the song "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was recorded by the Arrows in 1975. The song became a breakthrough hit for Joan Jett in 1982. Merrill was primarily a vocalist and songwriter, but also played the guitar, bass guitar, harmonica, and keyboards. Merrill was born in The Bronx, New York City on February 19, 1951, the son of two jazz musicians, singer Helen Merrill and saxophone/clarinet player Aaron Sachs. He went to Aiglon Colle...

30Mar

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Noteworthy, Profiles

Tomas Oneborg, photographer

Tomas Krister Oneborg ‑ a Swedish photographer – died from Covid-19 on 29 March 2020. Oneborg was born in Hägersten outside Stockholm and was employed as a press photographer at Svenska Dagbladet from 1986 until his death. His photos of the aftermath of the 2017 Stockholm truck attack, which left five people dead, were awarded a second place prize at Photo of the Year. Oneborg died at his home in Stockholm on 29 March 2020 from COVID-19.

30Mar

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France, Noteworthy, Profiles

Francis Rapp, historian

Francis Rapp ‑ a French medievalist specializing in the history of Alsace and medieval Germany – succumbed to Covid-19 on 29 March 2020. An emeritus university professor, he was a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres since 1993. Born in Strasbourg, the son of lawyer Léon Rapp, Rapp was born into a Catholic and patriotic family. He did his secondary studies at the Jean Sturm Gymnasium and practiced scouting within the Scouts de France. Breaking with forced incorporation, he joined a clandestine scouting group that gathered about twenty young people at the Mont Sainte-Odile from December 1942. At the end of the 1960s he joined the Association des Guides et Scouts d'Europe and was commissioner of the Alsace Province ...

30Mar

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Italy, Noteworthy, Profiles

Angelo Rottoli, boxer

Angelo Rottoli ‑ an Italian professional boxer – succumbed to Covid-19 on 29 March 2020. He held the European cruiserweight title in 1989 and challenged once for the WBC cruiserweight title in 1987. Rottoli died at the age of 61 after contracting the coronavirus.