Farewell to departed heroes and villains of 2003

The Herald's obituaries throughout the year have recorded with warm memories the passing of some famous names

Some have been cut off in the prime of their careers and others have bowed out at the end of lives that have almost become history.

SPORTS

* Don "The Boot" Clarke had the farming background that New Zealanders used to expect would produce hard, durable All Blacks, especially forwards, and in his case it did. His record is legend: 89 games for the All Blacks, including 31 tests, and 781 points, which included 8 tries, 173 conversions, 120 penalty goals and two goals from a mark. His skills on attack and defence intimidated opposing teams, but it was his kicking ability that made him "The Boot" during a first-class career that ran from 1951 to 1964.

He left New Zealand to settle in South Africa in 1977, but early farm years and the South African sun gave him the melanoma which eventually killed him.

* Possum Bourne had a flair for driving a car fast on a gravel road, and that was what he loved. New Zealand's best-known rally driver won the Riverhead rally in his first racing season, and in 1983 began his long-term association with Subaru. He beat the best that Australia could offer to take the Aussie title seven years in a row. In the Kenyan Safari Rally he encountered everything from wildlife to mechanical failure, and still seemed unstoppable. Near Queenstown, in April, tragically even he was stopped.

* It has been a bad year for sports administrators. Vernon Pugh QC dragged rugby union kicking, if not screaming, from the age of the amateur to professionalism in 1995. Believing that the game would fall apart if changes were not made, he persuaded the International Rugby Board to declare the sport "open", so players could be paid officially and not under the counter as they had been for so long. He made enemies during his tenure with the International Rugby Board, however, most recently with the New Zealand Rugby Union for stripping them of their co-host status in the Rugby World Cup.

* John Davies was a pretty fair runner (he won bronze behind Peter Snell in the 1500m at the Tokyo Olympics) but his forte was coaching. He trained athletes of the calibre of Dick Quax, Anne Audain, Lorraine Moller, Peter O'Donoghue, Melissa Moon and Toni Hodgkinson and, at the time of his death, was president of the New Zealand Olympic Committee.

* George Rainey shaped the development of rugby league in New Zealand for 50 years, and pushed for the inclusion of a New Zealand team in the Australian competition when most others were against it. He served as chairman of the Auckland Rugby League for 13 years, and of the national board for another six. He was instrumental in the purchase of Carlaw Park, and was present at what was probably the ground's farewell match last year. But he was not bitter. As a professional nurseryman, it all seemed part of the natural cycle of things to Rainey.

* To her friends she was Top Cat or TC, but most New Zealanders knew her as Millie Khan, the bowler. She was the face of the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, jubilant with the win of a silver medal, grief-stricken by the death of her grandson only hours before. During her career, she won 12 national bowls titles, the silver and a bronze at Commonwealth Games, and an MBE in 1990.

POLITICS

* Merv Wellington, former Minister of Education and staunch Muldoon supporter, is best remembered for his 1984 determination to see the New Zealand flag flown in every state school in the country. His plan perished in the snap election defeat the same year.

* Sir Richard Harrison was National MP for Hawkes Bay for 21 years. He served variously as junior whip and senior Opposition whip and for six years was Speaker of the House.

* Allan McCready held Cabinet positions in the Holyoake, Marshall and Muldoon National Governments for nine years, and was generally regarded as a safe pair of hands. The hands shook a little in 1976 when, as Minister of Police, he was responsible for the highly criticised dawn raids used to round up unregistered overstayers.

* Philip Holloway, Labour cabinet minister in the 1950s, received wide publicity for a protracted libel action against Truth, claiming that an article in the newspaper implied he had acted dishonestly in the issue of import licences. The settlement of £11,000 ($22,000) 14 months later was enough then to buy a half-share in a dairy farm.

FILM

* Katharine Hepburn made only about 40 films in more than 50 years, but won four Oscars and was nominated for eight others, more than any other star. She refused to wear makeup or uncomfortable clothes, and set a fashion for women to wear trousers, literally and figuratively.

The large eyes, gleaming grin and red hair defined her look, but not everyone thought her a raving beauty. One writer referred to "a cheekbone like a death's head allied to a manner as sinister and aggressive as crossbones".

She lived with Spencer Tracy for 30 years, although they never married, and it was said she only took a role in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in 1967 to be with Tracy as his health failed. She won an Oscar for the film, as well as those for Morning Glory (1933), The Lion in Winter (1968) with Peter O'Toole and On Golden Pond (1981) with Henry Fonda.

* Gregory Peck's craggy good looks and measured speech contributed to his screen image as a decent, courageous man of action. The role for which he won his Oscar was Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, made in 1962. Finch is a small-town Southern lawyer who defends a black man accused of rape. "I put everything I had into it - all my feelings about families and fathers and children, and about racial justice and inequality."

* Bob Hope pioneered one of Hollywood's most loved genres: the buddy movie. In 1939 he teamed with Bing Crosby in Road to Singapore, which sparked a string of Road movies and owed much to the often-ad libbed dialogue. Hope essentially played himself, with the wisecracks and distinctive ski-jump nose parts of an institution that lasted six decades.

* Charles Bronson presented himself as a man of few words, with narrowed eyes, an arsenal of withering looks and a taste for hard action. His films, such as the Death Wish series, were sometimes accused of containing gratuitous violence, but Bronson saw himself as gentle and sensitive. His performance in The Magnificent Seven with Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and James Coburn, led to several World War II films, including The Great Escape (1963), Battle of the Bulge (1965) and The Dirty Dozen (1967).

* Robert Stack played a series of youthful romantic leads before achieving fame in the late 1950s as Eliot Ness in The Untouchables.

* Adam Faith was the messenger boy who became a 1950s rocker, then (in order) a TV star, record producer, financial journalist and media entrepreneur.

* The number of film directors dropped this year too, with the deaths of Elia Kazan (On The Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, Splendour in the Grass), and George Roy Hill, who directed Paul Newman and Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting.

John Schlesinger was best known for Midnight Cowboy, for which he won three Academy Awards, but also directed Marathon Man and Far From the Madding Crowd.

THEATRE

* British theatre lost three grandes dames this year. Dame Thora Hird's acting career spanned nearly 90 years, from her first appearance on stage at eight months to her success at the Baftas in 1999 for Alan Bennett's Waiting for the Telegram. She learned her craft in repertory, but was best known for her small-screen roles in Meet the Wife, Ours is a Nice House, In Loving Memory, and latterly the long-running show Last of the Summer Wine. She was made an OBE in 1983; a decade later she was made a Dame.

Dame Wendy Hiller built a following in Shavian plays and films, such as Pygmalion, Saint Joan and Major Barbara. Although mainly a stage actress, she also had success in films, winning an Academy Award for her performance in Terence Rattigan's Separate Tables. Her majestic portrayal of Queen Mary in the TV adaptation of Crown Matrimonial completed her Pygmalion-like career.

The Redgrave family lost a matriarch with the death of Rachel Kempson, wife of Michael, mother of Vanessa, Lynn and Corin, grandmother of Natasha and Joely Richardson. Kempson was an actress in her own right, mostly on the British stage but also in films such as The Charge of the Light Brigade and as Lady Manners in the TV series The Jewel in the Crown.

MUSIC

* The death of Maurice Gibb, the Bee Gee in the hat and glasses, brought to an end one of Britain's most successful and creative pop groups. Best known for the falsetto voices, white teeth and flared trousers, the talents of Maurice, Barry and Robin Gibb also lay in composition, arrangement and production. The music was always based on three-part harmony, where Maurice supplied backing vocals and played bass and piano. The disco sounds of How Deep is Your Love, Tragedy, Too Much Heaven, Stayin' Alive and Jive Talkin' all reached No 1 status in America in the 70s.

* Johnny Cash, "The Man in Black", had dozens of hit records, such as I Walk the Line and Sunday Morning Coming Down, which reflected the dignified and resilient spokesman for the working person. He won 11 Grammys for his ballads and was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1980. In later years he was part of the Highwaymen, with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. June Carter Cash, his second wife and co-writer of his Ring of Fire hit, died in May.

* Barry White, the huge man with the low voice, was known as the housewives' lover man in the 70s for hits such as Can't get Enough of Your Love Babe, Never Never Gonna Give You Up and You're The First, My Last, My Everything.

* Jazz singer Nina Simone took inspiration from blues, jazz, folk and classical, and sang from the soul. She had hits with Mississippi Goddam and Young, Gifted and Black but was often brittle and temperamental, which shortened her performing career.

* Slim Dusty had a long career in Australian country music, but few would have heard of him if it were not for his hit A Pub With No Beer. He also recorded 106 albums, sold 6 million records and won a host of awards. Who knew?

* Bobby Hatfield and partner Bill Medley pioneered blue-eyed soul as the Righteous Brothers, with hits like Unchained Melody and You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling.

* Among the 60 or so film scores composed by Ron Goodwin were Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and Frenzy, but he is best known for music for war films, such as Battle of Britain, Where Eagles Dare and Operation Crossbow. He loved New Zealand and visited as often as he could. He also wrote a six-movement New Zealand suite, including the Earnslaw Steam Theme, The A and P Show, and Picnic at Rotorua.

BUSINESS

* John Fernyhough was the first chairman of Electricorp, the SOE which replaced the sprawling New Zealand Electricity Department. During his first year, he and his deputy Rod Deane achieved $100 million in savings and cut staff by 25 per cent. He stepped down from the position after six years, citing Government interference and lack of political will to privatise Electricorp. Fernyhough hit the headlines in 1987 when he paid $4 million for a mansion in Remuera, believed to be the highest price paid for a private residence at the time.

* As well as interests in tourism, property development and corporate farming, multimillionaire Howard Paterson had a passion for biotechnology, which led him to team up with Corran McLachlan in the development of A2 milk. The company they set up, A2 Corporation, claimed the milk was a "less risky" alternative to normal milk, with a number of health benefits. The men died within a month of each other, Paterson by choking and McLachlan of cancer.

ALSO DEPARTED

* New Zealand's last living home-grown link with World War I, Bright Williams, died at 105. He served as a messenger at Passchendaele, was shot and shipped home, complete with shrapnel. He became a farmer after the war, though his "souvenirs" caused him difficulty. The last piece of shrapnel was removed in 1999.

* Sir Denis Thatcher was renowned for his love of gin and golf, as well as for his role as the consort of Britain's first woman Prime Minister. Sir Denis did not seem to mind his public image, replying to an inquiry about who wore the trousers at Number 10 with, "I do, and I wash and iron them, too".

* Sir John Turei, a Tuhoe rangatira and elder statesman, was an eloquent orator who took great pride in the Maori language. He believed in peaceful settlement through talk, but was critical of Maori who railed over past injustices and voiced their grievances in English.