We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. Mr Versatile: Des O'Connor. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/, Des's wife Jodie is said to be 'shattered' by the loss of her husband, Credit: UPP:Universal Pictorial Press and Agency, The veteran entertainer enjoyed six decades in the world of entertainment, and made a name for himself on both sides of the Atlantic, Kristina pictured cuddled up to her beloved dad, Kristina went to visit her dad wearing a tribute T-shirt during lockdown, He also recorded a whopping 36 albums as a singer - five of which reached the UK Top 40, The 88-year-old died after falling in his house, Des OConnors wife Jodie Brooke Wilson and children hurting more than you can imagine after entertainer dies aged 88, Huge blow to Keir Starmer as Sun mega poll shows Brits think Rishi Sunak is a better leader & reject Labour's woke ideas, Brits are proud of this great country despite endless negativity from the left, Just one in five Brits back 'completely outdated' BBC licence fee, poll reveals, Chances of Labour landslide are melting as voters simply don't trust Keir Starmer, Evil 'Devils Disciple' serial killer enjoys freedom after 47 years despite being 'too dangerous to release permanently', First picture of 'friend to everyone' Brit grandad, 60, who died snorkelling on dream family P&O cruise in Caribbean, Leading Jewish organisation demands meeting with Guardian editor over 'sickening anti-Semitic cartoon' of ex-BBC boss, Woman stabbed to death in horror daylight attack on busy street next to O2 Brixton Academy as police hunt killer, 88-year-old, hailed the "ultimate entertainer", Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). His friendship with comedy duo Morecambe and Wise saw him mocked for his singing ability in sketches despite a successful career which included four Top 10 hits and more than 30 albums. Five of those albums managed to rank in the Top 40 of the UK Albums Chart. A month after his death, ITV aired a tribute, titled Des O'Connor: The Ultimate Entertainer, on 13 December 2020. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. "Up to 20 million people would sit around the television and watch and laugh, and I mean laugh until they cried. British TV legend Des O'Connor has died aged 88. . O'Connor's survivors include his wife, Jodie, with whom he'd been married since 2007; their son, Adam; and O'Connor's four daughters from his previous marriages, Karin, TJ, Samantha, and Kristina. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. He was able to return home after being treated, where his family were . His agent added: "He is survived by his wife Jodie, their son Adam and his four daughters . This article contains content provided by Twitter. What very sad news. His father was of Irish Catholic descent and his mother was Jewish, and he joked that he was the first OConnor to have a bar mitzvah. It's worth remembering how brilliant he is at his own expense in these sketches.". The entertainer Des O'Connor has died at the age of 88 - days after a fall at his home. Then in 1980 I set up my office in space within London Management the biggest Agency in London that represented almost all the big names in light entertainment, theatre and film. That, and his ability to send himself up, made him a beacon in the world of TV entertainment. 5. He was a joy to work with he was talented, fun, positive, enthusiastic, kind and a total professional. The comedian, singer and TV host died on Saturday following a fall at his home in Buckinghamshire just over a week ago. Jodies world is shattered, she and Adam and Dess daughters are hurting more than you could possibly imagine, said the entertainers manager in a statement. OVER the last 50 years I have met countless rock stars and celebrity personalities and have worked with some of them but without doubt out of all of them non-could be more charming and a pleasure to work with than the legendary Des OConnor CBE, who sadly died on November 14, aged 88. Des reportedly met the Australian singer in 1990 when they appeared in the panto together. Gyles Brandreth: "I don't think you'll find anybodywho's got a thing to say against Des O'Connor". He adored his family they were everything to him. O'Connor is survived by his wife Jodie, their son Adam as well as his four daughters, Karin, TJ, Samantha and Kristina. OConnor only told immediate family including his wife, their 16-year-old son Adam and his four grown-up daughters, Karin, TJ, Samantha and Kristina from previous relationships about his illness. You may want to read Metas Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. He loved life, and considered enthusiasm almost as important as oxygen. Whilst no one should ever feel ashamed of a Parkinsons diagnosis, its also their right not to share it widely. The comedian, singer and TV host died on Saturday following a fall at his home in Buckinghamshire just over a week. Read more: 'Ultimate entertainer' Des O'Connor dies aged 88 "Des was the ultimate entertainer. Word of his death comes just over a week after O'Connor had suffered a fall at his Buckinghamshire home. They were able to talk and wave at each other through a window and Kristina was seen wearing a T-shirt tribute to her famous father. The 88-year-old, hailed the "ultimate entertainer", died after suffering a fall at his home in Buckinghamshire. Entertainer Des O'Connor has died at the age of 88, his agent has confirmed. Des O'Connor's income source is mostly from being a successful Soundtrack. Desmond "Des" O'Connor (12 January 1932 - 14 November 2020) was an English comedian, singer and television presenter. Top Gear presenter Paddy McGuinness tweeted in response to the "sad news". His friendship with comedy duo Morecambe and Wise saw him mocked for his singing ability in sketches despite a successful career which included four Top 10 hits and more than 30 albums. 10 February 2022. "Des was the king of telly really for so many years," she told BBC Breakfast, reflecting on her TV viewing habits as a youngster. When he chose me to be his co host on the Today daytime show it was one the greatest days of my professional life. In 1977 he began hosting Des O'Connor Tonight, which started on BBC Two before moving to ITV, where it stayed until it ended in 2002. "It was Des O'Connor who was on all the time, every week. Des O'Connor has died aged 88. Something went wrong, please try again later. Due to the success of this show, they toured the country in 2016 from April to October. His agent confirmed the death in a statement to the Jewish Chronicle. Des O'Connor's World Cup Party: 1998: TV Special: Himself - Presenter: The Royal Variety Performance: 1996: TV Movie: RIP X.". Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. Des O'Connor has died at the age of 88 - days after the "ultimate entertainer" suffered a fall at his home. O'Connor was married four times, describing the end of his first three relationships as casualties of his obsession with work. Des has more than 30 years' experience in the UK Insurance Broking sector, more recently as CEO of Bravo Group, a UK retail broking consolidator that made more than 40 . O'Connor was married four times, and has described the end of his first three relationships as casualties of his obsession with work. Eric would come out with lines such as, "If you want me to be a goner, buy me a record by Des O'Connor," often with the singer standing behind him. Entertainment legend Des O'Connor unfortunately died in his sleep on November 14 th aged 88 after falling at home in Buckinghamshire earlier in the week. In 1987, because of the Irish connection and as a favour to me, he invited the Furey Brothers and Davey Arthur to be guests on his show, singing The Red Rose Caf. TV legend and comedian Des O'Connor has died aged 88. VideoOn board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry, I didnt think make-up was made for black girls, Why there is serious money in kitchen fumes. "After all, I was given the princely sum of a hundred pounds per week which was a lot of money back in those days.". He is survived by his wife Jodie, their son Adam and his four daughters, Karin, TJ, Samantha and Kristina. "I've never done a day's work in my life. sixteen million records O'Connor recorded 36 albums and had four top-ten UK singles, including a number-one hit with "I Pretend", with global sales of more than sixteen million records. On stage he starred at almost every leading venue throughout the world.". Des pictured with wife Jodie and their son, Adam In 2007, he married long-term girlfriend Jodie Brooke Wilson, who was 37 years his junior and gave birth to their son Adam when Des was. Jodie has only one child a 16-year-old son called Adam with Des OConnor. Is climate change killing Australian wine? He'd later host the followup series Des O'Connor Entertains before introducing his own chat show Des O'Connor Tonight, which O'Connor hosted between 1977 and 2002. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. According to his longtime agent and close friend, Pat Lake-Smith, O'Connor had been recovering before his condition had suddenly taken a turn for the worse, leading to the entertainer's passing on Saturday. Our problem was that just before we were to release our album those Castella Cigar Commercials came on TV. ", 'Ultimate entertainer' Des O'Connor dies aged 88, AI chatbots 'may soon be more intelligent than us', Russia troop deaths hit 20,000 in five months - US, Palestinian hunger striker dies in Israel prison, 'My wife and six children joined Kenya starvation cult', On board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry. I thought no more about it until getting the tube home that night at Oxford Circus where I saw the front page of the Evening Standard which had a huge headline to say Des had jumped ship to ITV from the BBC for the biggest advance in the history of television. Another part of my childhood telly viewing gone. Des O'Connor declared he hoped to live to 95 and see his son get married after becoming a dad again at 72. Adam O'Connor, Samantha O'Connor, Karen O'Connor, Tracy O'Connor, Rufer O'Connor: . Adam O'Connor born 2004, age 16 Her Other Children Des O'Connor CBE Bio Details Full name Desmond Bernard O'Connor Gender Male Age 88 Date of birth Tuesday 12 Jan 1932 Birth place Stepney, London, England, UK Date of death: 14 Nov 2020 Occupations Butlin's Redcoat TV Presenter RAF Writer Talkshow Host Singer & Recording Artist (1967) O'Connor's fame as a performer soared when he was recruited by ITV to host The Des O'Connor Show, which ran from 1963 to 1971. He was also badly injured in a car accident and spent some time in an iron lung which disrupted his primary school education. Sign Up. O'Connor starred in mainstream television shows in almost every year from 1963 until the 2000s, a feat that only one other television personality has achieved worldwide (U.S. game show host Bob Barker, who hosted mainstream television shows from 1956 until 2007, with 19661972 being in syndication). "Up to 20 million people would sit around the television and watch and laugh, and I mean laugh until they cried. @ NewsFrenchTony. With no bad language, religion, politics or sex in his shows, he brought humour and music safely into the family home in the days when families all . Other Works | Publicity Listings | Official Sites. Des OConnor was never afraid to laugh at himself and that was part of his charm. His early success was gained by his astonishing ability to generate an instant rapport with his audiences, something that would carry him though the ensuing decades of his career. He told the Daily Mail: "Jodie wanted a baby and if Id said: 'Ive got four children, but you cant have one' that would have been selfish. Read about our approach to external linking. He loved being on stage entertaining a live audience. She said: "He was a joy to work with - he was talented, fun, positive, enthusiastic, kind and a total professional. Des O'Connor (centre) often worked alongside comedians Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise. RIP Des., DJ Tony Blackburn tweeted: So sorry to hear that Des OConnor has passed away. Few could match his popularity on television and it is incredible to remember that from 1963 to 2002 he hosted his own peak time TV show on either the BBC or ITV, followed by Today with Des and Mel from 2002 to 2006, whilst also hosting the hugely successful Countdown from 2007-2008. Read about our approach to external linking. 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Des enjoyed a brief stint as a professional footballer at Northampton Town FC before working a succession of odd jobs, including as a complaints clerk in a boot and shoe factory. A post shared by Jodie (@jodiebrookewilson). Beginning at the bottom of the ladder in 1954, after National Service, his showbusiness career was truly remarkable. O'Connor's survivors include his wife, Jodie, with whom he'd been married since 2007; their son, Adam; and O'Connor's four daughters from his previous marriages, Karin, TJ, Samantha, and Kristina. O'Connor presented the long running game show Countdown on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, from January 2007 to December 2008. The entertainer, born in East London in 1932 to a Jewish. Des O'Connor with his (left to right) daughters Samantha and Karen, wife Jodie, son Adam, 4, and daughter Kristina. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. "And if I live as long as my own father - he died at 95 - I should be around to see Adam get married. "Unfortunately yesterday evening his condition suddenly deteriorated and he drifted peacefully away in his sleep. News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. I asked him if his weekend had been good and he responded with a long face to tell me that he had broken his rule of a lifetime and had actually taken a business call on a Sunday, something he would never normally do, but he said it was for an important client and had to be done. His singing ability was often parodied on The Morecambe & Wise Show, with O'Connor taking part in the sketches. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. He kicked off his showbiz career appearing in variety theatres across the country, but got his big TV break in the late 1950s as a presenter for ITVs Spot The Tune. O'Connor was born in Stepney, east London, the son of Harry O'Connor, a dustman, and Maude (nee Bassett), a cleaner. Feargus O'Connor was a popular and formidable Chartist orator in the 1830's and 1840's. Flannery O'Connor was an influential author of the American South. The pair performed together at the London Palladium in 2015 and toured the country the following year. . He also had a daughter Karen O'Connor with his first wife Phyllis Gill, daughters Tracy and Samantha with second wife Gillian Vaughan, and a son, Adam, with Jodie Brooke Wilson. [7], In October 2015, O'Connor and Jimmy Tarbuck starred in their own one-off show at the London Palladium to raise money for the new Royal Variety Charity. I then was faced with following it with a serious commercial for the new Des album. He later hosted the Channel 4 quiz show Countdown alongside Carol Vorderman, with the pair bowing out together in 2008, and was made a CBE for his services to entertainment and broadcasting in that year's birthday honours. 10 days before he died, Do not sell or share my personal information. There was an appearance by an obviously intoxicated Oliver Reed while, on another occasion, Liverpool comedian Stan Boardman told his risque joke about Fokkers which saw him banned from ITV. He showed that you do not need to be defined or held back by a diagnosis. After he was demobbed, he secured a job as Redcoat with Butlin's - a role that provided the springboard for many a famous show business name - before he was signed up to appear in a variety show at Newcastle's Palace Theatre in 1953. O'Connor had a successful career as a singer, recording 36 albums,[13] five of which reached the top 40 of the UK Albums Chart. "If it ever became work, I'd pack it up," O'Connor once said. He also presented several U.K. television game shows, including Take Your Pick! He contracted rickets while he was a child which resulted in him having callipers on his legs until he was seven. "Des was the ultimate entertainer. Wilson, who met OConnor 31 years ago and married him in 2007, said that he first saw something was wrong in 2012 when he starred as the wizard in a London Palladium production of The Wizard Of Oz. [citation needed], In 2017, O'Connor and Tarbuck toured the UK again from May to December. The telly legend died yesterday aged 88 a week. The veteran host was best known as a. In 2007, he married long-term girlfriend Jodie Brooke Wilson, who was 37 years his junior and gave birth to their son Adam when O'Connor was 72. In 2007, he married long-term girlfriend Jodie Brooke Wilson, 37 years his junior who had given birth to his son Adam when O'Connor was in his 70s. Read more: Ultimate entertainer Des OConnor dies aged 88. When rock 'n' roll arrived, the variety theatres saw the potential of booking big name music stars and building a show around them. Another part of my childhood telly viewing gone. What very sad news. Speaking of having his youngest, he divulged: "Jodie wanted a baby and if I'd. "Des O'Connor was never afraid to laugh at himself and that was part of his charm," he wrote. The telly legend ruled the small screen for decades and is best remembered as the former host of Countdown. I do get concerned that one day hell realise his dad is older than the other fathers, but I cant do anything about that. Thanks for all the fun, Des. I came up with a script that Des loved, in which we set up a replica lakeside scene with a stunt man, who had actually been one of the Mini drivers on the Italian Job, dressed as a look-alike Russ Abbot fisherman as in the cigar commercial. He met his first wife Phyllis Gill while working as a Redcoat at Butlin's in 1953, He had a string of hit singles including a UK No 1, He wrote many of the insults hurled at him by Morecambe and Wise, Jay Leno was one of many international stars who appeared on his chat shows, On board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry. Our album Loving Feeling sold well and made the charts and I feel privileged and proud to have worked on it with Des. In 2007, he married long-term girlfriend Jodie Brooke Wilson, who was 37 years his junior and gave birth to their son Adam when O'Connor was 72. A lovely man., RIP Des OConnor. [citation needed]. The telly legend died yesterday aged 88 a week after suffering a fall at his home in Buckinghamshire. The pictures were taken nearly six months before the TV presenter's death at the age of 88. The venues they visited included Theatre Royal, Norwich, Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, Blackpool Opera House, Princess Theatre, Torquay, The Hexagon, Reading, Theatre Royal, Newcastle and Grand Theatre, Swansea. "He adored his family - they were everything to him. It was curiously my last studio-based album before working at ITN.. Yes! Jeremy Dick has been a writer and editor since 2014. . VideoOn board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry, I didnt think make-up was made for black girls, Why there is serious money in kitchen fumes. A veteran of the Royal Air Force, O'Connor began his career as an entertainer on stage, working prolifically in theatre before his big break on television. It was a formula that made him one of Britain's best-known stars, an old-fashioned showman who could turn his hand to almost anything - fronting his variety programme, hosting chat shows or presiding over the quiz Countdown. He was the one who made you laugh, made you feel safe, made you feel as though - with that twinkle that was forever in his eyes - that you never quite knew what was going to happen". 37 years his junior who had given birth to his son Adam when O'Connor was in his 70s. Meanwhile, Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker labelled him as a "truly lovely man and one of the great old school entertainers". The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. In 2007, he married long-term girlfriend Jodie Brooke Wilson, who was 37 years his junior and gave birth to their son Adam when O'Connor was 72. Violinist Sue Croot told the BBC she had always treasured a signed photograph O'Connor gave to her father Ronald Croot, who was helping out on a production of Cinderella at the Grand Theatre in Swansea in the late 1950s. His prowess as a performer came to the fore during his national service with the RAF, when his commanding officer insisted he take part in a talent show. Lovely, wonderful Des.". Des O'Connor once said that all he did was walk on to the stage, chat to the audience and sing a few songs. "If you are not enjoying it," he once said, "how do you expect them to.". As a singer-songwriter, Jodie has reached huge success with her work. In Australia, she was the co-writer of double platinum album Higher Than Heaven for girl band Bardot. It led to live appearances in Las Vegas. He fathered Adam at the age of 72 and defended his decision to become a dad again later in life. Having cut his teeth as a game show host on Take Your Pick in 1992, O' Connor had a year as co-host of the show, Countdown, with Carol Vorderman.
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