STARS WHO DIED IN 2015

Leonard Nimoy

The Boston -born actor and director had a long career but in many ways was defined by his role as the part-human, part-Vulcan Mr Spock in the Star Trek TV series and films. He went on to direct – including two Star Trek Films and the 1987 hit Three Men and a Baby – but for legions of fans remained synonymous with his pointy-eared character. After revealing last year that he had been suffering from a chronic lung disease, Nimoy signed off with a final tweet that ended ‘LLAP’, Mr Spock’s famous catchphrase, “live long and prosper���. He died on 27 February, at the age of 83. (Credit: Alamy Stock Photo)

Anita Ekberg

She was the Swedish bombshell who created one of cinema’s most iconic images. Having won the title of Miss Sweden aged 20, Ekberg travelled to the US to enter Miss Universe. Despite speaking little English, she was snapped up by Universal Pictures and sent to Italy to work on King Vidor’s War and Peace (1956). While in Rome she met Federico Fellini, who cast her in La Dolce Vita alongside Marcello Mastroianni. It was in this film that the famous scene – where the two actors wade through the Trevi fountain – played out. Ekberg starred in several films in the 1960s but had virtually disappeared from screens by the following decade. She died on 11 January, aged 83. (Credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis)

Günter Grass

A writer, artist and public intellectual, Grass was Germany’s best-known post-war novelist and won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1999. Grass was catapulted into fame with the publication of his 1959 novel, The Tin Drum; a film version of the book went on to win the Palme d’Or and the Academy Award for best foreign language film. Grass was an outspoken social critic whose books encouraged Germany to examine its collective conscience following World War Two. In 2006, Grass revealed – to much controversy – that he had been a member of the Waffen-SS as a young man. He died on 13 April, at the age of 87. (Credit: Susana Vera/Reuters/Corbis)

BB King

The ‘King of the Blues’ was born in Mississippi and began performing in the 1940s. He had a number of hits on his beloved guitar – named ‘Lucille’ – including Sweet Little Angel, Rock Me Baby, My Lucille and Let the Good Times Roll. King was a great influence on later generations of guitar players: Rolling Stone magazine rated him third in their 100 greatest guitarists of all time. He carried on performing around 100 concerts a year until shortly before his death on 14 May, aged 89. (Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo)

Setsuko Hara

The Japanese actor was best known for her collaborations with the celebrated director Yasujiro Ozu. Born Masae Aida in 1920, she made her film debut at the age of 15. She starred in Akira Kurosawa’s No Regrets for Our Youth (1946) and in six films with Ozu, including Late Spring (1949) and his masterpiece, Tokyo Story, in 1953. Her last role was in Chusingura, in 1962, after which she retired from acting and public life. She died on 5 September, aged 95. (Credit: Everett/REX/Shutterstock)

Terry Pratchett

He was one of Britain’s most successful authors of all time, adored by fans of his fantasy and comic writing – most notably his Discworld series. Born in Buckinghamshire in 1948, Pratchett became a local journalist before his first book, The Carpet People, was published in 1971. A prolific writer – the Discworld series alone consisted of 41 books –Pratchett sold more than 80 million copies worldwide. In 2007, Pratchett revealed that he had been diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer’s – which he called “the Embuggerance”. He funded and wrote about dementia research in the following years, before his death on 12 March, aged 66. (Credit: David Hartley/REX/Shutterstock)

Omar Sharif

Born in Egypt, Sharif became a star in his home country before achieving international recognition for the part of Sherif Ali in David Lean’s 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia, a role for which he won a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. He went on to star in Lean’s Doctor Zhivago alongside Julie Christie and in Funny Girl opposite Barbra Streisand. In later years Sharif appeared less frequently on screen, returning to win a Cesar for his role in French drama Monsieur Ibraham in 2003. Off-screen, he became a world-renowned bridge player and remained a loyal – if surprising – supporter of Hull City Football Club. Sharif had been suffering from Alzheimer’s and died of a heart attack on 10 July, at the age of 83. (Credit: Alamy Stock Photo)

Ruth Rendell

Baroness Rendell of Babergh was one of Britain’s most successful crime writers. She introduced the much-loved character of Inspector Wexford in her 1964 debut, From Doon with Death and went on to write over 50 crime novels in her own name; she later wrote darker, psychological fiction as Barbara Vine. She was called – along with her friend PD James, a ‘British queen of crime’ – a moniker she hated. She died on 2 May, aged 85. (Credit: Alamy Stock Photo)

Christopher Lee

Lee was born in 1922 in Belgravia, London. At the outbreak of World War Two he volunteered for the Finnish army, then joined the RAF. After the war he became an actor, making his film debut in Corridor of Mirrors (1947). But it wasn’t until the late ‘50s – when Lee began working with the Hammer studio – that he received greater recognition. In his first film for the studio, The Curse of Frankenstein, he starred with Peter Cushing; the pair became friends and starred together in 20 films. Lee became synonymous with Hammer, and especially Dracula, who he played for the first time in 1958. Roles in The Wicker Man, as Saruman in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, several Tim Burton collaborations and as Count Dooku in Star Wars episodes II and III introduced him to later generations. He died on 7 June, aged 93. (Credit: Everett/REX/Shutterstock)

Ben E King

Born Benjamin Earl Nelson in North Carolina in the US, the blues and R&B singer first had success in the late 1950s with The Drifters, whose hits included There Goes My Baby and Save the Last Dance for Me. He went solo in 1960 – when he adopted the name of King – and had his first solo hit, Spanish Harlem in 1961, followed by Stand by Me. It was the latter track for which King will be most remembered – a song which was revived in the 1980s by a film of the same name and named the fourth most-played track on US TV and radio of the 20th Century. King died on 30 April, at the age of 76. (Credit: Dezo Hoffmann/REX/Shutterstock)

Saeed Jaffrey

The veteran Bollywood actor was born in the Punjab in 1929. He began his career in the theatre, being the first Indian actor to tour Shakespeare in the US. He broke into the Indian film industry in Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj ke Khiladi (The Chess Players) in 1977, and went on to star in more than 100 Bollywood films. He became well-known in Britain after appearing in several acclaimed films, including The Man Who Would be King, My Beautiful Launderette, Gandhi and A Passage to India. He also appeared in several popular TV series, as Nawab of Mirat in The Jewel in the Crown and as Ravi Desai in Coronation Street. He died on 15 November aged 86. (Credit: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)