• Actress became a British institution

  Dame Thora Hird: An interviewer from the Guardian once spent four hours recording Dame Thora Hird, who has died aged 91, stopping only because he ran out of tapes. p
  

• The beer mogul who funded Reagan's reign

  Joseph Coors: Joseph Coors, who died at the age of 85, was a fabulously rich member of one of America's leading brewing families, and one of the ultra-conservative businessmen who, for all practical purposes, bought the White House for Ronald Reagan in 1980. p
  

• Broadcaster, novelist and mystical writer

  Brian Cleeve: Brian Cleeve, who has died aged 81, was a novelist, biobibliographer and broadcaster. He specialised in well-crafted popular fiction that ranged from Regency romances to thrillers. p
  

• Minor toff with connections to high society and low places

  Major Ronald Ferguson: Major Ronald Ferguson, who has died aged 71, was an amiable man, who came to public prominence as the father of Queen Elizabeth's second daughter-in-law, Sarah, Duchess of York, and sustained popular interest in him through his connections with polo and massage parlours. p
  

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