TV chatshow host Simon Dee dies
Star of 1960s programme Dee Time and former Radio 1 DJ loses battle with bone cancer
Simon Dee, Britain's first TV chatshow host and the inspiration for the Austin Powers movie character, has died from bone cancer, just a day after revealing he was terminally ill.
Dee, 74, was a major star in the 1960s, attracting 18 million viewers with his twice-weekly BBC show Dee Time, with its opening catchphrase "It's Siiiimon Dee". Guests included Sammy Davis Jr, Lee Marvin, Charlton Heston and John Lennon.
According to actor Elizabeth Hurley, his "sixties grooviness" made him the inspiration for Mike Myers's Austin Powers.
Dee, whose real name was Cyril Nicholas Henty-Dodd, worked as an RAF photographer before finding fame by helping to launch pirate station Radio Caroline. He went on to host Miss World, appeared on Juke Box Jury and Top of the Pops, and was part of the launch lineup of DJs when BBC Radio 1 launched in 1967.
Due to a disagreement with the BBC over his huge salary demands, he left the broadcaster in 1969, moving to LWT in 1970, where he was offered £100,000 for a two-year contract.
However, he also fell out with management there and his contract was terminated after only a few months. Having alienated both the BBC and the only UK commercial TV broadcaster at the time, he disappeared from the airwaves.
Dee signed on for unemployment benefit at the Fulham labour exchange and, unable to revive his showbusiness career, he took a job as a bus driver.
He also had several court appearances and in 1974 he served 28 days in Pentonville prison for non-payment of rates on his former Chelsea home.
It was only yesterday that Dee revealed he had terminal bone cancer and that his condition was very grave.
Earlier this summer, in his first interview for 20 years, he bemoaned what he saw as a drop in television standards.
"Sadly, honesty and intelligence have vanished from national TV," he said. "Truth, interesting stimulating conversation, and, above all, real 'showbusiness' has been replaced by juvenile 'reality' shows and endless audition programmes. We need to remember what original entertainers and entertainment is all about."
"I've no regrets. If you change your past, you change your present. Bitterness destroys, but laughter lifts you. It's all been enlightening and as a girlfriend said the other day, 'you've still got your hair.'"
Dee was married three times and is survived by four children and four grandchildren.
Leigh Holmwood
Sunday 30 August 2009 14.42 BST
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
Star of 1960s programme Dee Time and former Radio 1 DJ loses battle with bone cancer
Simon Dee, Britain's first TV chatshow host and the inspiration for the Austin Powers movie character, has died from bone cancer, just a day after revealing he was terminally ill.
Dee, 74, was a major star in the 1960s, attracting 18 million viewers with his twice-weekly BBC show Dee Time, with its opening catchphrase "It's Siiiimon Dee". Guests included Sammy Davis Jr, Lee Marvin, Charlton Heston and John Lennon.
According to actor Elizabeth Hurley, his "sixties grooviness" made him the inspiration for Mike Myers's Austin Powers.
Dee, whose real name was Cyril Nicholas Henty-Dodd, worked as an RAF photographer before finding fame by helping to launch pirate station Radio Caroline. He went on to host Miss World, appeared on Juke Box Jury and Top of the Pops, and was part of the launch lineup of DJs when BBC Radio 1 launched in 1967.
Due to a disagreement with the BBC over his huge salary demands, he left the broadcaster in 1969, moving to LWT in 1970, where he was offered £100,000 for a two-year contract.
However, he also fell out with management there and his contract was terminated after only a few months. Having alienated both the BBC and the only UK commercial TV broadcaster at the time, he disappeared from the airwaves.
Dee signed on for unemployment benefit at the Fulham labour exchange and, unable to revive his showbusiness career, he took a job as a bus driver.
He also had several court appearances and in 1974 he served 28 days in Pentonville prison for non-payment of rates on his former Chelsea home.
It was only yesterday that Dee revealed he had terminal bone cancer and that his condition was very grave.
Earlier this summer, in his first interview for 20 years, he bemoaned what he saw as a drop in television standards.
"Sadly, honesty and intelligence have vanished from national TV," he said. "Truth, interesting stimulating conversation, and, above all, real 'showbusiness' has been replaced by juvenile 'reality' shows and endless audition programmes. We need to remember what original entertainers and entertainment is all about."
"I've no regrets. If you change your past, you change your present. Bitterness destroys, but laughter lifts you. It's all been enlightening and as a girlfriend said the other day, 'you've still got your hair.'"
Dee was married three times and is survived by four children and four grandchildren.
Leigh Holmwood
Sunday 30 August 2009 14.42 BST
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
