Robert Hardy
Actor who played vet Siegfried Farnon and minister for magic Cornelius Fudge
Robert Hardy, who has died aged 91, was a rascal. A man of unbridled enthusiasm, the actor would tell scurrilous anecdotes in perfectly composed prose. He became a household name as Siegfried Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small. A glorious mixture of Captain Mainwaring and a mad duke, Hardy roared, rumbled and harrumphed his way through every scene. He also played Winston Churchill in, he claimed, 12 different productions.
To younger audiences he was the minister for magic, Cornelius Fudge, in four Harry Potter films. While the young cast were professional, Hardy was more likely to be raising a rumpus with old friends such as Maggie Smith and Imelda Staunton. “We did not work — at least, I didn’t,” Hardy said. “We mucked about and laughed a lot, and got shushed.”
-The Daily Mail
Gretel Bergmann
German Jewish athlete barred from competing in 1936 Berlin Olympics
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Gretel Bergmann, who has died aged 103, was a record-breaking German high-jumper who trained in Britain. The Nazis, fearing she might compete for this country at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, pressured her to return home — then barred her from competing for Germany because of her Jewish origins, despite having equalled the country’s high-jump record of 1.6 meters two months earlier.
Ironically, the Olympic gold was won by a Jew, Hungary’s Ibolya Csak, while Dorothy Odam of Britain took silver. Dora Ratjen, Bergmann’s former room-mate, came fourth for Germany but was later found to be a man and disqualified.
-The Daily Telegraph