Michael Ciminio: 1939-2016

Screenwriter, director, The Deerhunter, Heaven's Gate.

He never married.

Rev David Skeoch: He Never Married

Daily Telegraph.

'Exuberant'!

Pierre Boulez: He Never Married

Pierre Boulez never married. According to Ivan Hewett, writing in The Daily Telegraph last year, he was a man who “hides his sexuality so thoroughly that many doubt whether it exists at all”. 

Daily Telegraph.

The second 'He never married' in a Telegraph obit in two days. 

This charmingly archaic phrase - often presumed to be a coded euphemism - was used 13 times by them in 2015, though usually it now comes with an explainer.

The last of the year was Lemmy's (!).

The best? American 1950s child actor, George 'Foghorn' Wilson; 'He never married, but shared his home with approximately 25 cats.'

Robert Stigwood: 1934-2016

Bye dear.

Wonder who'll be the first to mention 'you-know-what'?

Update: Telegraph obituary; 'He never married'. Boom!

And in The Times...

Stigwood never married. In his 1988 book, Starmakers & Svengalis: The History of British Pop Management, the author Johnny Rogan identified him as part of a “homosexual network” that dominated British pop management in its early years and which also included Epstein, Napier-Bell, Larry Parnes and Kit Lambert. Rogan attributed the phenomenon to the fact that pop music was then one of the few arenas in which gay people did not have to live a lie. 

Brian Sollitt: 1938-2013

Inventor of the After Eight mint, a larger-than-life character, he never married etc etc.

"After Eight wafer-thin mints have the same effect on me as camellias and candlelight,” she trilled. “They make me feel expensive, pampered and gay”- 1963 advert.

Legal notice: This blogpost is based purely on idle speculation, but that's journalism for you.

Patrick Moore: 1923-2012

He never married...

Brian Cobby: 1929-2012

The voice of the Speaking Clock - "he never married".

Patrick Moore: The Reluctant Bachelor

'HIS fiancée Lorna, a nurse, was killed in a German air raid at the age of 20, which could explain why after a lifetime spent as a “reluctant bachelor” Sir Patrick Moore still fears that another European war is a possibility.

'The Sky At Night presenter, who lied about his age to join the RAF during the war, has never spoken about his wartime experiences but has told the Radio Times: “We must take care. There may be another war. The Germans will try again, given another chance.”'

Of his loss, astronomer Sir Patrick, 89, says: “That is why I’m a reluctant bachelor. It’s such a long time ago now, 1940. But I still feel the same about Lorna and, if it had been the other way round. I think she’d have done the same.”

The Daily Express, quoting a Radio Times interview.

Poor Patrick.

A friend swears they once heard Patrick Moore interviewed on the radio.

"And you've never married, have you Patrick?"

"No, I had a fiancee, but she died in the war."

"Oh, how very sad. What was her name?"
"I can't remember."

PS PM is also barkingly right-wing, though you might have guessed that from the above.