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Small Screen
4:21PM Jess McGuire | Defamer Australia was sad to learn that entertainer Don Lane has passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. More »
Vale Don Lane
4:21PM Jess McGuire | Defamer Australia was sad to learn that entertainer Don Lane has passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. More » 
Small Screen
3:41PM Jess McGuire | I was sad to learn today that Mollie Sugden, a woman famous around the world for playing the role of pussy-referencing department store employee Mrs Slocombe on bawdy British comedy Are You Being Served, has passed away at the age of 86. More »
Vale Mollie Sugden
3:41PM Jess McGuire | I was sad to learn today that Mollie Sugden, a woman famous around the world for playing the role of pussy-referencing department store employee Mrs Slocombe on bawdy British comedy Are You Being Served, has passed away at the age of 86. More » Vale Richard Marsland
8:45AM Jess McGuire | I wish that our first story for the week on Defamer Australia wasn’t so frightfully sad, but I’m afraid it is. Triple M radio personality Richard Marsland apparently took his own life over the weekend.
Fans and friends have paid tribute to Melbourne breakfast radio host Richard Marsland, who was found dead in his car on a lonely stretch of road in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges.
A park ranger raised the alarm after finding the 32-year-old’s body in his car at Shiprock Falls around 10.30am (AEDT) on Saturday but despite police resuscitation efforts, Marsland was later pronounced dead.
More » 
Former Australian Idol Contestant Levi Kereama Dies After Falling From Hotel Balcony In Brisbane
9:06AM Jess McGuire | It always feels a bit horrible to start the week with tragic news, but sadly we must. Levi Kereama, a fellow Australian Idol viewers would remember from the very first season of the show, died on Saturday night after jumping from a hotel balcony in Brisbane.
Says the Daily Telegraph:
Levi Kereama… plunged to his death from a Brisbane hotel on Saturday night. Just hours earlier the 27-year-old had played at the Parklife Festival in Brisbane’s Botanic Gardens and Riverstage.
More » Vale Rob Guest
2:33AM Jess McGuire | Sad news this morning – Rob Guest has passed away aged 57 after a stroke on Tuesday night.
Guest, 57, who stars as the Wizard of Oz in the Melbourne hit musical Wicked, was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital on Tuesday after suffering the stroke.
Early this morning, a hospital spokesperson said: “The family want the public to know he was surrounded by family and friends when he died”.
Our condolences to Rob’s family and friends.
MORE: Theatre great Rob Guest dies after suffering a stroke
EARLIER:
Theatre Star Rob Guest In Hospital After A Stroke
Rob Guest “Fighting For His Life” More » 
‘All Saints’ Cast React To Mark Priestley’s Death
10:30AM Clem Bastow | Tributes have started to pour out of the Australian television, film and theatre industries for actor Mark Priestley, who was found dead on Wednesday afternoon. The show that enjoyed a ratings spike on Tuesday, with 1.7 million tuning in to see Priestley’s character Dan get married, All Saints stopped filming yesterday for at least 24 hours, and members of the cast have offered their thoughts about their co-star’s tragic death.
John Howard, who plays Dr Frank Campion, said Priestley was a fine actor: “He had the most extraordinary combination of very deft comic touch and great emotional depth.”
John Waters, who plays Dr Mike Vlasek, was stunned. “I worked with him on stage and on screen and will miss him more than I can say right now,” Waters said. “Mark the actor was intuitive, and graced every scene in which he appeared with a touch of whimsical genius that only he could apply.”
More » Vale Mark Priestley
1:30PM Clem Bastow | Extremely sad news this afternoon: All Saints star and talented theatre actor Mark Priestley has died. He was found later yesterday in Sydney’s CBD near the hotel he was staying in; ambulance officers initially thought he’d suffered a heart attack but later indicated they believed his death was a suicide. Priestley had apparently been struggling with depression; he was only 32 years old. Channel Seven has released the following statement:
Mark Priestley was a tremendous young person – loved and respected by his fellow All Saints cast members and crew.
More » 
Vale Tristram Cary, Aka AAP Don’t Know Their Arses From Their ‘Doctor Who’ Composers
4:22PM Clem Bastow | The geek in us shed a little tear this morning when we read that Tristram Cary had passed away aged 82.
The British born Australian resident was an electronic music composer and pioneer, musique concrète exponent, academic, and designer of sythesisers (he also had possibly the greatest 80th birthday cake ever).
But the geek in us also shed a little tear when we read the intro to this AAP piece that news.com.au were running:
Tristram Cary, the composer of the Dr Who theme tune and a pioneer of electronic music, has died in Adelaide aged 82.
Plenty of other news outlets have run with the story, including The Age.
Science fiction history, AAP, you’re doing it wrong!
Firstly, it’s Doctor Who, and secondly, the Doctor Who theme song was composed by Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire. Cary did compose for Who, but it was incidental music.
Honestly, do AAP know who they’re dealing with? Did they think the geeks just wouldn’t notice this sort of stuff up? Is it too much to ask for “The National News Agency” to get their facts straight before they offer them up for distribution and syndication?
Or do we just need to stop playing with our Dalek toys? More » Vale Pebble Byrne-Denton
1:47PM Jess McGuire | We are sad to report that the Jack Russell terrier belonging to Australia’s favourite clever clogs Jennifer Byrne and Andrew Denton – a pup named Pebble – sadly passed away after being struck by a car in Double Bay on Monday, despite the presence of TV vet Dr Chris Brown at the scene.
The TV vet was driving through Double Bay on New South Head Rd when he saw a Jack Russell terrier run across the road into the early morning peak hour traffic and be hit by a car.
More » Vale Emily Perry
1:24PM Jess McGuire | Actress Emily Perry, famous for brilliantly portraying Dame Edna’s sidekick Madge Allsop for yeeeaaaars, has passed away at the ripe old age of 100.
The elderly English actress who played Dame Edna Everage’s sidekick Madge Allsop has died. The Sun newspaper said Emily Perry died aged 100. No other details were available. Perry began playing the sour-faced Madge, a New Zealander from Palmerston North, when she was 80. Madge, Edna’s elderly “bridesmaid” began appearing alongside Barry Humphries’ famous housewife and “gigastar” in 1987. She never spoke and was often the butt of Edna’s witty putdowns.
We grew up with a Dame Edna-obsessed mother and have incredibly fond memories of Emily Perry playing Madge, so today the metaphorical Defamer Australia flag flies at half-mast. More » 