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Lionel Blair, British stage, and TV veteran dies at 92

Lionel

Lionel Blair started as a teenage actor and soon changed his focus to dancing which he taught himself how to do by watching famous dancers on TV. He performed as a dancer, worked as a choreographer for television shows and during the 1960s, 70s and 80s was an increasingly prominent presence on TV variety and game shows. The Associated Press has the story:

Blair became close friends with Sammy Davis Jr. after the two performed a dance-off at a royal variety performance in 1961

LONDON (AP) — Entertainer Lionel Blair, who taught himself to dance by watching Fred Astaire movies and became a staple on British stage and television for decades, has died. He was 92.

Blair’s agent said he died Thursday. No cause of death was given.

FILE – Britain’s Prince Charles, right, meets actor and entertainer Lionel Blair, left, at Tavis House in London, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011. The Prince of Wales, Patron, visited to open Tavis House, the new hub for Age UK. HRH celebrated the work of Age UK and its partners and the contribution older people continue to make to society. Blair has died at the age of 92, it was reported on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool, File)

Blair was born Lionel Henry Ogus in Montreal to Russian Jewish parents. The family moved to Britain when he was a toddler and settled in London, where he and his sister Joyce performed for people sheltering in subway stations during World War II bombing raids.

He began his career as a teenage actor, but soon focused on dancing, taking the stage name Lionel Blair.

FILE – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II talks with with celebrity guests Lionel Blair, centre and June Whitfield, at the Help The Aged Living Legends at Windsor Castle, in Windsor, England, Wednesday May 3 2006. Blair has died at the age of 92, it was reported on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. (Fiona Hanson/Pool via AP, File)

“I really wanted to be an actor,” he said in 2014. “I was the breadwinner after my father died when we were quite young, and I got into a musical, became well-known and stayed in musicals. But really I want to be in (soap opera) ‘EastEnders.'”

He became close friends with Sammy Davis Jr. after the two performed a dance-off at a royal variety performance in 1961 at London’s Prince of Wales Theatre.

FILE – From left, entertainers Sammy Davis Jr, Joyce Blair and Lionel Blair gesture, at London Airport, May 3, 1966. Blair has died at the age of 92, it was reported on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. (PA via AP, File)

He performed as a dancer, worked as a choreographer for television shows and during the 1960s, 70s and 80s was an increasingly prominent presence on TV variety and game shows. He was a panelist on charades-based game show “Give Us a Clue” and a presenter on the U.K. version of “Name That Tune.”

He made several film appearances, including as a choreographer in The Beatles’ 1964 caper “A Hard Day’s Night” and in the 1986 musical “Absolute Beginners.”

FILE – British entertainer Lionel Blair poses for a photo, July 7, 1995 in London. Blair has died at the age of 92, it was reported on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. (Fiona Hanson/PA via AP, File)

He was an annual star of the hugely popular seasonal stage shows known as Christmas pantomimes, and also appeared in reality TV shows “Celebrity Big Brother” in 2014 and “The Real Marigold Hotel” in 2017.

Fellow entertainers remembered Blair as an irrepressible, upbeat presence both onstage and off.

His style was often called camp, but Blair said, “I prefer ‘flamboyant’, or ‘enthusiastic.’ I’ve always been a bit over-the-top.”

Blair is survived by his wife Susan, three children and three grandchildren.

Source: AP

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