London, November 5 (BUS): Actor Lionel Blair, who taught himself to dance by watching Fred Astaire films and became a staple on British stage and television for decades, has passed away.
He was 92 years old.
Blair’s agent said he died on Thursday. The cause of death was not revealed, the Associated Press reported.
Blair Lionel Henry Ojos was born in Montreal to Russian parents.
The family moved to Britain when he was a young child and settled in London, where he and his sister Joyce performed for people sheltering in underground stations during World War II bombing raids.
He began his career as a teenage actor, but soon concentrated on dancing, taking the stage name Lionel Blair.
He said in 2014: “I really wanted to be an actor. I was the breadwinner after my dad died when we were young, I got into musicals, became famous and stayed in musicals. But I really want to be in (TV series) ‘EastEnders.'”
He became close friends with Sammy Davis Jr. after the two performed a dance in a royal variety show in 1961 at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London.
He performed as a dancer, worked as a choreographer on television shows and during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s was an increasingly prominent presence on variety television shows and game shows.
He was a member of the game show “Give Us a Clue” and a presenter on the UK version of “Name That Tune”.
He appeared in several films, including as a choreographer for the Beatles’ 1964 “A Hard Day’s Night” and in the 1986 musical “Absolute Beginners.”
He was an annual star in the hugely popular seasonal stage shows known as pantomime Christmas shows and also appeared on reality TV shows “Celebrity Big Brother” in 2014 and “The Real Marigold Hotel” in 2017.
His fellow artists remember Blair as an upbeat and irrepressible presence both on and off stage.
His style was often called camp, but Blair said “I prefer ‘brilliant’ or ‘spirited’. I’ve always been exaggerating a bit.”
Blair is survived by his wife Susan, three children and three grandchildren.