What (deceased) well known people do you remember with affection?

Freddie Mercury for me too Ninathenana. He would have been 67 this year and it would be hard to imagine him as an old man, but I was a huge fan and still miss him very much.

Oh. If we're doing animals, what about Rick Stein's Chalky?

Does anyone remember dear Timothy Birdsall who died of leukemia in 1963? He was a cartoonist on That Was The Week That Was and also worked on Private Eye. He was only in his twenties and such a nice boy. There was no suggestion that he was ill so his death was a terrible shock. It seemed such an awful waste that I've never forgotten him.

Wasn't John Peel dying a shock Tegan ? I thought he'd go on for years. I used to listen to him on my way to work on Saturdays. I miss Desert Orchid too - he was such a beautiful horse, I've always been a sucker for greys.

Oh and John Peel...

Syd Barrett and Desert Orchid .

Oh yes, how could I have missed Thora Hird from my list? She was a lovely lady, and a great actress.

Movedalot - I am guessing you like ballet!

I know the OP said 'with affection', but I don't care, it was affectionate adoration

Frank Sinatra. I know he wasn't a nice man, but his voice can reduce me to a quivering heap.
I saw him in London just a few years before he died,and I was mesmerised.

Eric Morecambe
John Martyn
John Lennon

Eric Morecambe
Richard Briers
George Harrison
Geoff Hamilton

Definitely Eric Morcombe and Roy Castle.
Freddie Mercury

Thora Hird. Loved her work in her latter years. The Cracker, Wide eyed and legless, etc. She was just a national treasure.

Elvis Hit me like a ton of bricks.

Margot Fonteyn
Ninette de Valois
Maurice Bejart
Robert Helpman
Roy Castle

Eric Morecombe here too, also tommy cooper and Patrick swayse x

It is not too extreme to say I was devastated when Carol Keating died. (Daughter of Gloria Honeyford). I had met her when I appeared on her afternoon magazine programme and she was kind, intelligent, beautiful and happy. She was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 33 and spent the rest of her 30s desperately trying to find a cure. She died at the age of 41, leaving her two young sons. I used to wake up thinking about her - it was a couple of years after my own daughter had come close to death. I still think of her often, and how terrible it must have been to know she was not going to see her boys grow up.

Eric Morecambe here as well.
George Formby
Les Dawson
Gracie Fields
Alma Cogan

I could go on for longer, but won`t.

Your three, plus Roy Castle, Les Dawson, Dave Allen, and Mo Mowlam.