Death
In the autumn of 1993 Johnston undertook a series of UK theatre tours, entertaining live audiences as a raconteur. On the morning of 2 December 1993, whilst in a taxi going to Paddington station en route to Bristol, he suffered a massive heart attack. The taxi driver drove him straight to the nearest Maida Vale hospital where he was revived, after a cardiac arrest. He was transferred to St Mary's Hospital, Paddington where he remained until 14 December. He was then transferred to the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers until he was discharged on 23 December. He was then re-admitted to hospital on 4 January when his health deteriorated again.
Brian Johnston died on the morning of 5 January 1994, at the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers in Marylebone, London. The Daily Telegraph described him as "the greatest natural broadcaster of them all" and John Major, the contemporaneous British Prime Minister and cricket fan, said that "Summers simply won't be the same without him". A memorial service was held in a packed Westminster Abbey on 16 May 1994 with over 2,000 people present.
Read more about this topic: Brian Johnston
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“... the heart monitor,
the death cricket bleeping.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“The Reverend Samuel Peters ... exaggerated the Blue Laws, but they did include “Capital Lawes” providing a death penalty for any child over sixteen who was found guilty of cursing or striking his natural parents; a death penalty for an incorrigible son; a law forbidding smoking except in a room in a private house; another law declaring smoking illegal except on a journey five miles away from home,...”
—Administration for the State of Con, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“You listen to artists fighting with each other, competing to the death like gladiators, in order to see who is going to get into a show, who is going to make it, who isn’t: who is going to get a full-page ad and who is going to get a half-page. Then I think, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to go off somewhere and just do your work?””
—Howardena Pindell (b. 1943)