Sudden Death
In 1981, after a long fight with Hodgkin's Disease - a cancer of the Lymph Glands - Tonge died aged only 35. He had caught chicken pox and died of heart failure, his system unable to cope with the infection. A constant companion at his side was his girlfriend, actress Sonia Fox who played Sheila Harvey in Crossroads. By the time of his death, she had already left the series and the couple had kept their romance secret from the press. Noele Gordon, who played Tonge's on-screen mother, paid tribute to him as the son she had never had in real life.
Read more about this topic: Roger Tonge
Famous quotes containing the words sudden death, sudden and/or death:
“The man who would change the name of Arkansas is the original, iron-jawed, brass-mouthed, copper-bellied corpse-maker from the wilds of the Ozarks! He is the man they call Sudden Death and General Desolation! Sired by a hurricane, dam’d by an earthquake, half-brother to the cholera, nearly related to the smallpox on his mother’s side!”
—Administration in the State of Arka, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Some authors have what amounts to a metaphysical approach. They admit to inspiration. Sudden and unaccountable urgencies to write catapult them out of sleep and bed. For myself, I have never awakened to jot down an idea that was acceptable the following morning.”
—Fannie Hurst (1889–1968)
“You mustn’t be afraid of death. When this ship sailed, death sailed on her.”
—Charles Larkworthy. Denison Clift. Anton Lorenzen (Bela Lugosi)