Spike Milligan




Spike Milligan

Sir Terence Alan Milligan was born in British India, April 16th, 1918 and died in East Sussex, England, February 27th, 2002 age 83.

He was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. He was born in India but spent majority of his working life in the United Kingdom. He disliked his first name and began to call himself "Spike" after hearing a band on Radio Luxembourg called "Spike Jones and the City Slickers".

 

Health

Spike Milligan suffered from severe bipolar disorder for most of his life, having at least ten serious mental breakdowns, several lasting over a year.

Peter Sellers(top), Spike Milligan(Left)
and Harry Secombe(right)

Career
Milligan was the co-creator, main writer and a principal cast member of The Goon Show, performing a range of roles including the popular Eccles and Minnie Bannister characters. Milligan wrote and edited many books, including Puckoon, a comic novel.

Family

Comic novel by Spike Milliagn

Milligan had 3 Wifes throughout his life. He married his first wife, June Marlow, in 1952. They had three children - Laura, Sean and Sile and then divorced in 1960. He had one daughter with his second wife, Patricia Ridgeway. They were married in 1962 and the marriage then ended with her death from breast cancer in 1978. In 1975, Milligan had a son , James, born in 1976, in an affair with Margaret Maughan. Another child, a daughter Romany, is suspected to have been born at the same time to a Canadian journalist named Roberta Watt. His last wife who he remained married to until he passed was Shelagh Sinclair, married in 1983 and divorced in 2002.



Death

Milligan died from Kidney failure, at the age of 83, at his home in Rye, Sussex. On the day of his funeral, March 8th, 2002, his coffin was carried to St Thomas's Church in Winchelsea and was draped in the flag of Ireland. He had once quipped that he wanted his headstone to say the words "I told you I was ill." He was buried at St Thomas's churchyard but the Chichester diocese refused to allow this epitaph. A compromise was reached with the Irish translation, "Duirt me leat go raibh me breoite" and in English, "Love, light, peace".