Marion Ryan

Marion Ryan (4 February 1931 – 15 January 1999)^[1] was a popular British singer in the 1950s.

Career

Born Marian Ryan in Middlesbrough, England, and once called "the Marilyn Monroe of popular song", Marion Ryan was a pop singer of the 1950s in the early years of British Independent Television. She was the regular singer in the popular musical quiz Spot the Tune,^[2] on Granada Television for seven years from 1956, with a total of 209 half-hour programmes, that featured several star hosts including disc-jockey Pete Murray, the Canadian pop singer Jackie Rae, and the comedians Ken Platt and Ted Ray, and also Peter Knight and his Orchestra. She made one brief appearance as herself in a film with singer Tommy Steele.^[3] The show re-emerged in the 1970s as Name That Tune.

Personal life

She first married producer Lloyd Sapherson in 1948 and had twin sons, Barry and Paul (born Leeds, 24 October 1948), and one daughter. Paul died of cancer in 1992, aged 44. In 1969 she married for the second time the American show business millionaire, Harold Davison, after which she retired.^[4] She died in Boca Raton, Florida, aged 68, of heart failure, following the onset of pneumonia.

References

1. ^ Thedeadrockstarsclub.com - accessed March 2011
2. ^ Spot the Tune at the UK Game Shows website
3. ^ "Marion Ryan at the Internet Movie Database". http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0752697/. Retrieved 2008-10-27. 
4. ^ "Discography". http://www.45-rpm.org.uk/dirm/marionr.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-24. 

Persondata
Name	Ryan, Marion
Alternative names	Sapherson, Marion
Short description	English female pop singer
Date of birth	4 February 1931
Place of birth	Middlesbrough, England
Date of death	15 January 1999
Place of death	Boca Raton, Florida, United States