'Spartacus' star Whitfield dies of lymphoma at 39

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Andy Whitfield, who played the title role in the hit cable series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," has died at age 39, according to representatives and family.

Whitfield died Sunday in Sydney, Australia, 18 months after he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, manager Sam Maydew told the Associated Press.

"On a beautiful sunny Sydney spring morning, surrounded by his family, in the arms of his loving wife, our beautiful young warrior Andy Whitfield lost his 18 month battle with lymphoma cancer," Whitfield's wife Vashti said in a statement. "He passed peacefully surrounded by love. Thank you to all his fans whose love and support have help carry him to this point. He will be remembered as the inspiring, courageous and gentle man, father and husband he was."

Andy Whitfield — who was born in Wales and moved to Australia in 1999 — was a virtual unknown when he was cast as the legendary Thracian slave in "Spartacus," a role made famous by Kirk Douglas in the 1960 Stanley Kubrick film.

The series proved a breakout hit for the Starz network and made waves with its graphic violence and sexuality.

Whitfield appeared in all 13 episodes of the first season that aired in 2010, and was preparing to shoot the second when he was diagnosed with cancer.

While waiting for Whitfield's treatment and expected recovery, the network produced a six-part prequel, "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena," that aired earlier this year with only a brief voiceover from the actor.

But in January after Whitfield's condition grew worse, the network announced that another Australian actor, Liam McIntyre, would take over the role.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of our dear friend and colleague, Andy Whitfield," Starz President and CEO Chris Albrecht said in a statement Sunday night. "We were fortunate to have worked with Andy in 'Spartacus' and came to know that the man who played a champion on-screen was also a champion in his own life."

Whitfield's previous credits included appearances on the Australian TV shows "Packed to the Rafters" and "McLeod's Daughters."

By ANDREW DALTON - Associated Press | AP – Sun, Sep 11, 2011 8:10 PM PDT

The £10billion king of discount supermarket chain Aldi dies a recluse

Brothers built global grocery titan from shop their mother opened in 1913

• Duo retired to North Sea island and their collection of typewriters
• Secretive family took four days to reveal death but wouldn't give a cause
• 
  

One of the founding brothers of the Aldi discount supermarket chain has died at the age of 88.

Theo Albrecht goes to his grave as one of the richest men on the planet with a fortune in excess of £10billion. 

He passed away on Saturday in his home town of Essen in western Germany's industrial Ruhr region.  

But in keeping with his family‘s legendary love of secrecy, news of his passing only leaked out today.

No cause of death has been given.

Together with his brother Karl, two years his senior, he built up Europe‘s biggest no-frills grocery chain Aldi - which is derived from 'Albrecht Discount' - and in doing so was a regular on the Forbes rich list.

'The best quality at the lowest price' was the business motto and it made Theo alone a fortune in excess of £10billion. Annually, the group turns over around £22billion.

Aldi has invested £1.5billion in Britain and has more than 300 outlets, opening its first store here in 1989, but plans to have 1,500 in a decade or so. 

The stores are hallmarked by their frugality - no fancy shelving, goods piled up on pallets, and no chic decorations or piped muzak.

Home to the brothers is a remote island in the North Sea, where they whiled away their time playing golf and indulging in their other hobbies, such as collecting typewriters and growing orchids.

Theo was once asked to inspect the plans for a new store in the Netherlands. Having studied them closely, he offered the following advice: 'This layout is very good. But there's just one thing - this paper you're using is too thick. Use thinner paper to save money.'

Rather than waste money on fancy fountain pens, Theo would also take notes at meetings with senior staff using pencil stubs under 2in long.

Theo was born on March 28, 1922 - and for him and Karl, the retail trade was in their blood. 

Their mother set up a small grocery shop in Essen after their father, a miner (and later a baker's assistant), developed the lung condition emphysema.

Determined not to follow their classmates into the mines and factories, Karl trained at a delicatessen, while Theo learned the grocery business from their mother.

At the outbreak of World War II both were conscripted into the Wehrmacht. 

Karl fought on the Russian front, where he was wounded, and Theo served with Rommel's Afrika Korps, in a supply unit. 

He was captured eventually by the Americans in Tunisia, but both made it back to Germany in 1946.

The harshness of their childhood, the scrimping and saving that the customers of their mother's shop had to do to get by, made them appreciate the value of money and look for a radical new way of selling goods when they took over the shop after the war.

The rest is retailing legend - from 13 stores just after the war the Aldi ('Al for Albrecht, 'di' for discount) empire marched on to dominate the German retail landscape.

Perhaps inevitably for two such strong-willed characters, the brothers were not without their disagreements. 

In the Sixties they fell out, deciding to divide their business in two after a row over whether to sell cigarettes at the till.

Karl is said to have been worried that the tobacco products would attract shoplifters and so damage profits. He took charge of the stores in southern Germany (Aldi-Sud) and Theo managed the less profitable northern stores (Aldi-Nord), with the help of his two sons.

Although Theo remained involved, like his brother, in the running of the company, a panel of other family members and representatives have helped manage Aldi in recent times. 

In their semi-retirement the brothers, in the words of Forbes magazine, remained 'more reclusive than the Yeti' - which can be partly attributed to a terrifying ordeal suffered by Theo in 1971.

Kidnapped at gunpoint by a lawyer with gambling debts, he was held for 17 days in his abductor's Dusseldorf office, before eventually being released for a £1.5million ransom. 

The kidnapper - who later received a prison sentence of eight-and-a-half years - was so surprised by the nondescript appearance of his charge that he demanded ID to ensure he had captured the right person.

True to form, Theo bargained over the ransom for his own release and later applied for tax relief on the ransom money as a business expense.

Where Theo‘s death will leave the empire is uncertain.

   

Read more:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298308/Theo-Albrecht-Aldi-founder-dies-billionaire-aged-88.html

By ALLAN HALL      29th July 2010

Adolf Merckle, German tycoon who lost millions on VW shares, commits suicide

World’s 94th richest man saw his empire falling, wrote a final note and stepped in front of a train

One of Europe’s most influential industry magnates has thrown himself in front of a train after his business empire began to crumble.

Adolf Merckle, the 74-year-old head of a conglomerate that employs thousands in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, killed himself on Monday.

After writing a suicide note for his family, he checked the railway timetable and walked to the track that ran close to his home in the village of Blaubeuren, southwest Germany. His body was found at 7.30pm.

“The economic distress in his companies as the result of the financial crisis and the associated uncertainties of the last weeks, as well as his sense of impotence at no longer being able to act, destroyed this passionate family entrepreneur, and he ended his life,” a statement released by the family said.

Before his world started to fall apart last autumn, Mr Merckle was employing 100,000 people and turning more than ¤30 billion a year. Forbes magazine had put his personal fortune at ¤7 billion. He had built the group from a small inherited pharmaceutical firm employing 80 workers. But almost every one of the offshoots of the Merckle empire was in serious trouble.

His HeidelbergCement was having problems digesting Hanson, its recently purchased British competitor. Demand had slipped away for electric motors, machine tools and even the snowcats that he made for ski-trail maintenance. He was also thought to be the biggest individual loser from a dramatic swing in the share price of Volkswagen last year in which he is thought to have lost more than ¤200 million.

As well as Hanson, Heidelberg’s businesses in Britain included Castle Cement, SRM, a recycling company, and Minerals Resource Management, which recycles inorganic materials into the cement industry.

Although he had scratched together a ¤400 million loan for his companies, Mr Merckle was said to have become depressed by the decline in his fortunes. His creditors — about 30 banks including the Royal Bank of Scotland — had closed in on him, demanding his Swiss companies as security.

Most painfully of all, they demanded the sale of Ratiopharm, which he had always considered his legacy to his four children. State prosecutors had also opened a case against Ratiopharm for allegedly offering incentives to doctors to prescribe its products.

Mr Merckle was typical of the self-made men from Baden-Württemberg, the most prosperous corner of Germany. He did not own yachts or fleets of luxury cars and avoided jet-set parties. He always travelled second class on the train, insisted on the family going on cycling holidays and, when they travelled to the mountains he would go only to the places where his family had a concession on the ski lifts.

“He plainly could not come to terms with losing even part of his empire,” Frank Seidlitz, a business commentator, said. “What people close to the family patriarch are saying is, ‘Adolf was always the strong one, full of self-confidence — and he always took defeat badly’.”

Credit crunch casualties

Kirk Stephenson, the 47-year-old New Zealand-born chief operating officer at the private equity firm Olivant, died instantly when he was hit by a train at Taplow station in Buckinghamshire, on September 25 last year. A jury returned a verdict of suicide

René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, 65, a French financier, locked the door of his New York office last month, swallowed sleeping pills and slashed his wrists with a craft knife. He was facing losses from investing with the alleged fraudster Bernard Madoff. His family said that his suicide was a “matter of honour”

Paulo Sergio Silva, 36, a trader for the brokerage arm of the Brazilian banking giant Itaú, shot himself in the chest during the afternoon trading session of São Paulo’s commodities and futures exchange in an apparent suicide attempt in November. Trading stopped for about 15 minutes

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5460281.ece
Roger Boyes in Berlin        January 7, 2009