Experienced lawyer Michael Hardie Boyes was the man then-prime minister Jim Bolger called upon when New Zealand embarked on a constitutional experiment, its first MMP election. Sir Michael, knighted in the 1996 New Year Honours list, was a Court of Appeal judge and former Law Society president. He was regarded as a safe pair of hands and so he proved to be. While there were questions aplenty about how New Zealand would cope with coalition talks and caretaker governments, Sir Michael had few constitutional conundrums to solve during his five years as the Queen’s representative in New Zealand. He was appointed New Zealand’s first Knight Grand Companion of The New Zealand Order of Merit when it was established in 1996 and was also a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, additional Companion of the Queen’s Service Order, and Knight of the Order of St John. In retirement he volunteered for a literacy programme at a local school, was chairman of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery trust, and for a time a Court of Appeal judge in Kiribati. Sir Michael died on December 29, aged 92. Although eligible for a state funeral, he declined.
Ryan O’Neal was almost as well-known for his off-screen dramas as anything he did as an actor. The star of ’70s tearjerker Love Story had a torrid personal life, and endured a 2004 tell-all memoir from daughter and actress Tatum O’Neal about her scarred childhood. O’Neal, a former boxer, got his break on TV soap Peyton Place, before cracking Hollywood. He was Oscar-nominated for Love Story, and also had notable appearances in What’s Up Doc?, Paper Moon (Tatum’s debut film), Barry Lyndon and A Bridge Too Far, but by his career’s end he had garnered more Razzies nominations than Oscar nods. The twice-married O’Neal also had a long-standing and high-profile relationship with actress Farrah Fawcett, but the pattern of tempestuous times with his children was a recurring one. Near the end of his career, he had a recurring role on police procedural series Bones, playing the father of the show’s title character. O’Neal died on December 8, aged 82.
BOB Johnson’s electric guitar was the vehicle which drove the band Steeleye Span, a group which helped plug in Britain’s folk rock scene in the early ’70s. The band formed in 1969 and Johnson, the London-based son of a music teacher, joined in 1972. The band’s trademark was taking traditional songs and adding Johnson’s rock guitar to them, and they had early commercial success. One song he brought to the group, the hymn Gaudete, was a minor Christmas hit in 1973. He faded as punk rose to ascendancy and he left the band in 1977, only to rejoin a reformed band in 1980. He remained a band member until 2001, quitting because of ill health. While touring he obtained a degree in clinical psychology and became an occupational therapist. Johnson died on December 15, aged 79.
— Agencies
