PASSINGS: Noel Harrison, Jon Locke, Jamalul Kiram III

Noel Harrison

British singer-actor and skier

Noel Harrison, 79, the British actor-singer best known for his recording of the Academy Award-winning ballad “The Windmills of Your Mind” from the 1968 film “The Thomas Crown Affair” and for his role as secret agent Mark Slate in the 1960s TV series “The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.,” has died in England.

Harrison suffered a heart attack after a performance Saturday in Devon and died at a hospital, his wife, Lori Chapman, told British media Tuesday. Harrison revealed in a June interview with London’s Daily Mail that he had kidney disease.

Born Jan. 29, 1934, in London to actor Rex Harrison and the first of his six wives, Collette Thomas, Harrison was raised by his mother in southwest England and Switzerland. A member of Britain’s ski team, Harrison represented his country at the 1952 and ’56 Winter Olympics before becoming a professional musician.

“The only English who ski,” Harrison told The Times in 1966, “are those whose parents are rich enough to take them to Switzerland.”

In the late 1950s, he began playing guitar and singing at nightclubs and bars across Europe. He moved to the United States during the 1960s’ “British invasion” and had his greatest success with “The Windmills of Your Mind.” The theme to “The Thomas Crown Affair,” a heist movie directed by Norman Jewison and starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, won the best-song Oscar for French composer Michel Legrand and American lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman.

Harrison also appeared opposite Stefanie Powers in “The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.,” a lighthearted spy spoof that aired on NBC in 1966-67.

He moved to Canada in the 1970s, toured the U.S. in stage musicals and other theatrical productions, then returned in the 1990s to England, where he continued to perform and record.

Jon Locke

Actor often played the heavy

Jon Locke, 86, an actor in many TV westerns including “Gunsmoke,” “The Virginian” and “Bonanza,” died Saturday at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank of complications from a stroke, his friend Katie West said.

Locke also had a recurring role as Officer Garvey on “Highway Patrol,” with Broderick Crawford.

A frequent guest at film festivals across the U.S., Locke belonged to “Reel Cowboys,” a social group of veteran western actors that met regularly in the San Fernando Valley. He often played his banjo at the annual film festival in Lone Pine, Calif., a backdrop for many classic Westerns.

A resident of Van Nuys, he was office manager of a local real estate firm for many years, West said.

Born Joseph Lockey Yon in Orlando, Fla. on Oct. 10, 1927, Locke graduated from Florida State University, where he was active in theater. During a stint in the Air Force, he went on tour in “Flame-Out,” a dramatic production about pilots during the Korean War. He also appeared in the production on Broadway.

Often playing the heavy in westerns, Locke had a wide variety of TV roles, including appearances on “The Bionic Woman,” “Perry Mason,” “Mary Tyler Moore” and many others.

Jamalul Kiram III

Led bid to reclaim part of Malaysia

Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, 75, whose bid to restore Sulu sovereignty over Malaysia’s Sabah state in February led to clashes that killed at least 62 people, died Sunday at a Manila hospital, according to a clan spokesman. He had kidney disease.

Kiram clashed with Malaysian authorities when he sent his brother Agbimuddin and 200 armed followers to Sabah in February to occupy land and pursue the clan’s claim.

The sultans of Sulu once ruled over both Sabah and the Sulu islands in the southern Philippines. The sultanate, which dates to about the 15th century, says it leased Sabah to the British North Borneo Company in 1878, an agreement that Malaysia views as a cession of sovereignty. The state fell under British control after World War II and joined Malaysia in 1963, shortly after Sulu ceded its sovereignty to the Philippines.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino had accused Kiram and his followers of dragging the nation into a dispute that was hurting relations with Malaysia. That nation is brokering peace talks aimed at ending a four-decade Muslim insurgency that has killed as many as 200,000 people.

Kiram, who referred to himself as the world’s poorest sultan, was one of several descendants laying claim to the sultanate. He had gone to law school but pursued a career in dance instead. In 2007, he ran unsuccessfully for a senate seat under former President Gloria Arroyo’s political party.

Times staff and wire reports

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