GOOD LEGACY

Star of ‘The Goodies’ Dead at 85

Bill Oddie was also known for his role as TV’s signature birdwatcher.

Bill Oddie has died at the age of 85. The TV star was known for his 1970-82 role in The Goodies, which he co-wrote and acted in as a fictionalized version of himself, alongside Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden. The Rochdale-born icon also wrote the music for The Goodies, including the 1975 hit “The Funky Gibbon,” which reached No. 4 on the U.K. charts. Oddie also became TV’s signature birdwatcher, on BBC’s Springwatch. He was a staunch wildlife advocate, serving as a member of the council of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Oddie had a complex personality underneath his easygoing appearance. He lived with bipolar disorder that at times caused him to miss a number of episodes of Springwatch. After the BBC dropped him from the show he admitted he was sent into a major depressive episode that put him in a hospital for a year. The star married Jean Hart, a jazz musician, in 1967. He is survived by their two daughters. The couple later divorced and Oddie married Laura Beaumont, a host on the TV game show Sale of the Century, in 1983. His cause of death has not been disclosed.