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.
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