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How Donald Zec scooped them all

He was the original celebrity newshound and interviewed all the megastars of the fifties and sixties, including Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart and The Beatles.

March 26, 2009 15:39
...linking arms with Marilyn Monroe

ByMichael Freedland, Michael Freedland

4 min read

At 19, I wanted to be Donald Zec. He was a journalist doing all the things I wanted to do. He was a top writer on the Daily Mirror; I was a junior reporter on The Luton News. He was spending all his time jetting to and from Hollywood; I was going to council meetings.

He seemed to have the perfect life. I have since done my share of jet-setting and have discovered that in Tinseltown, all that glitters is not gold. But I am not sure that for Donald Zec, 90 years old this month, that was ever the case.

If it were not for the loss three years ago of Frances, his wife of 66 years, this son of a tailor from Odessa would be a very happy man, sitting in his West London flat, surrounded by photographs and memorabilia — including a framed certificate commemorating his OBE for services to journalism — from a legendary career in Fleet Street.

His Orthodox father was a strong influence, if only because the tailor himself was a writer… of short stories in Yiddish. A photograph of Simon Zecanovsky (the original family name), with one of the stories behind it hangs on the wall, too.