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Journalist Michael Freedland, 83, dies 'doing what he loved'
Veteran broadcaster died suddenly on research trip for latest book, having written an article for the JC just days before
October 3, 2018 15:29
Veteran broadcaster died suddenly on research trip for latest book, having written an article for the JC just days before
October 3, 2018 15:29The journalist and broadcaster Michael Freedland has died aged 83 “doing what he loved”.
Mr Freedland, who specialised in writing about Hollywood and its entertainers, died on Monday morning in his hotel room in Aberdeen, in South Dakota, United States.
He was visiting the city as part of research into a biography of Hollywood lawyer, Charles "Chuck" Levy.
His son, the journalist and author Jonathan Freedland, paid tribute to his father: “We are devastated by the loss of a man we loved so much. His death was sudden and unexpected and comes as a huge shock. But he died doing what he'd always done - chasing a good story."
Jonathan said the family was finding comfort in the fact his father “was working up until the end".
He said: “He never considered not working. He looked at people his age who had retired and said, ‘What would I do?’
“There is something quite comforting about it happening while he was doing what he loved. He didn’t want a long drawn out death or a long painful illness.”
Mr Freedland, who was brought up in Luton and secured his first job as a copy-holder at the Luton News, went on to write about Judy Garland and Elvis Presley, alongside many others. He wrote more than 40 biographies.
Jonathan said: “There was something about Hollywood that he just loved. We lost count of the number of biographies he wrote. He just loved telling people's stories.
“It started from a young age with him going to the pictures. In another world he might even have gone to Hollywood. But he didn't; he did the next best thing and that was to write about it.”
Michael Freedland was the only journalist to interview Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, despite her reclusiveness.
His radio show You Don't Have To Be Jewish began in 1971 on BBC Radio London and was on air for 24 years.
Jonathan said: “It was the first of its kind, a magazine-style news show. It became a 'must listen' for Jewish households, but others as well.”
Mr Freedland who wrote for the Sunday Telegraph, Spectator, Guardian, Times, Observer and Economist, was especially proud that he had written for the JC for over 67 years.
His first JC contribution came in November 1951 when, aged 16, he filed a paragraph on the Luton presence at that year’s remembrance parade of Jewish ex-servicemen.
Jonathan said it was typical that just days before his dad died he was still filing copy for the paper and pitching stories.
“There will be something he wrote in the JC this very week. Writing to the end: that's the man he was.”
JC editor Stephen Pollard said: “One of the many privileges of my job was meeting and becoming a friend of the legendary Michael Freedland.
"He was a joy. Witty, warm and wise, he seemed to have met every significant person of the past 50 years – and had a story about them all. He is irreplaceable.”
