Ken Campbell, a maverick British actor, writer and director whose career ranged from sitcom roles to a 22- hour stage extravaganza, has died in London. He was 66.
He had recently returned from the Edinburgh Fringe festival, where he performed in a typically anarchic work titled “Showstopper! The Improvised Musical.” Born in Ilford, east London, in 1941, Campbell attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the training ground of Britain’s thespian elite.
In 1976, he formed the Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool, mounting shows including the eight-hour sci-fi play cycle “Illuminatus,” a 22-hour epic “The Warp” and a stage version of Doug las Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”
More mainstream ventures included an appearance on the television sitcom “Fawlty Towers.”
Ed Justice, a race-car builder who joined his brothers to start the Justice Brothers Inc. car-care-products company, has died. He was 87. Justice, the last surviving brother, died Saturday in Arcadia, Calif., of complications from kidney failure, said his son, Ed Justice Jr.
Ed Justice and his brothers Zeke and Gus founded their business after World War II with $2,500 they earned from selling a midget race car they built in their garage.
The brothers brewed fuel and oil additives in their backyard. An early success was a stop-leak additive for transmissions.
The company’s reputation was enhanced by sponsoring the winning car driven by Johnnie Parsons at the 1950 Indianapolis 500. Justice Brothers, now based in Duar te, Calif., went on to sponsor winning cars in nearly every form of racing.
