Ian Robins Dury

 Ian Robins Dury (May 12, 1942 – March 27, 2000)

He was the lead singer and lyricist of Ian Dury and the Blockheads and previously Kilburn and the High Roads. At the age of seven, Dury contracted polio, most likely, he believed, from a swimming pool at Southend-on-Sea during the 1949 polio epidemic. His illness resulted in the paralysis and withering of his left leg, shoulder and arm. Dury was 28 at the time he formed Kilburn.
The Kilburns found favor on London's pub rock circuit and signed to Dawn Records in 1974 but, despite favorable press coverage and a tour opening for English rock band The Who, the group failed to rise above cult status and disbanded in 1975. Signing with the fledgling indie label Stiff in 1978, Dury developed a strange fusion of music hall, punk rock, and disco that brought him to stardom in his native England. Driven by a warped sense of humor and a pulsating beat, singles like "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick," "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll," and "Reasons to Be Cheerful, Pt. 3" became Top Ten hits in the U.K., yet Dury's most distinctive qualities -- his dry wit and wordplay, thick Cockney accent, and fascination with music hall -- kept him from gaining popularity outside of England. After his second album, Dury's style became formulaic, and he faded away in the early '80s, turning to an acting career instead.

He appeared in several plays and television shows, as well as the Peter Greenaway film The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and Roman Polanski's movie Pirates. He also began to write jingles for British commercials. In May 1998, Dury announced that he had been diagnosed with colon cancer and that the disease had spread to his liver. He decided to release the information the weekend of his 56th birthday, in hopes of offering encouragement for others battling the disease. For the next year, he battled the disease while keeping a public profile -- in the fall of 1999, he was inducted into Q magazine's songwriting hall of fame, and he appeared at the ceremony. Sadly, it was his last public appearance. Dury succumbed to cancer on March 27, 2000. He was 57.