Singer of 'Cry Me A River' dies at 74

Julie London, the American nightclub singer who made "Cry Me A River" an anthem for the lovelorn, has died aged 74. She had been in declining health since suffering a stroke five years ago and died in hospital in California.

Julie London, the American nightclub singer who made "Cry Me A River" an anthem for the lovelorn, has died aged 74. She had been in declining health since suffering a stroke five years ago and died in hospital in California.

Born Julie Peck to parents who worked as a vaudeville song-and-dance team, she started singing on her mother and father's radio show before moving into films in the 1940s. Over the next two decades, she appeared in nearly two dozen films, starring alongside Gary Cooper in Task Force in 1949 and Rock Hudson in The Fat Man four years later.

However, it was for "Cry Me A River" - a song she recorded for the 1956 Jayne Mansfield film The Girl Can't Help It - that she was best known. The single sold 3 million copies and remained in demand into the 1960s. She recorded a total of 32 albums. Describing her vocal style, Ms London once said: "It's only a thimbleful of a voice, and I have to use it close to a microphone. But it is a kind of oversmoked voice, and it automatically sounds intimate."

She was twice married - first to Jack Webb, producer and star of the Dragnet television series, and later to Bobby Troup, composer of the hit song "Route 66", who died last year. Obituary, Review, page 6