Obituaries in brief

Mady Rahl

Mady Rahl, who died on 29 August aged 94, was a German film, stage and television actress, the last surviving star to come out of the UFA studio.

Born Edith Gertrud Meta Raschke in Neukölln, Berlin in 1915, Rahl trained as an actress and dancer. In 1935 she made her stage debut in Leipzig under the direction of Douglas Sirk – best known for his Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s – and started her film career in 1936 with Der geheimnisvolle Mister X. Her role in the circus drama Truxa (1937) Rahl brought her to a wider audience. She appeared in a risqué late-1950s film Mit Eva fing die Sünde an which was recut into the 1962 film The Bellboy and the Playgirls by the young Francis Ford Coppola, who added 40 minutes of new footage, marking his debut as a director.

Ismael Valenzuela

Ismael "Milo" Valenzuela, a Hall of Fame jockey who twice won the Kentucky Derby and rode the five-time Horse of the Year Kelso in the 1960s, died on 2 September aged 74. Valenzuela rode from 1951 to 1980, winning 2,545 races and earning purses of more than $20m.

The third of 22 children, Valenzuela was born to Mexican parents in McNary, Texas in December 1934. He completed the double of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 1958, riding Tim Tam, although they lost the Triple Crown after finishing second to Cavan in the Belmont Stakes.

He won the Kentucky/Preakness double again in 1968, on board Forward Pass. They had, in fact, finished second *the Derby to Dancer's Image, who was disqualified after a positive drug test, the only one in the Derby's 135-year history.

On Kelso he won 22 of their 35 races together, and also rode such Hall of Fame horses as Affectionately, Cicada, Native Diver, Round Table and Searching. In all he won more than 130 major races.