David Gest dead: The entertainer's most wistful, candid and nostalgic quotes

'At 16 I was going out with Latoya Jackson it was just puppy love and nothing serious'

The entertainer was best known for being married to American actress Liza Minnelli and being a close childhood friend of the late Michael Jackson (PA)

Entertainer, producer and reality television star David Gest has passed away at the age of 62.

He was found dead in the Four Seasons hotel in Canary Wharf in London and his death is currently being treated as unexplained. The news was confirmed by a statement from his friend and former body guard, Imad Handi.

“It is with great sadness that I can confirm that David Gest has died today. David was truly larger than life. He was not just a huge talent and a dear friend but a showbiz icon,” said Mr Handi.

Gest was briefly married to American actress Liza Minnelli and was a close childhood friend of the late Michael Jackson.

Growing up in south California as a child, Gest later moved to the other side of the pond and then relocated to York in the North of England several years ago. The star became a familiar figure around North Yorkshire, routinely sighted in the antique shops and cafes of Harrogate.

Gest appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in January but ended up leaving the house after just 13 days due to unspecified medical reasons. He was due to begin a UK tour for a musical show entitled David Gest is Not Dead, But Alive With Soul, in July.

Here is a selection of the entertainer’s most memorable and honest quotes, spanning everything from Jackson to celebrity culture, plastic surgery, Minnelli, childhood and more.

On Michael Jackson

“I was about 14 when I became friends with Michael. I’d be at his place or he’d come to mine. At 16 I was going out with Latoya Jackson, it was just puppy love and nothing serious. She got sick one night and Michael asked if I would drive him to a memorabilia show in Pasadena. We ended up going out regularly to antique and record stores and became best friends." Yorkshire Post

“I was always the one with the bigger ego and full of myself. When we went to a gas station I hated pumping gas, spilling it and getting it on my feet so I made Michael do it. He’d smile and say, ‘I have the biggest album in the world and I’m pumping gas’.”

“'He loved kids like a father but he was into women. He was 100 per cent straight. He just couldn’t trust most of the women he met – he was genuinely shy and he just put his career first, before women.” The Daily Mail

On childhood

“You don’t beat a kid for buying a dollar’s worth of candy. I don’t cry because I never cried when I was being beaten, no matter how painful it was and no matter how many times that strap would break my skin. I would never give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry. So I don’t cry, I frustrate”.

On regrets

"But it would have been a wonderful thing to have created a child, to have someone to carry on my name. Another Gesty. Without the plastic surgery. A cute kid,”

“I have always, truly, hated my looks. That is why I had so much cosmetic surgery. How foolish was that. Look at how I ended up.”

On celebrity culture

“I have reinvented myself. I hang out with Pete Doherty and Liam Gallagher, and I live in a two-bedroom flat, and I'm happier than I ever was. I am 56 going on 24. Oh, and I'm hanging out with people who've never even heard of Liza Minnelli.” The Telegraph

“I don’t look at celebrity the way others look at it. I’m down to earth. People come up to me in the streets in York and I talk with everybody. I don’t believe there’s really a difference between any of us. We all pull down our pants to go to the bathroom.”

On Liza Minnelli

"Looking back, I wish I had been less bitter. I must have been a bore to my friends:droning on, Liza did this, Liza said that. I was a total idiot. Now, I've let it all go.“

On performance

”I wanted to be a performer. But the problem was, I didn't just have limited talent, I had no talent.“