Marion Ryan was a popular British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 singer in the 1950s.

Career

Born Marian Ryan in Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and once called "the Marilyn Monroe of popular song", Marion Ryan was a pop singer of the 1950s in the early years of British Independent Television

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

. She was the regular singer in the popular musical quiz Spot the Tune, on Granada Television

Granada Television

Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....

 for seven years from 1956, with a total of 209 half-hour programmes, that featured several star hosts including disc-jockey Pete Murray, the Canadian pop singer Jackie Rae

Jackie Rae

Jackie Rae, CM DFC was a Canadian singer, songwriter and television performer.He was born John Arthur Rae in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1922. Rae began performing at the age of three with his brother and sister on the vaudeville circuit in Canada...

, and the comedians Ken Platt

Ken Platt

Ken Platt was a British north-country comedian.-Style:...

 and Ted Ray

Ted Ray (comedian)

Ted Ray was a popular English comedian of the 1940s, 50s and 60s....

, and also Peter Knight

Peter Knight (composer)

Peter Knight was an English musical arranger, conductor and composer.-Career:Knight was born in Exmouth, Devon, England. He worked with Independent Television light entertainment stars from 'Spot The Tune' with Jackie Rae and Marion Ryan to the comedy series 'Home to Roost' ...

 and his Orchestra. She made one brief appearance as herself in a film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 with singer Tommy Steele

Tommy Steele

Tommy Steele OBE , is an English entertainer. Steele is widely regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star.-Singer:...

. The show re-emerged in the 1970s as Name That Tune

Name That Tune

Name That Tune is a television game show that put two contestants against each other to test their knowledge of songs. Premiering in the United States on NBC Radio in 1952, the show was created and produced by Harry Salter and his wife Roberta....

.

Personal life

She first married producer Lloyd Sapherson in 1948 and had twin sons, Barry

Barry Ryan (singer)

Barry Ryan was an English pop singer. He is currently a photographer.The son of pop singer Marion Ryan, Ryan and his twin brother Paul began to perform at the age of 16...

 and Paul

Paul Ryan (singer)

Paul Ryan was an English singer, songwriter and record producer.Born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, Paul and his twin brother Barry were the sons of singer Marion Ryan, and had some success as a singing duo during the 1960s, known simply as "Paul & Barry Ryan"...

 (born Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, 24 October 1948), and one daughter. Paul died of cancer in 1992, aged 44. In 1969 she married for the second time the American show business

Show business

Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz, is a vernacular term for all aspects of entertainment. The word applies to all aspects of the entertainment industry from the business side to the creative element ....

  millionaire, Harold Davison, after which she retired. She died in Boca Raton, Florida

Boca Raton, Florida

Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA, incorporated in May 1925. In the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 74,764; the 2006 population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 86,396. However, the majority of the people under the postal address of Boca Raton, about...

, aged 68, of heart failure, following the onset of pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

.