i thought you may like to know william shakespeare of my little angel and can't stop my self from loving you died on tuesday on a sydney hospital

What's he died of? I never heard of this sad news before.

Here is the information from an entertainment page:

FAME can be a cruel mistress, but the kind of fame that comes out of nowhere and disappears just as fast may be the cruellest of all.

The pop singer William Shakespeare, who died this week at the age of 61, knew this all too well.

Born John Stanley Cave, the son of a greengrocer, in Sydney's inner west, he was blessed with an extraordinary falsetto. He sang in suburban pubs and clubs for $30 a night until he came to the attention of the writer-producers Harry Vanda and George Young. At the age of 26 he had two No. 1 hits - My Little Angel and Can't Stop Myself from Loving You - and a debut album that sold 375,000 copies. A year later it was all over; his career shattered after he was convicted of carnal knowledge with a 15-year-old fan.

Advertisement: Story continues below It was then that this popinjay, who once indulged in all the excesses of glam rock, began a long, painful decline. In 1976 he told more than one journalist he was depressed and ''near nervous breakdown''. He began self-medicating with alcohol and it was suggested he seek treatment for depression at the notorious Chelmsford Private Hospital.

''When he woke up he couldn't get out and he'd lost the ability to move,'' said Lindy Morrison, national co-ordinator of Support Act Limited, a benevolent fund for professional musicians. ''After Chelmsford he was terrified of being incarcerated in some kind of psychiatric institution.''

Shakespeare's depression and alcoholism deepened and he had few people he could turn to. He was an only child and both of his parents had died. In the '90s, he was destitute and living out of his Mini Minor. By 2000 he was living in the ticket booth of a sports oval opposite the St George Leagues Club in Kogarah.

''If it wasn't for the people at the club I wouldn't be here,'' he told The Sun-Herald last year. ''They looked after me, gave me breakfast and kept an eye on me.''

They also got in touch with Ms Morrison, who found him living in ''appalling conditions''.

Shakespeare sold a lot of records, but his hits were written by others. He earned no composing royalties, so when the gigs dried up, so did his income.

His destitution isn't an unusual situation for musicians to find themselves in, although Shakespeare was at ''the extreme end of what we see'', Ms Morrison said.

Support Act has helped Shakespeare one last time, persuading his old record company, Albert Productions, to pay for his funeral.

''He might have been the sad face of glam rock in Australia, but he was a really, really great singer,'' said Ms Morrison. ''I want to see John have a really good funeral and be respected in his death.''

Man that is so sad. I remember totally LOVING those two songs of his as a child. If I'd known I would have offered help. :*(
RIP JSC

Just in case you were wondering who Ms Morrison is in the article above. She was the drummer in 'The Go-Betweens'.

Someone out there has posted his appearance on the 'Paul Hogan Show' on Youtube doing 'Can't stop myself from loving you':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyaXyIeRcIM

Geez to go from #1s,Countdown etc to that is tragic.

I just bought a copy of TV Times from April 19 1975 which has a William Shakespeare pin up in it. It also has a Countdown connection as it has a 2 page spread of Skyhooks at Luna Park for the filming of their clip for Countdown.

TV Times seems to have more Countdown articles in it than TV Week. The is a great cover on the April 2 1977 issue of Shirley and JPY wearing Countdown T-Shirts and an article inside about the 100th episode - although it doesn't tell us anything that we don't know as that is a surviving episode.

The article I read above from the paper is so sad, poor man. Life is really cruel. Money S U X !

That's a truly tragic story.

This actually signposts a couple of real problems with our culture in Australia I think.

Without getting on my soapbox I think often people aren't often able to make mistakes and then 'do their time'and then get on with their lives and make a fresh start. We ALL make mistakes but I really don't thin you should have to spend the rest of your life being punished for them. It smacks of wowserism, high handed moralism and persecution. A fair go means just that, a fair go. None of us are perfect and failing is just a part of life and being human. A lot of the people who turn their back on others for making a mistake I have often found to be ironically the least qualified to be making judgements.

The other problem is how our artistic/creative types are treated. There's a lot more to life than AFL, cricket and owning a 4WD. Those involved in the arts and performance often struggle for years, without encouragement or reward. Henry Lawson once wrote that a writer (substitute painter, singer whatever) ought to just shoot himself rather than try to survive in Australia. Not much has changed it appears since the late nineteenth century. Its somehow surprising we have such a record of creating great music in this country.

I actually feel there's actually probably a movie or a musical in this story.