Cleo Laine

Dame
Cleo Laine
Laine in 1963
Background information
Birth nameClementine Dinah Bullock
Born(1927-10-28)28 October 1927
Southall, Middlesex, England
Died24 July 2025(2025-07-24) (aged 97)
Wavendon, Buckinghamshire, England
Genres
  • Jazz
  • pop
Occupation(s)
  • Singer
  • actress
Years active1950s–2018
Spouse(s)
George Langridge
(m. 1946; div. 1957)
(m. 1958; died 2010)
Children3, including Alec and Jacqui Dankworth

Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE (born Clementina Dinah Campbell; 28 October 1927 – 24 July 2025) was a British jazz singer and an actress. She was born in Southall, Middlesex to a white English mother and black Jamaican father. She was famous for her scat singing and for being able to sing very high and very low notes.

She was the only female performer to have received Grammy nominations in the jazz, popular and classical music categories. Laine was the widow of jazz composer Sir John Dankworth.

Laine died on 24 July 2025 at her home in Wavendon, Buckinghamshire at the age of 97.[1]

References

  1. Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (25 July 2025). "Cleo Laine, Britain's most successful jazz singer, dies aged 97". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 July 2025.