On his death bed, it reported, he asked to hear songs by Maurice Chevalier.

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When he died aged 67 in January 1987 he was talking about the flies in the desert on his death bed.

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Ever obliging, Turkes apparently muttered the same on his death-bed.

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He talked about how his mother had scrapped with insurance companies on her death bed, how the family had been on food stamps, and how his grandmother scrimped so that the family could afford to give him a first-class education.

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