Jean Nidetch, Weight Watchers founder - obituary - Telegraph Jean Nidetch, Weight Watchers founder - obituary 'Formerly fat housewife' who founded Weight Watchers in 1963 and later sold it for millions Jean Nidetch Photo: Comments Jean Nidetch, who has died aged 91, was a one-time 15-stone New York housewife who turned her own weight problem into a multi-million dollar business as the founder of Weight Watchers. She described herself as an “FFH” – Formerly Fat Housewife – and had tried every fad diet there was. But whatever weight she lost she soon piled back on – with interest – after gorging on the stash of chocolate marshmallow cookies which she kept hidden in a laundry basket. “I was a fat housewife married to an overweight bus driver raising two very overweight kids with a fat group of friends and an overweight poodle,” she recalled later. In 1961 she was more than 15 stone and with a 44 in waist when she ran into a neighbour who told her how marvellous she was looking.

“I was feeling very good about the compliment,” she recalled, “and then she said: 'When are you due?’ I didn’t know how to answer her because I wasn’t pregnant.” She had not realised how fat she looked, since she avoided full-length mirrors. Jean Nidetch decided to enlist on a diet programme run by the New York City Board of Health in Manhattan, where further humiliation awaited her: “There was the thin girl at the desk, and I asked where the group was. And she said: 'You want the obesity clinic.’ I had never heard the word obese before. It shocked me. I said: 'I guess I do.’ ” Jean Nidetch with pictures of herself in younger days (Splash News) Sitting in the back row with her arms folded resentfully, Jean Nidetch was prepared to be unimpressed by the pencil-thin nutritionist who took the stage, until the woman revealed that the photograph of the fat woman propped up next to her was of herself before she had lost weight.

She gave the participants a diet that recommended, among other things, that they consume fish several times a week, as well as eat two slices of bread and drink two glasses of skimmed milk a day and only try to lose a pound or two a week. “The more I listened to the speaker, the more I thought: 'This makes sense’,” Jean recalled. She followed the plan up to a point, but could not stop herself having the occasional cookie binge and found that she was not losing weight as fast as she should. Feeling that it might help if she could share her struggles with others in the same predicament, she invited six “fat friends” to her Queens apartment to talk. Within a few months, she had 40 people queuing up to join the group she called Jean’s Fats’ Club. They chipped in and bought a weighing machine and, within a year, she had to move the weekly meetings from her flat to the basement of her apartment block. Jean Nidetch with a photograph of her younger, overweight self (Splash News) By October 1962 she had reached her goal of losing 72 lbs and, at 5 ft 7 in, weighed a trim 10 stone.

The following year she teamed up with a businessman called Al Lippert, who had joined her group and had been impressed by her flair as a motivational speaker. He suggested that they go into business together. They rented space above a New York cinema and transformed Jean’s Fats’ Club into Weight Watchers International. At her first meeting she was mobbed by a huge crowd of people all wanting to pay their $3 entrance fee to hear her speak. To meet the demand she addressed eight sessions in a row. Business boomed and, within four years, Weight Watchers had established more than 200 branches around the world, licensed to 100 franchisees who paid a modest fee for the right to represent the brand, but remitted 10 per cent of annual gross profits to the founders. They also sold a range of trademarked foods as well as dieting and exercise videos. Jean Nidetch and colleagues in Times Square, New York (Reuters) By the time they sold the enterprise to the Heinz organisation for $71 million in 1978, Weight Watchers had a global reach.

“In Israel, the Jews and Arabs sit together at our classes,” Jean Nidetch said in 1993, “and, you know, they don’t hate each other at all. They’re just interested in what they ate for breakfast.” Jean Evelyn Slutsky was born in Brooklyn, New York, on October 12 1923, the daughter of a cab driver and a manicurist. Her bad eating habits were established early on. “ Whenever I cried, my mother gave me something to eat,” she wrote in her memoir The Story of Weight Watchers (2010, written with Joan Rattner Heilman). “Whenever I had a fight with the little girl next door, or it was raining and I couldn’t go out, or I wasn’t invited to a birthday party, my mother gave me a piece of candy to make me feel better.” After leaving school she worked for the US Internal Revenue Service before marrying Marty Nidetch in 1947. Their courtship, she recalled, mainly consisted of eating and, by the time she waddled to the altar in a size 18 dress, they knew every restaurant in Queens where they could get a free dessert with their meal.

The Nidetches had three children, but her husband could not cope with the elegant, self-confident, platinum-blonde butterfly that emerged from the dowdy, rotund chrysalis and they divorced in 1971. Jean Nidetch in 1973 ( After selling Weight Watchers, Jean Nidetch continued to work for the company as its public face and consultant. She moved to Las Vegas, where she played poker and supported philanthropic causes. When she retired in 1997, at the age of 74, she selected the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, to replace her as the company’s official spokesperson in America. Later she moved to South Florida. In 1975 she embarked on a second marriage to an Italian bass player , but it lasted only a few months. With her first husband Jean Nidetch had three sons, of whom one survives her, one having died in infancy and another in 2006. Jean Nidetch, born October 12 1923, died April 29 2015 Founder of Weight Watchers, Jean Nidetch Dies at 91...

Founder of Weight Watchers, Jean Nidetch dies at 91 Reshma Trilochun Monday 04th May 2015 15:50 EDT The founder of Weight Watchers, Jean Nidetch has died at the age of 91. She once weighed 15 stones and was a housewife from New York, until she decided to turn her weight issue into a multimillion business via Weight Watchers. She was born as Jean Evelyn Slutsky in Brooklyn in 1923. Jean Nidetch had formerly referred to herself as a Formerly Fat Housewife (FFH). In 1961, she had become more than 15 stone and her waist was 44 inches. She had avoided full length mirrors and was unaware of how fat she had become. It was not until her neighbour mistook her for being pregnant that she thought something had to be done about her weight. Nidetch decided to join a diet programme run by the New York City Board of Health in Manhattan. She had found the programme to be useful and had managed to follow up to the plan; however, she was unable to curb her cravings.

It is then when she decided to call over six “fat friends” to her apartment. She thought it would be a better idea to share her woes with those who were experiencing the same issues as she was. After a few months, 40 people had queued up outside her door to join her group she called Jean’s Fats’ Club. By October 1962, Jean Nidetch had reached her target of losing 72lbs. At 5 foot 7 inches tall, she weighed a remarkable 10 stones. The following year, she joined hands with businessman, Al Lippert, who suggested that they go into business together. They transformed Jean’s Fats’ Club to Weight Watchers International. The business had reached new heights and within four years, Weight Watchers had generated more than 200 branches around the world, licensed to 100 franchisees who paid a modest fee for the right to represent the brand, yet transmitted 10% of annual gross profits to the founders. Weight Watchers was already a household name to reckon with and had global reach in 1978, when Neditch decided to sell the enterprise to the Heinz Organisation, for $71 million.

Jean Neditch passed away of natural causes on 29th April 2015. Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch dies aged 91 Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch dies aged 91 By Alicia Adejobi April 29, 2015 15:50 BST Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch has died of natural causes. She was 91. Pictured here, Heather Nidetch at the company's 50th anniversaryCraig Barritt/Getty Images for Weight Watchers Jean Nidetch, the woman who founded diet company Weight Watchers, has died at the age of 91. TMZ reports the businesswoman passed away in the Ft. Lauderdale area on the morning of 29 April due to natural causes. According to the Associated Press, her death was confirmed by her son, David Nidetch. Millions of women around the world have used Weight Watchers' diets to slim down and past celebrity spokespeople have included, Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson and singer Jessica Simpson. Nidetch had been overweight since her childhood when she embarked on a mission to get into shape in 1961.

The former Internal Revenue Service employee huddled together a group of her larger friends to form weekly classes in her living room where they would share weight loss tips and offer each other encouragement. Others hoping to lose weight caught wind of these meetings and in 1963, Nidetch officially founded the company in Brooklyn, New York. Recalling her visit to a New York Board Of Health seminar shortly before she founded the company when she weighed 214 pounds, Nidetch told The Sun Sentinel in 2011: "The sign said, 'Obesity Clinic'. Those aren't exactly words that make you feel very good. "But the more I listened to the speaker, the more I thought, 'This makes sense'." She then began charging her friends $2 (£1.50) to attend the classes at her home but later had a change of heart. Nidetch told the publication: "But I felt guilty taking their money, so I told everyone they could come as many times as they wanted for the week." In 1978, Weight Watchers was sold to Heinz Co.

for a reported $71m (£68m) but Nidetch continued to act as a consultant to the organisation and has also established scholarships at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas and the University of California in Los Angeles. More Entertainment News Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch passes away aged 91 | OK! Magazine Home > Celebrity news > Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch passes away aged 91 Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch passes away aged 91 Fans pay tribute to the legendary woman by sharing her quotec By Hannah Green WEIGHT Watchers founder Jean Nidetch has passed away aged 91. According to TMZ, she died on Wednesday morning from natural causes. Jean Nidetch has died aged 91 from natural causes[Splash] And tributes poured in from the legendary woman's fans by sharing her notorious quote. "It's choice, not chance, that determines your destiny," they gushed on Twitter. Jean first created the world famous company in 1961 in a bid to fuel her personal battle with weight loss. After Weight Watchers became a renowned organisation, the late 91 year old sold it to H.J. Heinz for $71 million.

The Weight Watchers founder created her company in 1961[Splash] Other fans took to social media to celebrate Jean's life: "Remembering a woman who changed the way America diets." "What a fantastic legacy she has left behind x," another added. Our thoughts go out to her friends and family. Jean's fans paid tribute on Twitter following her own inspirational weight loss battle[Splash] April 29 - Famous Deaths - On This Day On This Day Famous Deaths on April 29 Full Calendar 852 Amalarius/Fortunatus/Symphosius of Metz/Lyon, bishop, dies at 76 926 Burchard II, Duke of Swabia 1380 Catherine of Siena, Italian saint (b. 1347) 1499 John IV, Dutch army leader/earl of Egmond, dies 1535 John Houghton, English, executed 1594 Thomas Cooper, English bishop, lexicographer, and writer 1630 Agrippa d'Aubigné, French poet (b. 1552) 1658 John Cleveland, English poet (b.

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Ms Nidetch was a New York housewife when she founded Weight Watchers in 1963 after beating her own weight battles using dieting tips she learned at a city health clinic. She packaged those into a fun format where dieters met and worked together. By the following year, classes were held across New York, with dozens of participants going on to lead sessions of their own. A cookbook sold millions. By Weight Watchers’ 10th birthday, it was so popular that 16,000 people attended a gathering at Madison Square Garden. When she and two partners sold the company in 1978, they received almost 71 million dollars (£46 million).

Published: Wednesday 29th April 2015 by The News Editor Share: Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch dies aged 91 | South China Morning Post South China Morning Post Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch dies aged 91 Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch dies aged 91 Jean Nidetch used her own experience of obesity to found a diet firm with global reach PUBLISHED : Thursday, 30 April, 2015, 10:47pm UPDATED : Friday, 01 May, 2015, 7:54pm Print Email "I was a fat housewife married to an overweight bus driver raising two very overweight kids with a fat group of friends and an overweight poodle," Jean Nidetch once confessed, describing her life before she started a support group that would become one of the best-known weight-loss programmes in the world. The group was Weight Watchers International. Nidetch, the organisation's chief evangelist since it was incorporated in 1963, died on Wednesday at her apartment in Florida. She was 91 and had complications from dementia, said her granddaughter.

Nidetch had no formal training as a nutritionist and peddled no revolutionary weight-loss regimen. Instead, she offered many dieters a new way to shed pounds - not in shame and alone, but in companionship forged through common struggle, and with regular meetings where they could share setbacks and triumphs. Her insight came from her own years-long battle with weight, first as a chubby child and later as a homemaker in Queens, New York, gorging on cookies at night. She was 1.7 metres tall and nearly 100kg when, by her account, she hit a low point. A fellow supermarket shopper told her that she looked "marvellous," then asked when the baby was due. Nidetch was not with child. In 1961, after repeated failures at fad dieting, she enrolled in a public obesity clinic. The meal plan promoted there - heavy on fish, vegetables and fruit - was appealing and effective. But she described the emotional experience as devastating. Endeavouring to stick to her diet, Nidetch invited six overweight friends to her home, where they formed an impromptu support network whose ranks steadily grew. The members bought a scale for weigh-ins.

Nidetch developed a rewards system including prizes for weight-loss milestones. "It seemed to help," she told The New York Times in 1967. Weight Watchers went public in 1968 and celebrated its 10th anniversary with an extravaganza at Madison Square Garden featuring celebrities and entertainers. This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Weight Watchers founder dies at 91 Celebrities that died in the first half of 2015 — moviepilot.com Celebrities that died in the first half of 2015 June 13, 2015 at 02:53AM By Ruben Meloney Acuña , writer at Creators.co Lets bow our heads and say a prayer for the families who lost these amazing people. Its an emotional thing when you follow someone's career to the end. Just knowing that you will not be able to see these people in magazines, TV shows, Movies or anything any more just breaks my heart and i think we can all agree that I am not the only one that feels this way.

come with me and scroll down this page to remember those in which we have lost in the first 6 months of 2015. you will be missed but never forgot as your legacies will carry on generation after generation. Donna Douglas The Beverly Hillbillies star died Jan. 1 at 81 from pancreatic cancer. A former Miss Baton Rouge and Miss New Orleans, Douglas starred opposite Elvis Presley in the 1966 film Frankie and Johnny and appeared as the woman in bandages in one of the most memorable Twilight Zone episodes, "Eye of the Beholder." She then beat out 500 other actresses for the role of the bombshell tomboy Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies, which ran on CBS from 1962 to 1971. Mario Cuomo The three-time governor of New York died Jan. 1 at 82, just hours after his son Andrew was sworn into his second term as New York governor. In office from 1983-1994, Cuomo was the longest-serving Democratic governor in state history.

He became a liberal icon after his 1984 keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention, where he took then-President Reagan to task for painting America as a "shining city on a hill." Cuomo flirted with the idea of running for president in 1988 and 1992, but opted out of the race both times. Shortly after, he also removed himself from the short list for Supreme Court Justice, resulting in the nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Little Jimmy Dickens The country star died Jan. 2 at 94 from cardiac arrest after suffering a stroke on Christmas Day. Dickens released his first single "Take an Old Cold Tater (and Wait)" in 1949, which started his career in novelty hits. He went on to release "A-Sleeping at the Foot of the Bed," "Hillbilly Fever" and his only No. 1 hit, 1965's "May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose." Dickens joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1948 and was its oldest and longest-tenured member. He gave his final performance on the iconic stage Dec.

20, 2014, the day after his birthday, singing "Out Behind The Barn." Stuart Scott The longtime ESPN anchor died Jan. 4 at 49 after a seven-year battle with cancer. Scott, who joined ESPN2 in 1993, infused sports broadcasting with hip-hop vernacular and a loose style, coining such catchphrases as "Booyah!" and "as cool as the other side of the pillow." He hosted a number of shows across the ESPN networks, most notablySportsCenter with Rich Eisen. He received the Jimmy V Award for Perseverence at the ESPYs in July 2014, telling the audience: "When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live and in the manner in which you live." Rod Taylor The Birds star died of natural causes at 84 on Jan. 7. The Australian landed his first starring role in the 1960's sci-fi adventure film The Time Machine, based on the book by H.G. Wells.

He lent his voice to Disney's 101 Dalmatians the following year, and then starred in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds in 1963. Other films roles included The V.I.P.s, The Liquidator and Young Cassidy. He starred on several short-lived shows before finding success as Frank Agretti on Falcon Crest. He most recently made a cameo as Winston Churchill in 2009'sInglourious Basterds. Samuel Goldwyn Jr. The producer died Jan. 9 at 88 of congestive heart failure. The Hollywood scion of Paramount Pictures co-founded Samuel Goldwyn and father of Scandalstar Tony Goldwyn, Goldwyn Jr. established the independent film studios The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Samuel Goldwyn films, earning a Best Picture Oscar nomination for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. He also produced The Preacher's Wife, Tortilla Soup,Mystic Pizza, Sid and Nancy and the 2013 remake of his father's 1947 hit, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Taylor Negron The actor and comedian died Jan. 10 at 57 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Negron memorably played the pizza delivery man in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. His TV credits include guest spots on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Friends, Seinfeld,Reno 911 and The Hughleys. Negron was also a playwright and continued to perform in the alternative comedy scene. In 2008, he wrote a show called The Unbearable Lightness of Being Taylor Negron — A Fusion of Story and Song that was performed at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival and the Best of New York Solo Festival the following year. Anita Ekberg The La Dolce Vita star died Jan. 11 at 83 after a series of illnesses. A former Miss Sweden, Ekberg won the Most Promising Newcomer Award at the Golden Globes in 1956. Four years later, she landed her signature role in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, in which she memorably walks in the Fountain of Trevi wearing a black dress and calling out to co-star Marcello Mastroianni's character. Ekberg also starred alongside Bob Hope in Paris Holiday and opposite Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in 4 for Texas.Her final film credit was 1996'sBambola.

Ernie Banks The two-time MVP slugger for the Chicago Cubs died Jan. 24 at 83. Known as Mr. Cub, Banks, who spent his entire 19-year career with the Cubs, was a trailblazing baseball star. In 1953, he became the Cubs' first black player. Five years later, he became the first player from a losing team to win the MVP award. One year after that, he became the first to win the award two years in a row. Banks hit 512 home runs in his career before retiring in 1971. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1977, the first year he was eligible Dallas Taylor The former Crosby, Stills & Nash drummer died Jan. 18 at 66. Taylor played on Crosby, Stills & Nash's 1969 eponymous debut album and their follow-up with Neil Young, Deja-Vu, which was released in 1970. He also played on Stephen Stills' first solo album in 1970 and for Stills' group Manassas in 1972 and 1973.

After a liver transplant in 1990, five years after he'd gotten sober, Taylor went on to become an addiction counselor who specialized in interventions. Joe Franklin The TV and radio personality died Jan. 24 at 88. Franklin launched his broadcast career in the 1950s and, as the host of The Joe Franklin Show, and was a pioneer in creating what is now the common TV talk show format (sitting behind a desk conducting interviews). Franklin is listed in theGuinness Book of World Records as the longest-running continuous on-air TV talk show host Bob Simon The 60 Minutes correspondent died in a car crash in New York City on Feb. 11. Simon, who was 73, worked for CBS News for several years as the organization's Chief Middle Eastern correspondent. During his tenure, he spent time in an Iraq prison after his team was captured in 1991 during the Gulf War, an experience he chronicled in the book Forty Days. Simon joined 60 Minutes in 1996. He won 27 Emmys, four Peabodys, and a long list of other awards to his name. David Carr The New York Times columnist died Feb.

12 at 58 after collapsing at the office. Only hours earlier, Carr had moderated a panel discussing Citizenfourwith Edward Snowden, director Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald at the New School. Carr contributed to multiple publications, includingNew York Magazine and The Atlantic Monthly, before joining The New York Times in 2002. There he wrote a weekly column, The Media Equation , covering media and culture. He also published a 2008 memoir The Night of the Gun, which chronicled his recovery from a drug addiction and cancer. Gary Owens The Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In announcer died Feb. 12 at 80. An accomplished voiceover artist, Owens lent his voice to a number of cartoons, including Space Ghost, The Ren and Stimpy Show,Garfield and Friends, Eek! The Cat, and more. He was also the long-time announcer for Sesame Street. For more than 30 years, Owens also hosted a national radio show on the Music of Your Life Network, and was a radio personality on various California stations, including KMPC, KFWB, KFI, and KIIS. Louis Jourdan The French actor died Feb.

14 at 93. Jourdan played the lead opposite Leslie Caron in the 1958 romantic comedy Gigi, which won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. He also starred as the villain Kamal Khan in the 1983 James Bond filmOctopussy. Jourdan's other film credits include The Swan, Can-Can, The Paradine Case, Letter from an Unknown Woman and The Best of Everything.On the small screen, Jourdan was the title character in the BBC's 1977 series Count Dracula, and played the antagonist Dr. Anton Arcane in Swamp Thing. Lesley Gore The singer, best known for her hit "It's My Party," died Feb. 16 at 68 from lung cancer. Gore signed to Mercury Records as a teenager after being discovered by Quincy Jones. She had a No.

1 song at age 16 with "It's My Party," and subsequent songs included "You Don't Own Me," "Judy's Turn to Cry," and "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows." She was also nominated for an Academy Award in 1980 for "Out Here on My Own," which she co-wrote with her brother Michael for the movieFame.Gore also dabbled in acting, playing Catwoman's sidekick in TV's Batman, and also starring in Smokey Joe's Café on Broadway in the late 1990s. Harris Wittels The 30-year-old Parks and Recreation co-executive producer was found dead at his home on Feb. 19 of a possible drug overdose. Prior toParks and Rec, Wittels, who spoke candidly about his drug addiction and recovery, worked on The Sarah Silverman Program and Eastbound & Down. He had been with Parks and Rec since the critical darling's 2009 debut, moving up from story editor to co-executive producer, and wrote 12 episodes of the series.

Wittels also coined the term "humblebrag" and released a book, Humblebrag: The Art of False Modesty, in 2012. Ahmad "Real" Givens The Real Chance of Love star, better known as Real, died Feb. 21 at 33 after a battle with colon cancer. Real was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer in 2013. He underwent surgery, but the tumors later spread to his liver, lungs and the left side of his brain, leaving him partially paralyzed.Real and his brother Chance were both contestants on I Love New York in 2007. The following year, the brothers began their own reality dating show Real Chance of Love, which ran for two seasons Ben Woolf Woolf, who played the diminutive Meep onAmerican Horror Story: Freak Show, died Feb. 23 at 33 from a stroke. The 4-foot-4 actor had been in critical condition after he was struck in the head by the side mirror of an SUV while crossing a street in Hollywood the week before. The driver of the vehicle was not ticketed or charged because Woolf was jaywalking.

Mirjana Puhar The 19-year-old America's Next Top Model contestant was killed in a triple homicide in her boyfriend's home on Feb. 24. Puhar was a contestant on ANTM's 21st cycle, which aired in 2014, and she was eliminated in the 10th episode. During her time on the show, Puhar had a relationship with winner Keith Carlos. Emmanual Jesus Rangel, 19, was arrested and charged with the murders of Puhar, her boyfriend Jonathan Cosme Alvarado, 23, and Alvarado's roommate Jusmar Isiah Gonzaga-Garcia, 21. Leonard Nimoy The Star Trek icon died Feb. 27 at 83 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Nimoy got his acting break with the 1952 film Kid Monk Baroni. He went on to have bit parts in Dragnet, Perry Mason and the film Get Smart before being cast as the half-Vulcan, half-human Spock, the role that launched him into stardom and earned him three Emmy nominations. Star Trek ran from 1966 to 1969.

Nimoy also had a prolific career as a voice actor and narrator, and he also directed a handful of films, including Three Men and a Baby. More recently, Nimoy had a recurring role on the Fox series Fringe, which ended in 2013, and was heard as the voice of Spock on an episode of The Big Bang Theory. He also became a writer, publishing two autobiographies and books of poetry. Jenna McMahon The Facts of Life and Mama's Family co-creator died March 2 at 89 of heart failure. Together with the late Dick Clair, McMahon was one of the top comedy writing teams of the '70s and '80s. In addition to The Facts of Life, they made appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show before graduating to writing for The Bob Newhart Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Carol Burnett eventually brought them on as writers for her variety series, where they worked from 1973-78. Albert Maysles The Grey Gardens documentary filmmaker died March 5 at 88 after battling cancer.

With his brother David, who died in 1987, the two rose to prominence in the '60s with What's Happening! The Beatles in the USA, Salesman, which chronicled the lives of four door-to-door Bible salesman, and Gimme Shelter, their Rolling Stones doc. They earned an Oscar nomination for their 1974 short Christo’s Valley Curtain (1974) and won two Emmys together, with Albert winning a third. Sam Simon The Simpsons co-creator and executive producer died March 8 at 59 complications from terminal colon cancer.. Simon wrote for animated shows likeFat Albert and The Cosby Kids before getting hired to write for Taxi. He served as the showrunner for the series' fifth and final season and moved on as a writer-producer for the first three seasons ofCheers. His other TV credits included Barney Miller, It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Tracey Ullman Show. After leaving The Simpsons in 1993 when his relationship with Matt Groening became estranged, Simon co-created The George Carlin Show in 1994.

The show was canceled a year later, at which point he moved into TV directing for shows like Friends, The Drew Carey Show and, most recently, Anger Management. He won nine Emmy awards, a Peabody award and the Writers Guild of America Award Animation Writers Caucus lifetime achievement award in 2013. Richard Glatzer The Still Alice co-writer and co-director died March 10 at 63 from complications of ALS. Glatzer, who was diagnosed with the disease in 2011, was able to finish production on the film by tapping his toe on a special iPad to communicate. Just two weeks before his death, Glatzer and his husband and co-director Wash Westmoreland watched Julianne Moore win an Oscar for her performance the film from his hospital room. His other films include Quinceanera, The Last of Robin Hood andThe Fluffer. Cristie Schoen Codd The pregnant 38-year-old Food Network StarSeason 8 alum and her husband, Joseph J.T. Codd, 45, were found murdered on March 17.

Their neighbor, Robert Jason Owens, 36, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of murder of an unborn child, breaking and entering, and larceny A.J. Pero The Twisted Sister drummer died March 20 at 55 of an apparent heart attack. Pero joined Twisted Sister in 1982 but left in 1986. He returned in 1997 and performed on every album except Love Is for Suckers. Cynthia Lennon The first wife of John Lennon and mother of Julian Lennon died April 1 at 75 after a battle with cancer. Born Cynthia Powell in Blackpool, England, Lennon met John Lennon while they attended art school together in Liverpool in the late 1950s. They married in 1962, shortly before the Beatles became international superstars. Cynthia and John Lennon divorced in 1968 and she went on to marry three more times. Her most recent husband, Noel Charles, died in 2013. Linsey "Jade" Berardi The Bad Girls Club alum died April 2 at 22. No details have been released as to the cause of her death.

Berardi went by the nickname "Brooklyn Brat" on Season 12 of the show, though she left after a physical altercation with another member. Bob Burns The Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer died April 3 at 64 in a car crash. Burns was a founding member of the rock band in the '60s. He left the group in 1974, only a few years before lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and singer Cassie Gaines were killed in a 1977 plane crash. Fredric Brandt The 65-year-old celebrity dermatologist who counted Madonna among his clients was found hanging in his home on April 5. Brandt authored two skin care books and served as host of SiriusXM radio show Ask Dr. Brandt, which featured beauty discussions with guests including Gwyneth Paltrow, Kelly Ripa and Linda Wells. Brandt was spoofed on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt by Martin Short. Richard Dysart The L.A. Law star died April 5 at 86 after a long illness. Dysart won an Emmy in 1992 for playing Leland McKenzie on L.A. Law.

His other film and television credits include Being There, The Thing and Wall Street. James Best The Dukes of Hazzard star died April 6 at 88 of complications from pneumonia. In addition to playing Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on Dukes, Best appeared in more than 80 movies and hundreds of TV shows, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents,Perry Mason and The Andy Griffith Show. Best's last film credit was the 2013 Hallmark movie The Sweeter Side of Life, which was written and produced by his daughter and son-in-law. As recently as 2014, he starred in a community theater production of On Golden Pond in Hickory. Ben Powers The Good Times star died April 6 at 64. Powers attended the Rhode Island School of Design before pursuing a career as an actor and stand-up comedian and landing a role on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. He joined the cast of Good Times in its final season, playing the professional football player Keith, who was married to Thelma. Powers also played Moochie on Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, opposite Stacy Keach, in the mid-1980s, but retired from acting shortly thereafter.

His other film and television credits include The New Odd Couple, Laverne & Shirleyand Cheech and Chong's Next Movie. Sawyer Sweeten The 19-year-old Everybody Loves Raymond star died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot to the head on April 23. Sweeten and his twin brother Sullivan first appeared on Raymond when they were 16 months old, playing Ray Romano's twin sons Geoffrey and Michael Barone, respectively. Their real-life sister Madylin played TV big sister Ally. Sweeten stopped acting after the show went off the air in 2005. Suzanne Crough Crough, who played the tambourine-wielding daughter Tracy on The Partridge Family, died April 27 at 52. Crough also had small roles on TV shows and movies after the show ended, but quit acting in 1980 and went on to open a bookstore. In 2010, she and some of her Partridge Family co-stars reunited on the Today show, and Crough said she was working as a manager at an Office Max in Arizona. Jean Nidetch The Weight Watchers founder died April 29 at 91.

In 1961, after struggling with her weight since early childhood, Nidetch came up with her own diet plan to help herself lose weight. She soon began inviting her overweight friends to join her to discuss their food habits in her living room in Queens, N.Y. Two years later, she officially launched Weight Watchers, and it became an instant hit. She sold the company to Heinz Co. for $71 million in 1978. In her 2009 autobiography The Jean Nidetch Story she revealed she's "not a millionaire anymore." But she always said her greatest legacy was the millions of people her weight-loss plan helped. John Nash The mathematician whose life inspired A Beautiful Mind and his wife, Alicia, were killed in a taxi accident on May 23. John, 86, and Alicia, 82, were thrown from the car after it crashed into a guard rail and another car on the New Jersey Turnpike. Nash revolutionized the field of game theory, winning the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994, and was a senior research mathematician at Princeton, where he remained until his death.

Nash famously struggled with schizophrenia for almost two decades, which was chronicled in the 1998 book A Beautiful Mind. The film won four Oscars, including Best Picture. Anne Meara The legendary comedienne, one-half of Stiller & Meara with her husband Jerry Stiller, and mother of Ben Stiller, died May 23 at 85. Stiller & Meara, who started doing improv in the mid-1950s, became regulars onThe Ed Sullivan Show. Meara also had a recurring role on Rhoda and went on to star in her own series,Kate McShane, which debuted in 1975 and was canceled after 10 episodes. Meara's other TV credits includeArchie Bunker's Place(for which she received two Emmy nominations),ALF,Sex and the City,HomicideandThe King of Queens, which co-starred Jerry. She also won a Writers Guild Award for co-writing the 1983 TV movieThe Other Woman. In 2010, she and Stiller began starring in a Yahoo! digital series called Stiller & Meara, and taught acting classes up until her death.

Trending from our Creators Jean Nidetch: Entrepreneur who went from self-confessed 'fat housewife' to dieting evangelist with Weight Watchers International | The Independent News Jean Nidetch: Entrepreneur who went from self-confessed 'fat housewife' to dieting evangelist with Weight Watchers International Nidetch's operation became an empire with trademarked packaged foods, best-selling cookbooks, summer camps for children, franchises and millions of followers around the world Thursday 30 April 2015 23:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Online Nidetch: her empire took in packaged foods, cookbooks and summer camps Reuters "I was a fat housewife married to an overweight bus driver raising two very overweight kids with a fat group of friends and an overweight poodle," Jean Nidetch once confessed, describing her life before she started a support group that would become one of the best-known weight-loss programmes in the world. The group was Weight Watchers International and Nidetch had been the organisation's chief evangelist since it was incorporated in 1963. Nidetch had no formal training as a nutritionist and peddled no revolutionary weight-loss regime.

Instead, she offered many dieters a new way to shed pounds – not in shame and alone, but in companionship forged through common struggle, and with regular meetings where they could share their setbacks and triumphs. Her insight came from her own long battle with weight, first as a chubby child and later as a homemaker in Queens, New York, gorging on biscuits at night. She was 5ft 7in and weighed 15 stone when, by her own account, she hit a low point. A fellow supermarket shopper told her that she looked "marvellous," then asked when she was due. Nidetch was not pregnant. In 1961, after repeated failures at fad dieting, she enrolled in a public obesity clinic. The meal plan promoted there – heavy on fish, vegetables and fruit – was appealing and effective. But she described the emotional experience as devastating. "I was one of the fattest people in the group," she recalled. "The leader was a nutritionist who was very thin. She said things like, 'When I look at a big display of food, I get sick to my stomach.' When she said that, we all looked at each other. It was a secret look.

Nobody in that group got sick looking at food." Endeavouring to stick to her diet, Nidetch invited six overweight friends to her home, where they formed an impromptu support network whose ranks steadily grew. The members bought a scale for weigh-ins. Nidetch developed a rewards system including prizes for weight-loss milestones. "It seemed to help," she said. "We discovered that other people hid cookies in the laundry basket." Read more Weight Watchers founder dies aged 91 In October 1962, Nidetch reached her target weight of 10st 2lb. News travelled about her skill as a motivator. Two dieters at one session, a garment executive named Albert Lippert and his wife, Felice, encouraged her to form a business. Together, the Lipperts and the Nidetches founded Weight Watchers, an operation that became an empire with trademarked packaged foods, best-selling cookbooks, summer camps for children, franchises and millions of followers around the world. Regular member meetings remained a hallmark of the programme, which has been compared to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Dieters greeted one another with the salutation "See you lighter." People who were not overweight were called "civilians" because they were not similarly embattled. Weight Watchers went public in 1968 and celebrated its 10th anniversary with an extravaganza at Madison Square Garden featuring entertainers such as Bob Hope. By then Nidetch was herself a celebrity, greeted where she went by cheers of "Jean the Queen!" and "Be lean with Jean!" Merv Griffin and Johnny Carson interviewed her on their television programmes. "You take away the handicap of obesity and this person becomes someone else," she said in 1993. "Take a jolly fat man for instance. You talk to him and his heart is breaking. He wants to be thin." Jean Evelyn Slutsky was born in Brooklyn, the daughter of a cab driver and a manicurist, in 1923. "I'm sure that my compulsive eating habits began when I was a baby," she wrote in her memoir, The Story of Weight Watchers. "I don't really remember, but I'm positive that whenever I cried, my mother gave me something to eat.

I'm sure that whenever I had a fight with the little girl next door, or it was raining and I couldn't go out, or I wasn't invited to a birthday party, my mother gave me a piece of candy to make me feel better." She worked for a company that printed horse racing tip sheets and for the Internal Revenue Service before marrying Mortimer "Marty" Nidetch in 1947. Their courtship, she wrote, consisted largely of eating together. Her wedding dress was size 18. "We developed a whole act about our size and we were the life of every party," she recalled. "People waited for us to say something funny, and we usually did. After all, if you're fat, you have to make a joke about your weight before somebody else does." Heinz bought Weight Watchers in 1978 for a reported $71.2m and sold its diet classes to the private European investment company Artal Luxembourg in 1999 for $735m. By then, the outfit had become an international powerhouse.

"In Israel, the Jews and Arabs sit together at our classes," Nidetch said in 1993, "and, you know, they don't hate each other at all. They're just interested in what they ate for breakfast." EMILY LANGER Jean Evelyn Slutsky, businesswoman: born New York 12 October 1923; married 1947 Mortimer Nidetch (divorced 1971; three children), secondly Frank Schifano (marriage dissolved); died Parkland, Florida 29 April 2015. © The Washington Post

Question: Jean Nidetch who died on 29th April 2015 was the founder of which organisation?
Answer: Weightwatchers