Cilla Black
- Profession: TV Personality
- Place/Date of Birth: Liverpool, 27 May 2020
Three men wearing balaclava’s knocked on the door to her £2m home in Denham, Buckinghamshire shortly before midnight on Saturday. One of her sons answered the door, as he was expecting some of his friends. However, the men struck out at him with a crowbar and held him down while they searched the house. The three men left after searching the ground floor for 15 minutes, it is unknown at this stage what they have stolen.
Cilla Black herself was out of the country at the time and her son that was attacked did not need hospital treatment, but was left badly shaken. Cilla has three sons Robert, 33, Ben, 29, and Jack, 22, but it was unclear which son was attacked.
ITV scraps Blind Date - 26/06/03
ITV have now scrapped Blind Date after much loved host Cilla Black quit earlier this year.
Cilla Black quit the show after 18 years, and it was thought producers were looking for a new host. It seems no one can replace our Cilla and the show cannot go on without her.
Club to Cilla! - 21/05/03
Cilla Black is not a name you regularly associate with underground dance tracks, but she has teamed up with a top DJ to release a ’choon.
Cilla and DJ Tommy Sandhu have got together to release a remix of her 1986 hit Step Inside Love -as believe it or not before Cilla took over the small screen screeching ’surprise surprise’ and bemoaning ’our Graham’ - she was a pop star!
Cilla has now pressed 3,000 white labels of the track under the name of TS vs CB. Clubbers have already been dancing merrily away to it, though little did they know the warbling songstress behind the big beat was our Cilla.
Cilla’s son and manager Robert Willis said "This is a fun idea to celebrate my mum’s 60th birthday."
Most people’s ’ideas’ for celebrating their mothers sixtieth involve trips to M & S and a new pair of slippers! Well now there is an alternative option - get her to sing an underground club anthem hit! Happy Birthday mum!
Cilla’s birthday tribute to PM - 01/05/03
Liverpudlian Cilla Black is to perform a Marilyn Monroe-style rendition of Happy Birthday for Tony Blair.
Her performance is part of an hour-long TV tribute to the PM.
Happy Birthday Mr Prime Minister will be shown on BBC2 on May 4 - two days before his 50th birthday.
Cilla says ta ra - 06/01/03
Cilla Black has sensationally quit Blind Date live on air. On the first live Blind date show on Saturday, Cilla made the announcement that the current series - the 18th - would be her last.
The presenter said she had not even told her closest friends about her choice to leave the popular Saturday night ITV dating show. She admitted that it was a "big decision" to quit but said she had been "unhappy" about some of the recent decisions made about the show.
The 59-year-old presenter, who will celebrate her 40th year in showbusiness this year, reassured viewers they had not seen the last of her and added that she had "exciting" new challenges in the pipeline. The former pop star has already made a one-off series, Making the Grade, which will be screened on ITV later this year.
Cilla also revealed that prior to making her decision she visited a psychic to contact her late husband Bobby. She said she contacted the London clairvoyant because she wanted "reassurance" that she was doing the "right thing" from her husband Bobby Willis, who died from cancer two years ago.
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At the age of 20, Cilla had progressed from a student to a full time Dictaphone typist. However, her sheer drive to become famous left her feeling dissatisfied, dreading the fate of being labelled as just another girl suitable for office work. She wanted more from life and could regularly be found in her lunch hour escaping to the trendy haunts of The Cavern. She’d hang coats earning five bob an hour enjoying the limelight of getting to sing on stage. At night she’d also break free from the constraints of office work to serve coffee at The Zodiac where she met her boyfriend and husband to be Bobby Willis.
As a singer she has released 14 studio albums, in addition to 2 successful Greatest Hits packages and 37 singles, many of which have charted worldwide. During the sixties she managed to sustain her place at the forefront of the British music scene, having one of the most impressive starts for a female solo artist which included 17 consecutive Top 40 triumphs!
Cilla Black made her debut on the British single charts with one of the first songs given to her by her peers John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The single Love of the Loved made a modest impression on the UK charts when it was released in September 1963 marking her debut as a professional singer. In a matter of months this was to be overshadowed by her next two ballads You’re My World and Anyone Who Had a Heart which in 1964 hit the #1 spot, each becoming million selling singles and launching her into the international pop arena.
In 1964, Cilla had switched to the big screen, making a cameo appearance in Gerry & the Pacemaker’s movie Ferry Cross the Mersey. She was even invited to add her vocals to the soundtrack, recording the song Is it love?
Brian Epstein her manager, friend and the man instrumental for moulding such a versatile artiste died after a tragic overdose accident. It was feared Cilla’s career might have suffered but with her man Bobby already being so integral in her decision-making, he seamlessly became her personal manager. On January 25th 1969 the devoted couple became husband and wife at Marylebone Registry Office in London. One more elaborate ceremony followed on the 6th of March at the Roman Catholic Church, Liverpool.
In 1970 she gave birth to her first son, Robert John Willis [born July 26 1970]. Sons, Benjamin (April 30 1974) and Jack (October 20 1980) were soon to follow. In 1983, the year of her twentieth anniversary in showbiz, EMI Music decided to launch a spectacular campaign to re-issue her biggest selling singles on The Very Best of Cilla Black.
This generated much interest in her and thus in May 1984 Surprise, Surprise was broadcast, captivating leagues of avid followers who embraced the show’s warmth and emotion. Blind Date a dating show followed, it was a massive success, making Cilla an icon of modern TV.
Sadness hit Cilla’s life when hubby Bobby was diagnosed with lung and liver cancer. He had been discreetly undergoing chemotherapy in North London, eventually discharging himself and showing some positive signs of recovery. However, he was to take a turn for the worse and passed away in October 1999, aged 57.
The ’Cilla Mafia’ - Dale Winton, Paul O’Grady and long-time friend Christopher Biggins - were there for her during the aftermath of her hubby’s death, and the group have since become as likey to appear on Heat’s gossip pages as Jordan.
Since sensationally quitting Blind Date live on air in 2003 Cilla says that she may well not appear on TV again, explaining that presenters should be youthful and fun...’who wants to see people like me on TV. I don’t!’
March 2007