Overview
- His family confirmed late Sunday that Craig Douglas, born Terence Perkins, died peacefully at home after a short illness and asked for privacy.
- Douglas rose from Newport on the Isle of Wight after winning a local talent contest and was renamed by manager-producer Bunny Lewis before signing to Top Rank.
- His 1959 cover of Sam Cooke’s Only Sixteen topped the UK chart for more than a month and helped make him one of Britain’s best-selling pop acts of the era.
- He appeared in the 1962 film It's Trad, Dad!, topped bills that included the Beatles early on, and continued to perform in clubs, on cruises and at benefit shows for decades.
- Local and national accounts agree on his death but differ on late-career recordings, with the Isle of Wight County Press citing a 2011 studio album and national reports naming a 1963 single as his final chart release.