UK creative Mike Court passes away, aged 54
London – Mike Court, celebrated UK creative, has passed away at the age of 54. He was diagnosed with cancer only a month ago.
Gracing many top London agencies, Court replaced Australian Jack Vaughn as ECD at Y&R London and top creative directors Mike O’Sullivan and Paul Catmur, now based in New Zealand, both worked for him.
Catmur told Campaign Brief: “Mike Court was a very smart, incredibly mercurial guy and was our CD during an awful time for the industry and the agency. I thought if you could survive Y&R London in the early nineties you could survive anything. Sadly not.”
Court was known for populist yet intelligent work such as his Red Mountain coffee ads that were said to have increased sales by 800 percent.
Court’s funeral takes place on Monday. Instead of flowers, donations to cancer research have been requested.
4 Comments
Very sad. A really lovely and unreasonably talented bloke. Showed him my student book when he was a partner at the brilliantly named Still Price Twivy Court d’Souza. He kicked it into shape, kindly and gently. Thanks Mike.
I was a grad trainee at Y&R London when Mike was CD. Like most suits I had a healthy respect for him, but he was more than that. He helped me out after a pretty heavy few weeks…don’t think there are many CDs out there that would take notice of a baby suit and try to fix the problem. Courty, will miss you.
Absolutely stunned to hear of Mike’s death. I met him on a cruise, and he became such a good friend. I will miss him so much, but have lots of good memories. Sleep well Mike.
Was lucky enough to have met him, spend time and laugh with him, and learn from him. A truly wonderful man who will be missed.