Sir James Wilson Vincent “Jimmy” Savile OBE, KCSG (31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011) was an English disc jockey, television presenter and media personality, best known for his BBC television show Jim’ll Fix It, and for being the first and last presenter of the long-running BBC chart show Top of the Pops. He was also known for his philanthropy and support of various charities and fundraising efforts. He died aged 84 on 29 October 2011 after suffering from pneumonia.
Savile was born in Leeds, the youngest of seven children, including Mary, Marjory, Vincent, John, Joan, and Christina Savile, born to Agnes Monica (Kelly) and Vincent Joseph Marie Savile, a bookmaker’s clerk and insurance agent. He was a Bevin Boy, conscripted during World War II to work as a coal miner. Having started playing records in dance halls in the early 1940s, Savile claimed to be the first ever DJ; according to his autobiography, the first person to use two turntables and a microphone, which he did at the Grand Records Ball at the Guardbridge Hotel in 1947.Savile is widely acknowledged as being one of the first in England and the world to use twin turntables for continuous play of music, thus pioneering the concept of DJing as we know it today.
