Friday, 18 September 2026
Entertainment news is led by loss, with the deaths of two performers whose work spanned music, stage and screen. Elsewhere, the industry’s global reach shows in a major Oscars selection for India, a technology shake-up at Disney and a criminal case involving a former British soap actor.
Duncan Sheik dies at 56 after a period of hospitalization and medical care. Sheik broke through as a singer-songwriter with “Barely Breathing” and later built a major second act in musical theater, most notably as the composer of “Spring Awakening,” linking 1990s pop success with acclaimed Broadway work.
Sway DaSafo dies at 44 at his home in Ghana. The British-Ghanaian rapper won MOBO recognition and later reached wider audiences as an actor, including in “Top Boy,” making him a notable figure across UK music and television as his career moved between performance and screen roles.
India selects the Marathi-language film “Gondhal” as its official submission for the 99th Academy Awards in the International Feature Film category. The choice follows a review of 33 entries by the Film Federation of India and puts the film in line to represent the country in the 2027 Oscars race.
Disney names Karandeep Anand as its first chief technology officer, creating a new senior role to sharpen the company’s technology strategy. Anand is set to join on October 2 and will report directly to CEO Josh D’Amaro, signaling a push to give technology a more central place in Disney’s corporate structure.
Former “Brookside” actor Philip Foster is arrested in Spain after leaving the UK, where he is wanted to serve an eight-and-a-half-year sentence in a £13.6 million fraud case. The arrest moves forward a criminal matter that has followed Foster since his departure from Britain.
Recap for Friday, 18 September 2026
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