When was alex higgins born

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Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Table of Contents. More from Biography More posts in Biography ». He was a heavy drinker and smoker. The reason why he became media favorite was that his personal and professional life was full of action.

After a 25 year long career, he finally called it a day in the year He retired from the game leaving some great memories on the table.

Alex Higgins was married to Lynn Avison from the year to He will be greatly missed by snooker fans and the wider sporting public. Send Wishes. Perhaps it was the breakup of his marriage to Lynn that prompted his decline. Lurid headlines accompanied their many disagreements, and Higgins had to recover from an overdose of sleeping tablets he took after a row while the couple had been on holiday in Majorca.

The marriage came to an end in , and Higgins's life seemingly began to unravel. Money worries were escalating as Higgins's gambling continued unchecked, and he was banned for an entire season after punching another official in the stomach in after losing a second-round match in the World Championship around the time he threatened to have his Northern Irish Catholic rival Dennis Taylor killed, saying: "I come from Shankill and you come from Coalisland, and the next time you are in Northern Ireland I will have you shot.

As his form got worse, whenever he lost, Higgins would seem to search for an excuse in either the standard of refereeing, the table, the cloth, the temperature of the arena — anything other than an objective assessment of a decline that seemed more linked to his lifestyle.

A heavy smoker since his youth, Higgins was diagnosed with throat cancer in As the wins became ever more sporadic, despite attempts to return as a player, and the money he earned from exhibitions largely dried up, Higgins relied ever more on cash handouts from friends and strangers alike.

Returning to Belfast, where he lived in sheltered accommodation close to his childhood home, Higgins endured years of cancer treatment, becoming a near-skeletal figure who would still attempt to hustle in snooker clubs for money and drinks.

His teeth had fallen out, and he was reduced to living off baby food. But still he dreamed of making a comeback to competitive snooker, and managed to play in a recent legends tour organised by the promoter Barry Hearn. In one of his last interviews, Higgins had confessed to feeling suicidal over the past winter, but had not taken his own life because of the hurt it would have caused those around him.

He had watched, but not enjoyed, this year's World Championship, describing it as "very predictable", and he added: "I think the difference between me and them is that I was a much quicker thinker. I had a much faster brain and was always several shots ahead, as if I had satnav around the table. I had such a quick evaluation, and that's why I had the speed.

Taylor, the man Higgins would once have had shot, said: "Alex was unique. He did a lot for the game, playing the game differently from how anyone had seen before. What happened between us is water under the bridge. We made it up. He battled right to the end, and that is what he did in his entire snooker career. Alex Higgins obituary. Winner of two world snooker titles whose mercurial talent did much to popularise the sport on television.