Cleo Laine

Who was Cleo Laine?

Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth (born Clementine Dinah Bullock; 28 October 1927 – 24 July 2025) was a British singer and actress known for her scat singing. She was the wife of jazz composer and musician Sir John Dankworth and the mother of bassist Alec and singer Jacqui Dankworth. Laine was born Clementine Dinah Bullock on, in Southall, Middlesex, the second of three children of Sylvan Alexander Campbell and Minnie Blanche Bullock (née Hitchings) She was registered under the name Clementine Dinah Bullock. Her father was a Jamaican and veteran of the First World War who worked as a building labourer and regularly busked. Her mother was the child of English parents from Wiltshire, both of whom had died some years before their daughter's first marriage to a man named Bullock in 1913. The family moved constantly, but most of Laine's childhood was spent in Southall.

Laine had popular success with singles such as "You'll Answer To Me" and appeared in a range of musical theatre productions.

Historical significance

She received a number of awards and honours including appointment as an OBE in 1979, and a Grammy in 1986; she became a dame in 1997.