This week: a cult film director, an archbishop caught up in controversy, and a celebrated cricketer

JAPANESE director Seijun Suzuki, who has died aged 93, was known throughout the world for his crime B-movies. The yakuza gangster films were later hailed as classics and were a notable influence on Quentin Tarantino, the director of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill.

For many, Suzuki's masterpiece was Branded to Kill, a 1967 film about a hitman trying to make his way in the underworld. However, he was then promptly fired by Nikkatsu, the studio for which he had made 40 films in 12 years. Suzuki’s great skill was in defying the conventions: his stories did not run from A to B and they were not relentlessly violent - there were plenty of comic touches too. But in the end the studio lost patience with him - his films did not make sense, they told, but worse than that: they did not make money.

Suzuki sued the studio for unfair dismissal and found himself shunned by the industry and unable to direct for a decade, although he did find work as an actor. However, he made a dramatic return to direction in 1980 with Zigeunerweisen, the beginning of a trilogy of films that saw Suzuki experiment with a slower, more art house style.

Later, his work was re-discovered and gained international recognition with Quentin Tarantino, Jim Jarmusch, Wong Kar-wai and Takeshi Kitano all hailing his creative genius and influence. His directorial debut was Harbour Toast: Victory Is in Our Grasp in 1956 .

Asked why he was originally drawn to the gangster genre, Suzuki said: "It's not really the genre I'm interested in, but the character of the yakuza or a killer. They wander between life and death. As a character they are more interesting than normal people. They live very near death, so we can describe how they die, where they die, and when they die. You have a wider range of possibilities than you otherwise would if you were depicting a normal person."

CARDINAL Desmond Connell, who has died aged 90, was the former Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland whose tenure was dominated by revelations of paedophilia in the priesthood.

Connell, who spent 35 years as a University College Dublin theologian before his appointment in 1988, was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001.

The following year the Irish state broadcaster RTE showed a documentary alleging that children had been abused by priests serving in the archdiocese of Dublin over several decades. The programme also alleged that complaints had been made to the church hierarchy but nothing was done. Calls were made for Connell's resignation and he eventually did go in 2004.

In 2006, a government commission concluded that four archbishops including Connell had shielded priests from possible criminal investigations and faulted Connell for trying to keep the archdiocese's own records on abuse cases secret.

Connell said in 2002 that the child abuse scandals then sweeping through the Catholic Church in Ireland had devastated his time in office. After the publication of the commission's report, Connell issued a letter to be read out at mass across Dublin in which he apologised to the victims for the betrayal they had suffered. The letter also urged Catholics to judge what had happened against the backdrop of the many hundreds of good and faithful priests who had served their people with integrity and unselfishness.

CRICKETER John Hampshire, who has died aged 76, was a former England batsman. He also won five County Championship titles with Yorkshire and captained the team in 1979 and 1980. He made 11 appearances for his country, scoring 107 on his Test debut against the West Indies at Lord's.

He also represented Derbyshire and Tasmania in a 24-year first-class career which brought him over 28,000 runs, before moving into umpiring and becoming part of the ICC panel for international matches.

Yorkshire chairman Steve Denison said: "John epitomised everything that's good about Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

"Brave, talented and with a heart of gold he captained Yorkshire, scored a century at Lord's on his Test debut and became a highly respected umpire after hanging up his playing whites.

"Loved by players and members alike, John capped his wonderful life in Yorkshire cricket as our club president last year."

Hampshire is survive by his wife and two sons.