1980s Icon Nick Kamen Dies At 59

Tributes to ‘sweet & beautiful’ star of Levi’s ad

- Tom Bryant

To the soulful sound of Marvin Gaye singing I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Nick Kamen stripped to his boxers and socks in a launderette for Levi’s ad and became one of the 1980s biggest heartthrobs.

After the model and singer’s death at the age of 59 was announced yesterday, singer Tanita Tikaram, 51, paid tribute, remembering how they had first met soon after the ad came out in 1985.

She posted on Twitter: “He was kind and sweet.”

He had, she said, “none of the egos of someone who had just set the world alight with his extraordinary beauty”.

Kamen, who had bone marrow cancer, is thought to have died in London.