They don’t make them like Denis Law and Stanley Baxter anymore - Vladimir McTavish
The media have spent much of the last week paying tribute to the many celebrities we lost in 2025. For Scots of my generation, the year was book-ended by the deaths of two of our country’s greatest legends.
The peerless Denis Law passed away in January and in December we bade farewell to the wonderful, seemingly immortal Stanley Baxter. I was fortunate enough to see them both live, Stanley in pantomime at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow, Denis in action for Scotland at Hampden Park.
Denis Law, “The Law Man” was simply the greatest-ever footballer to wear the dark blue jersey. Only Kenny Dalglish has come close since. I actually saw them playing together back in the seventies when “King Kenny” was merely a promising prince.
Stanley Baxter had a unique talent and was ever-present on our TV screens. His “Parliamo Glasgow” sketches gave a voice to Scottish comedy years before anyone had ever heard of Billy Connolly. Part of my childhood and teenage years died with them last year.
2025 ended with the passing of Brigitte Bardot. Many young people have doubtless never heard of her, while few under the age of 55 would remember her as anything other than some mythical figure from a distant past.
She had actually retired from acting in 1973. After two decades of being labelled as cinema’s “sex kitten”, she devoted her life to real kittens as an animal rights activist. Later on, she became a rampant fascist and keen supporter of the French National Front.
To explain to younger readers, this would be like Paris Hilton morphing into a bizarre hybrid of Chris Packham and Nigel Farage.
Anyway, back to The Law Man. In the early seventies, I witnessed him scoring from an overhead kick on a par with Scott McTominay, but it didn’t get the same hype.
That’s because it was at a half-empty Hampden Park against Northern Ireland in the old Home Internationals.
Let’s hope the entire Scotland team can pay him a fitting tribute by repeating his exploits in the World Cup this summer.