This week: a octogenarian climber, an actor and close friend of Steve McQueen, and the creator of Action Man

THE climber Min Bahadur Sherchan, who has died aged 85, was declared the oldest climber in the world in 2008 when he scaled Mount Everest at the age of 76.

His record stood for five years, but in 2013 Japanese climber Yuichiro Miura broke it when he climbed Everest at the age of 80. Sherchan died at Everest base camp while attempting to regain the record.

A former British Gurkha soldier, Sherchan, who was Nepalese, discovered his love of mountaineering in 1960 when he was assigned by the Nepalese government as a liaison officer for the Swiss team climbing Mount Dhaulagiri.

He later became an apple farmer and constructed roads and dams before settling down to run hotels in Kathmandu.

Sherchan, who was a grandfather of 17 and great-grandfather of six, did not even think about climbing Everest until he was 72 and prepared for the challenge by walking 745 miles across Nepal.

The cause of his death was most likely cardiac arrest, said a mountaineering official at the base camp.

He had trained for months before the attempt and said he did not suffer from any respiratory problems and his blood pressure was normal. He did not have problems with high altitude and the low level of oxygen in the mountains because he was born there.

Sherchan had said he intended to travel to conflict areas to spread a message of peace once he completed the Everest climb.

Talking in March about his latest attempt to climb Everest, he said: "I want to climb Everest to set a record so that it will inspire people to dream big. This will instil a sense of pride among old people like me. My climb will demonstrate that age doesn't stop you from realising your goal."

THE actor Don Gordon, who has died aged 90, was known for playing tough guys and cops on television and film, but his most memorable parts were the ones he played alongside his friend Steve McQueen.

In Bullitt in 1968, Gordon was Delgetti, the partner of the detective played by McQueen. Five years later, in Papillon, the prison drama which also starred Dustin Hoffman, Gordon was the inmate Julot. And in 1974, Gordon was starring with McQueen again in the disaster movie The Towering Inferno - Gordon was the fire captain.

Born in Los Angeles, Gordon grew up during the Depression and sold newspapers on the street to raise money for his family but after serving in the Navy during the Second World War, he attended drama school and found work on television, including on The Twilight Zone.

Gordon and McQueen bonded partly because of their love of motorbikes. While making Bullitt, they were contractually banned from riding bikes, but they ignored the ban and would drive up into the hills above San Francisco. Gordon also believed he and McQueen stayed friends because he was willing to be himself with him. "A lot of people who kiss up to him," said Gordon. "He was just my friend, and I told the truth about whatever he asked about. I never lied to him. He never lied to me."

THE entrepreneur Stanley Weston, who has died aged 84, was the creator of one of the most popular children's toys ever: GI Joe, the doll for boys which became Action Man in the UK.

Weston came up with the idea for the toy - a soldier with a scar on his face and a range of accessories - when he noticed that, while Barbie was a huge hit for girls, there was no equivalent for girls. He sold his idea to the toy company Hasbro for a flat fee of $100,000, although he eventually sued the company for more.

Weston was born in Brooklyn and was drafted into the army not long after the Korean war. When he returned home, he found a job with an advertising agency before branching out into the licensing and merchandising industry. Later, he helped to create the 1980s animated hit Thundercats. The British version of his GI Joe toy was launched in 1966.