VETERAN British broadcaster Jimmy Savile, a famously eccentric cultural figure, has died at his home in northern England. He was 84. The cause of his death is not yet known.

    Savile, known for his garish tracksuits, chunky gold jewelry and boundless enthusiasm for pop music and charity work, was the host of two long-running British television programs and claimed to have been a longtime confidant to Prince Charles and ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

    Rarely seen without his trademark large cigar, Savile worked in a coal mine as a teenager before embracing music and building a national profile as a disc jockey — first in Britain’s dance halls and later on radio, including the renowned Radio Luxembourg.

    Savile claimed to have been the first DJ in the world to use two turntables — enabling continuous music to be played — inventing the techniques later embraced by modern dance music, and to have pioneered the use of record, rather than live bands, at nightclubs.

    Savile never married and lived alone in his native Leeds, in northern England, reserving part of his home as a shrine to his late mother.

    (SD-Agencies)