 Higgins in 2008 | |
| Born | (1949-03-18)18 March 1949 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
|---|---|
| Died | 24 July 2010(2010-07-24) (aged 61) Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Sport country |  Northern Ireland |
| Nickname | The Hurricane[1] |
| Professional | 1968, 1970–1997 |
| Highestranking | 2 (1976–77 and1982–83) |
| Tournament wins | |
| Ranking | 1 |
| World Champion | |
Alexander Gordon Higgins (18 March 1949 – 24 July 2010) was a Northern Irish professionalsnooker player and a two-time world champion, remembered as one of the most iconic figures in the sport's history. Nicknamed "Hurricane Higgins" for his rapid play, and known as the "People's Champion" for his popularity and charisma, he is often credited as being a key figure in snooker's success as a mainstream televised sport in the 1980s.
After turning professional in 1970, he won theWorld Snooker Championship in1972, defeatingJohn Spencer 37–31 in the final to become the first qualifier to win the world title, a feat that only three other players have achieved since:Terry Griffiths in1979,Shaun Murphy in2005, andZhao Xintong in2025. Aged 22, he was then the sport's youngest world champion, a record he held until 21-year-oldStephen Hendry won the title in1990. Higgins was world championship runner-up toRay Reardon in1976 andCliff Thorburn in1980. At the1982 event, he recovered from 13–15 behind to defeatJimmy White 16–15 in the semi-finals, producing a 69 clearance in the penultimateframe which is regarded as one of the finestbreaks in the sport's history. He defeated Reardon 18–15 in the final, winning his second world title ten years after his first.
Higgins won theMasters title in1978 and1981 and theUK Championship in1983, where he recovered from 0–7 behind to defeatSteve Davis 16–15 in the final. As of 2023, he is one of eleven players to have completed a careerTriple Crown. He won theWorld Doubles Championship with White in 1984 and competed alongsideDennis Taylor andEugene Hughes on the all-Ireland team that won theWorld Cup three consecutive times between 1985 and 1987. He won his last professional title at the1989 Irish Masters, defeating Hendry 9–8 in the final. He failed to qualify for the professional tour in1997–98 and played his last professional match in August 1997.
Remembered for his turbulent lifestyle, Higgins was a heavy smoker, struggled with drinking and gambling, and admitted to using cocaine and marijuana. He had tempestuous relationships with women—both of his marriages ended in divorce, and he had widely publicised altercations with other girlfriends, one of whom stabbed him three times during a domestic argument. Known as an unpredictable, difficult, and volatile character, he was often disciplined by thesport's governing body, most notably when he was fined £12,000 and banned for five tournaments in 1986 after head-butting an official, and banned again for the entire1990–91 season after punching another official and threatening to have Taylor shot. He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998 and died of multiple causes in his Belfast home on 24 July 2010, aged 61.
Alexander Gordon Higgins was born inBelfast on 18 March 1949, the only son of Alexander Gordon Higgins, a labourer, and his wife Elizabeth (née Stockman), a cleaner; he had three sisters, Isobel, Ann and Jean.[2][3][4] He was raised primarily by his mother because his father sustained a brain injury after being hit by a lorry.[5] The family lived on Abingdon Drive inSandy Row, a predominantly Protestant working-class area of inner-city south Belfast, and Higgins was educated at the local Mabel Street Primary School and Kelvin Secondary School.[4] From age 10, he began frequenting the Jam Pot, a localsnooker and billiards hall, running bets for his father and doing odd jobs.[6] He began to play snooker at the Jam Pot at age 11,[7][8] and he later began playing with more challenging opponents at the Shaftesbury andYMCA clubs in the city centre.[9]
He left school in 1964 and worked as a messenger for the Irish Linen Company, but the job was short-lived as it offered few prospects, and the business was in decline.[10] At 15, after spotting a newspaper advert forstable boys at Eddie Reavey's stables inWantage, Berkshire, he left Belfast in the hope of following in the footsteps of his idolLester Piggott and becoming a jockey. His employer later recalled Higgins as "a starved little rat from the slums".[5] Despite being fired six times, he was taken back on board and stayed with Reavey for almost two years, during which time he gained too much weight to be able to ride competitively.[11] He left the stables for London, where he settled in a flat inLeytonstone and took up snooker again. He won several money matches and earned extra income at a paper mill nearLondon Bridge, but he grew homesick and returned to Belfast in late 1967.[9]
Higgins joined the snooker league at the Mountpottinger YMCA, where he faced tougher opponents and practised up to six hours a day, studying weaknesses in the other players and devising new shots in his game.[12] In January 1968, he entered and won theNorthern Ireland Amateur Championship, defeating Maurice Gill 4–1 in the final.[13] He won the title at his first appearance and, aged 18, he was the tournament's youngest-ever champion.[14] One week later, he won the All-Ireland Amateur Championship and turned professional for a short spell before reverting to amateur status.[15][16] Around this time, he was appointed captain of the Mountpottinger YMCA snooker team.[15][17] He defended his Northern Ireland Amateur title the following year but lost 0–4 to Dessie Anderson in the final.[18] Higgins defeated world championJohn Spencer in several exhibition matches, where he was given a start of 14points perframe.[19][20] These victories, coupled with his rise in popularity (his matches were attended by as many as several hundred people), convinced Higgins to return to England and turn professional.[21]
Higgins settled inBlackburn, Lancashire, as it presented favourable opportunities for pursuing a career in snooker.[21] His talent for the game was recognised by local salesman Dennis Broderick and bingo tycoons Jack Leeming and John McLaughlin, who became his agents and bought him a flat and some new clothes.[22][20] McLaughlin originated the nickname "Hurricane", although Higgins would have preferred "Alexander the Great".[20] Higgins applied to theBilliards Association and Control Council (BACC) to become a professional player, and his application was accepted in January 1970.[23][24] He was initially a probationary member, meaning that he had to prove to the BACC that he could earn a living from playing snooker.[25] By this time, he had worked out his strategy against the top professionals, noting that they were 'percentage players' and the way to beat them was to "attack with brute force and scare them to death".[26] His sister Isobel offered to pay the £100 fee for entry into the1971 World Championship, but Higgins declined because he felt not quite ready.[27]
At the1972 World Championship, which began in March 1971 and concluded in February 1972, Higgins defeated John Spencer 37–31 in the final to win the world title at his first attempt.[28][a] He had won ten consecutive frames in the qualifying competition, defeatingMaurice Parkin 11–3 for a place in the main draw.[30][31] He had then eliminatedJackie Rea 19–11 in the first round, makingbreaks of 103 and 133 during the match.[32] Rea complimented Higgins on his performance, saying that "He does everything wrong. And yet he knocks such a lot in."[33] (In January 1972, whilst the World Championship was still in progress, Higgins defeated Rea in the final of theIrish Professional Championship, a title that Rea had held for two decades.)[33] In the quarter-finals, Higgins defeated former world championJohn Pulman 31–23.[33] In the semi-finals,Rex Williams established a 12–6 lead against him by winning nine consecutive frames; Higgins trailed until the 50th frame, when he was able to draw level and then pull ahead 26–25. The match ended with adeciding frame, in which Williams was leading by 14 points but missed an attempt topot theblue ball from its spot into a middle pocket. Higgins then compiled a break of 32, and after an exchange ofsafety play he potted thegreen ball to clinch victory.[34] Williams later commented "That blue could have changed the direction of both our careers."[33]
Spectators at the 1972 world final, held at Selly Park British Legion in Birmingham, were seated on makeshift benches made from wooden boards supported on beer barrels.[33] There was aminers' strike in progress at the time of the final, and without normal power on the first evening of play, the opening session was conducted with dim lighting provided by amobile generator.[35] The scores were tied at 6–6 after the first day of play and 9–9 at the end of the third session; Spencer then pulled ahead in the fourth session to lead 13–11.[36] Higgins kept pace and ended day three tied again at 18–18, this the half-way point of the match.[35] After once more drawing level, at 21–21, Higgins won six consecutive frames to lead 27–21.[37] He also took the first frame on day five but lost four of the next five frames to finish 29–25 ahead.[35] On the last day, Higgins made a break of 82 in the 66th frame, maintaining a four-frame lead at 35–31.[38] He took the opening frame of the concluding session,[38] before compiling breaks of 94 and 46 to win the last frame he needed by 140 points to 0 to secure a 37–31 victory.[28] On winning the championship, Higgins earned £480 in prize money.[39] Aged 22, he was the youngest-ever snooker world champion, a record he held until21-year-oldStephen Hendry won the title in1990.[40][41] Higgins was also the first qualifier to win the world title, (as of 2025) a feat only achieved by three other players—Terry Griffiths in1979,Shaun Murphy in2005 andZhao Xintong in2025.[42][43]
During an exhibition match inBombay, India, an inebriated Higgins was unable to play because of the high temperatures and proceeded to play shirtless, for which he was fined £200.[44] Making his debut appearance onPot Black in 1973, he lost his first game and stormed off the set;Ted Lowe persuaded him to return and complete his other games, but Higgins was excluded from the show for the next five years due to ongoing friction between the two.[45] Defending his title at the1973 World Championship, Higgins lost 9–23 toEddie Charlton in the semi-finals.[46] He blamed the defeat on having to use a newcue, as his usual cue had been broken a few months before the tournament.[47] At the time, theWorld Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) had scheduled a meeting to hear a complaint that Higgins had dropped out of a tournament after objecting to the lighting conditions.[48] Pulman, the WPBSA chairman, declared that he welcomed Higgins losing because he had "dragged the game down".[49][48]
By the end of 1974, Higgins had started to alter his attacking style of play, adding more tactical and safety elements,[50] but he produced inconsistent results for the rest of the decade.[49] He reached the world championship final again in1976 after narrow victories overCliff Thorburn, Spencer and Charlton.[51] Higgins was leading 10–9 againstRay Reardon in the final, but his game faded as the match progressed.[52][51] In a contest marred by erratic refereeing and a sub-standard table,[53] Reardon pulled away to win the title for the fifth time, the score finishing at 27–16.[52] At the1977 World Championship, the first to be held at theCrucible Theatre in Sheffield, Higgins lost the deciding frame of his first-round match againstDoug Mountjoy.[51] Although he was not one of the eight invited professionals to enter the 1977Pontins Open, for which Lowe was an organiser, Higgins was one of 24 players from an entry of 864 to reach the stage where the invited professionals joined the draw, despite having to concede 21 points per frame against amateur players.[51] Hewhitewashed Reardon andFred Davis, then defeated Griffiths 7–4 in the final, watched by an audience of around 2,000 people.[54] In their book about world snooker champions,Masters of the Baize (2005), Luke Williams and Paul Gadsby wrote that the tournament "cemented his status as 'The People's Champion'".[51]
Outside competition, Higgins completed a16-red clearance in a challenge match in 1976, making a break of 146; he potted thebrown ball as the first "red", and his 16 chosen colours were ten blacks, five pinks and one green.[55] Higgins retained the Irish Professional title againstDennis Taylor in February 1978.[56] The following week, he secured the1978 Masters title with a 7–5 victory over Thorburn, from 4–5 behind.[57] At the1978 World Championship, he ledPatsy Fagan 12–11 in the first round but was eliminated after losing three close frames: the first on are-spotted black, the second on the finalblack, and the third on the finalpink.[58] He saw off challenges from Fagan for the Irish Professional title in 1978 and 1979.[59]
_2012-02-05_08.jpg)
A few days before the start of the1980 World Championship, Higgins lost the Irish Professional Championship to Dennis Taylor, having held the title for eight years.[61] At the World Championship, he won a deciding frame againstTony Meo in the first round, then eliminatedPerrie Mans,Steve Davis, andKirk Stevens to reach the final against Cliff Thorburn.[62] Sydney Friskin ofThe Times described the match as a contrast of styles: "the shrewd cumulative processes of Thorburn against the explosive break-building of Higgins". He also noted that each player had accused the other of distracting him during the match.[63] Higgins began the final playing the matchplay snooker for which he had been commended,[64] leading 6–3 at the end of the first session and extending his advantage to 9–5. However, Thorburn tied the match at 9–9;[65] they then drew level at 11–11, 13–13, 15–15 and 16–16, after which Thorburn won the two frames he needed to secure victory at 18–16.[65][66]
Higgins was runner-up to Davis at the1980 UK Championship, losing the final 6–16.[67][68] He was the first player to win a secondMasters title, beating Terry Griffiths 9–7 in the1981 final after finishing runner-up to Griffithsthe previous year.[69] He lost to Davis in the second round of the1981 World Championship.[70] The same year, Souvenir Press published"Hurricane" Higgins' Snooker Scrapbook, an autobiographical work that Higgins had written in collaboration with Angela Patmore, having worked on the manuscript for almost a decade.[71]
Higgins won his second world title in1982.[72] After eliminatingJim Meadowcroft 10–5 in the first round,[73] he won the deciding frame of his match against Doug Mountjoy and prevailed 13–10 againstWillie Thorne.[72] He trailedJimmy White 13–15 in their best-of-31 semi-final match, before taking the 29th frame and then compiling a break of 69 in the penultimate frame. Higgins had been 0–59 points behind but managed to complete an extremely challengingclearance, during which he was rarely in goodposition; this is regarded as one of the finest breaks in snooker history.[74][75][6][76] He faced Ray Reardon in the final; from 15–15, Higgins took the next three frames for an 18–15 victory, achieving a 135 total clearance in the final frame.[72] A tearful Higgins summoned his wife and baby daughter from the audience to celebrate with him.[75][77] He would have been top of the world rankings for the1982–83 season had he not forfeited ranking points as a result of disciplinary action.[78][79] Higgins released acountry and western styled single in 1982, titled "One-Four-Seven",[80] but it failed to chart.[81]
He lost 5–16 to Davis in the semi-finals of the1983 World Championship.[82] Later that year, he reached the final of theUK Championship, where he trailed Davis 0–7 before producing a comeback to win 16–15 for his first UK title.[83] After recovering to two frames behind at 7–9 and levelling the match at 12–12, Higgins had again fallen behind at 12–14 on his way to victory.[84] Snooker journalist and historian David Hendon wrote in 2025 that Higgins had "demonstrat[ed] the heart for a fight that so thrilled audiences".[85] On winning the 1983 UK title, Higgins became the third player—after Steve Davis and Terry Griffiths—to achieve a careerTriple Crown.[86] He wrote in 2007: "I knew I had triumphed in one of the greatest comebacks in snooker history. I was back on top, and nothing was going to stand in my way. – How wrong I was. This was just the beginning of the end."[87] Williams and Gadsby wrote that after this win "his career drifted into a gradual downward spiral", and they commented that Higgins was to lose many more matches as he moved "from one crisis and scandal to another".[88] The 1983 UK Championship proved to be the last individual title that Higgins won in the UK.[87]
In 1986, Higgins split with his manager Del Simmons and signed with Framework, a management group run by Howard Kruger who also managed White, Stevens andTony Knowles. Later that year, the four players and the bandStatus Quo released acover of "The Wanderer" by Dion as a counter to "Snooker Loopy", a pop single featuring snooker players managed byBarry Hearn's Matchroom.[89][90] At the1986 UK Championship, Higgins head-butted tournament director Paul Hatherell after an argument; he was fined £12,000 and banned from five tournaments,[91] as well as being convicted of assault and criminal damage arising from the incident and fined £250 by a court.[92] At the1987 Irish Masters, he was fined £500 for being abusive towards tournament director Kevin Norton.[93] He reached the Masters final for the fifth time in1987, losing to Dennis Taylor in the deciding frame.[94]
By 1988, Higgins had been fined a total of £17,200 in his professional career.[95] That year, he was dropped by Kruger and acquired a new manager, Robin Driscoll.[96] In January 1989, he fell from the window of his partner's first-floor flat, breaking multiple bones in his ankle. He arrived at several subsequent matches on crutches and played while hopping on one leg.[97] Later that year, Kruger's Framework management company waswound up at his instigation, with Higgins claiming that he was owed over £50,000.[98] After Higgins had died,Clive Everton wrote that the money lost to Framework was "a financial blow from which [Higgins] never recovered."[99]: 6 The last professional tournament that he won was the1989 Irish Masters, where he beat Stephen Hendry 9–8 in the final.[99]
Higgins made his last appearance in a major final in March 1990, at theBritish Open, losing 8–10 against Canadian playerBob Chaperon. Higgins received a runner-up prize of £45,000, the highest of his career.[101] After losing his first-round match toSteve James at the1990 World Championship, he remained seated in the arena for some time, ordering several vodka and orange drinks, slouched in his chair and twitching.[102] Afterwards, he punched tournament official Colin Randle in the abdomen before attending a press conference at which he announced his retirement, and he threw insults at the media as he left. This followed another incident at the1990 World Cup, where he had repeatedly argued with fellow player and compatriot Dennis Taylor, insulting his late mother and threatening to have Taylor shot if he returned to Northern Ireland.[100] For his conduct, Higgins was banned from the professional circuit for the remainder of the season (1990–91) and the whole of the next (1991–92).[103] During his15-month ban, he put together a biography video titledI'm No Angel (1991).[104][105] He released a cover version of "Wild Thing" in 1992, in collaboration with actorOliver Reed andthe Troggs.[106][107]
In August 1991, Higgins began his return to the professional circuit by registering for pre-season qualifying matches. Now ranked 120th in the world, he was whitewashed by 20-year-oldAdrian Rosa and subsequently failed to qualify for another five tournaments.[108] He reached the last 16 of the1991 Dubai Classic but lost to James. He also reached the televised stages of the1991 UK Championship but lost 4–9 to Stephen Hendry in the first round. Hendry claimed that Higgins had said "Up your arse, you cunt" to him during their post-match handshake; he reported the incident to the governing body, and the case was settled in a London court nine months later. Higgins was fined £500, bringing the total amount of fines that he had received as a professional to £23,200.[109] He was heavily defeated 1–10 byDarren Morgan in qualifying for the1992 World Championship, in a match described by Higgins as "surreal snooker ... never in ten years would I believe that result"; he demanded that he and Morgan take a drug test but later apologised.[110]
Higgins competed in pre-season qualifying matches against amateurs, including former women's championStacey Hillyard.[104] He reached the televised rounds of the1994 World Championship, his first appearance in thelast-32 of an event in three years.[111] Drawn against fellow IrishmanKen Doherty in the first round, Higgins was defeated 6–10.[112] The following year, during the qualifying rounds, he complained that the match refereeJohn Williams was distracting him, not by standing in his line of vision but by being "in his line of thought", when he was on a break that had reached 103.[113][114] When Williams refused to move, Higgins continued his break in tears, eventually making 137, his highest-ever in a world championship match.[113][114] In December 1995, he was a member of the victorious Europe Team for theMosconi Cup, anine-ball pool competition.[115]
Shortly after winning the1997 World Championship, Doherty agreed to play Higgins in an exhibition match at theWaterfront Hall in Belfast as a benefit event. Doherty, who had idolised Higgins as a youngster, secured a 5–4 victory, and the event raised £10,000 for Higgins.[116] At the end of the1996–97 season, Higgins was ranked 156th in the world, at a time when only the top 64 players earned a place on the main tour for the following season.[117][118] Other players could opt to join a "qualifying school" played over the summer of 1997.[118] In August of that year, Higgins played what was to become his final match on the professional circuit with a 1–5 defeat to Neil Mosley at thePlymouth Pavilions.[117] He became aggressive after the match and was escorted out of the venue by police.[99][119] He then failed to appear at his next two scheduled qualifying matches, saying that he had been attacked with an iron bar; he had a sprained wrist and a sprained ankle.[120][121][117]
After his exit from the professional game, Higgins spent time playing for small sums of money in and around Northern Ireland. He made appearances in the 2005 and 2006 Irish Professional Championship, experiencing first-round defeats by Garry Hardiman andJoe Delaney, respectively.[122][123]
On 12 June 2007, it was reported that Higgins had assaulted a referee at a charity match in the north-east of England.[124] Higgins returned to competitive action in September 2007 at theIrish Professional Championship in Dublin, where he was whitewashed 0–5 by formerBritish Open championFergal O'Brien in the first round at the Spawell Club, Templeogue.[125] His autobiography,From the Eye of the Hurricane: My Story, was published in 2007.[126]
Higgins continued to play fairly regularly and enjoyed "hustling" all comers for small-time stakes in clubs in Northern Ireland and beyond; he entered the Northern Ireland Amateur Championship in May 2009, "to give it a crack",[127] but he failed to appear for his match.[3]
On 8 April 2010, Higgins was part of the debutSnooker Legends Tour event at the Crucible in Sheffield, appearing alongside other retired or close-to-retiring professionals, includingJohn Parrott, Jimmy White,John Virgo and Cliff Thorburn. He faced Thorburn in his match but lost 0–2.[128]
It is estimated that Higgins earned (and spent) £3–4 million in his career as a snooker player.[129][130]
In describing the unconventional playing technique used by Higgins, his fellow professional Willie Thorne said that "He does everything wrong: his stance is square, he lifts his head, his arm's bent, he snatches at some of his shots." Thorne concluded that Higgins would be the worst example for an aspiring player to imitate.[131] His grip on the cue was less firm than typically employed by professional players.[132] Author Brendan Cooper wrote that "Beset with twitches, sniffs, and odd jerks of the limbs, Higgins would approach the table like a battered boxer trying to stay upright."[133]
Originally an out-and-out attacking player, Higgins developed his tactical game throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Cliff Thorburn praised his innovative positional play, citing him as one of the first players to "break out reds from potting the red, which is a very difficult thing to do."[131] Williams and Gadsby wrote that as Higgins grew older, his "technical shortcomings became burdensome", and that he began to fail on more shots as his hand-eye co-ordination declined, but note that he maintained a world championship career lasting over two decades.[132] Writing for theDictionary of Irish Biography, James Quinn said that "His daredevil style thrilled audiences and inspired the kind of adulation and raucous cheering normally heard in football stadiums rather than snooker halls", but a lack of consistency and discipline meant that Higgins failed to achieve as much as his potential should have allowed.[134]
In the summer of 1972, Higgins was the subject of a half-hour Thames TV documentary,Hurricane Higgins.[135] He partneredKenny Lynch inPro-Celebrity Snooker onITV in 1978.[136][137] He was a guest onA Question of Sport in 1980,[138] and onGive Us a Clue the following year.[139] He appeared on the 1984 seriesInternational Pro Celebrity Golf onBBC2, partnered withGreg Norman against Lynch andTom Watson.[140]
Two video games were released forAmstrad computers in 1985, with his endorsement,[141] titledAlex Higgins' World Snooker andAlex Higgins' World Pool.[142][143] He appeared with Howard Kruger on the chat showWogan on 6 April 1987, just minutes after being fined £12,000 and banned for five tournaments by the WPBSA; Higgins seemed relaxed and said that he accepted the sanctions.[144] He made another appearance onWogan in 1991 to promote his videoI'm No Angel.[145][146]
In December 1997, he was featured inAlex Higgins: Rebel Without a Pause, which was aired in the Northern Ireland region onBBC1.[147] TheIrish Independent reviewer Vincent Gribbin complained that the show was a "40 minute paranoid rant" by Higgins.[148] According toThe Sunday Telegraph reviewer John Preston,Like a Hurricane: The Alex Higgins Story (2001) on BBC2 portrayed Higgins as "a wildly emotional and hopelessly insecure man: vain, fragile, peaceable enough off booze, a terror on it."[149] TheRTÉ One documentaryBlood Sweat and Tears (2005) charted his career and featured positive remarks about him from Ray Reardon and Steve Davis, despite their past differences.[150] In July 2009, Higgins was a contestant in the Sporting Stars edition of the British television quizThe Weakest Link.[151]
Remembered for his turbulent lifestyle, Higgins was a heavy smoker,[152][153] struggled with drinking and gambling,[154][155] and admitted to using cocaine and marijuana.[156] He had tempestuous relationships with women—his two marriages both ended in divorce, and he had widely publicised altercations with other girlfriends.[157] He was known as an unpredictable, difficult, and volatile character.[158][159]
At the time of his 1972 triumph at the World Championship, Higgins revealed that he had no permanent address and had recently been living in a row of condemned houses inBlackburn that were awaiting demolition. In the space of one week, he had drifted between five different houses on the same street, moving on to the next one each time his current dwelling was demolished.[160]
He was twice married and had four children from three different relationships.[161] He met Joyce Fox in 1971, and they had a son, Chris, in 1975.[162] They separated six months later; in 2001, Fox told her son that Higgins was his father, and they reconnected in 2003.[134][163] In April 1975, Higgins married Australian Cara Hasler inSydney.[49] They had a daughter, Christel, and their divorce was finalised in 1979.[164][155] He married Lynn Avison inWilmslow, Cheshire, in January 1980.[165] Their daughter, Lauren, was born in 1980, followed by son Jordan in 1983.[166][157] Higgins split from Lynn in 1985,[92] and they divorced. That same year, he began a relationship with Siobhan Kidd, which ended in 1989 after he allegedly hit her with a hairdryer.[167] In 1990, he began a relationship with formercall girl Holly Haise (apseudonym of Laura Croucher, her real name). They split in August 1997 after Croucher stabbed Higgins three times during a domestic argument.[168][92]
Higgins had a long and enduring friendship with actor Oliver Reed,[169] who appeared as a guest onThis Is Your Life when Higgins was the subject in 1981.[74] Higgins metMarianne Faithfull during the 1980s and renewed his acquaintance with her in 1992, when they reportedly spent the night together in a Dublin hotel.[170]
Higgins helped a young boy fromManchester, a fan of his who had been in a coma for two months, after his parents had written to him. He recorded messages on tape and sent them to the boy with his best wishes in 1983. He later visited the boy in hospital and played a snooker match that he had promised to have with him when he recovered.[152][171]
In 1996, Higgins was convicted of assaulting a 14-year-old boy and was given aconditional discharge. He later described the case as "a farce which should not have been brought to court".[130] During his lifetime, Higgins was arrested 17 times.[172]
Higgins reportedly smoked 80 cigarettes a day.[173] He had an operation oncancerous growths on hispalate in 1996.[99] He was found to have throat cancer in June 1998[99] and underwent major surgery on 13 October of that year.[174] He could only talk in a whisper in his last years.[175]
Suffering frompneumonia and breathing problems,[156] Higgins was admitted to hospital on 31 March 2010.[176] In April, his friends launched a campaign to help raise the £20,000 needed for him to havetooth implants, to allow him to eat properly and gain weight. Higgins had lost his teeth as a result of the intensiveradiotherapy used to treat his throat cancer. It was reported that since losing them, he had been living on liquid food and had become increasingly depressed, even contemplating suicide.[177] He was too ill and frail to have the implants fitted.[178] Despite his illness, Higgins continued to smoke cigarettes and drink heavily until the end of his life.[179] He was admitted to hospital again in May.[175]
By the summer of 2010, his weight had fallen to 6.5 stone (41 kilograms).[130] Despite his £4 million career earnings, Higgins was now bankrupt and having to survive on a £200-a-week disability allowance.[177] He was found dead in bed in his flat on 24 July 2010, aged 61.[180][181] The cause of death was a combination ofmalnutrition, pneumonia, tooth decay and abronchial condition; his daughter Lauren stated that he was clear from throat cancer when he died.[182]
Higgins's funeral service was held atSt Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, on 2 August 2010. He was buried inCarnmoney Cemetery inNewtownabbey, County Antrim. Among the snooker professionals in attendance were Jimmy White, Willie Thorne, Stephen Hendry, Ken Doherty,Joe Swail,[183] Shaun Murphy and John Virgo.[184]
On account of his exciting playing style and explosive persona,[172] Higgins is remembered as one of the most iconic figures in snooker's history.[185] Nicknamed "Hurricane Higgins" for his rapid play,[156] and known as the "People's Champion" for his popularity and charisma,[186] he is often credited as being a key figure in the success of snooker as a mainstream televised sport in the 1980s.[154] JournalistDonald Trelford wrote in 1986 that "it was undoubtedly Higgins who first brought the money into snooker after his dramatic victory in 1972 and all the attendant publicity."[187]
In Steve Davis'sInteresting: My Autobiography (2015), he wrote that Higgins as a player was "a true genius. Perhaps only Ronnie O'Sullivan has achieved that same style of mercurial ability since."[188] Higgins arguably fulfilled his potential only intermittently during the peak of his career in the 1970s and 1980s; the snooker journalist and historianClive Everton put this down to Davis and Ray Reardon both being too consistent for him.[166]Ronnie O'Sullivan has called Higgins "the greatest snooker player I have ever seen" when he was playing at his best, while also acknowledging that his erratic lifestyle caused a lack of consistency on the table.[189] Reardon wrote in 1986 that "Unlike Steve Davis, Alex has a natural snooker brain. He sees situations and knows what to do in a flash. We can all see it eventually but he spots it immediately. Reverse side, screw, deep screw ... he created a lot of the modern play that you see today."[190] Similarly, John Spencer wrote that "Alex probably had the quickest snooker brain in the game."[191] As of 2023, he is one of only eleven players to have completed the "Triple Crown" of winning the World Championship, the UK Championship and the Masters.[192] However, both Davis and Reardon felt that the number of titles won by Higgins was low, considering his sizeable talent.[193][194]
In 2011, Event 8 of thePlayers Tour Championship was renamed the'Alex Higgins International Trophy'.[195] That year, Higgins was one of the eight players added to theWorld Snooker Tour Hall of Fame in its inaugural year.[196] In 2016,WPBSA chairmanBarry Hearn announced that the trophy for the newNorthern Ireland Open tournament would be named after Higgins.[197][198]
Richard Dormer wrote and directed a one-person play based on the career of Alex Higgins, titledHurricane (2004).[199] Following performances at theEdinburgh Festival Fringe, for which Dormer wonThe Stage Edinburgh Fringe Best Actor award, the production transferred to theWest End and then toured the UK.[200][199] The professional rivalry between Higgins and Davis was portrayed in a 2016 BBC feature film titledThe Rack Pack, in which Higgins was played byLuke Treadaway.[201]
| Performance Table Legend | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LQ | lost in the qualifying draw | #R | lost in the early rounds of the tournament (WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin) | QF | lost in the quarter-finals |
| SF | lost in the semi-finals | F | lost in the final | W | won the tournament |
| DNQ | did not qualify for the tournament | A | did not participate in the tournament | WD | withdrew from the tournament |
| NH / Not Held | means an event was not held. | |||
| NR / Non-Ranking Event | means an event is/was no longer a ranking event. | |||
| R / Ranking Event | means an event is/was a ranking event. | |||
| MR / Minor ranking Event | means an event was a minor ranking event. | |||
| Legend |
|---|
| World Championship (1–2)[j] |
| UK Championship (0–1)[k] |
| Other (0–2) |
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runner-up | 1. | 1976 | World Championship |  Ray Reardon (WAL) | 16–27 |
| Runner-up | 2. | 1980 | World Championship(2) |  Cliff Thorburn (CAN) | 16–18 |
| Winner | 1. | 1982 | World Championship(2) | Ray Reardon (WAL) | 18–15 |
| Runner-up | 3. | 1984 | UK Championship(3) |  Steve Davis (ENG) | 8–16 |
| Runner-up | 4. | 1988 | Grand Prix | Steve Davis (ENG) | 6–10 |
| Runner-up | 5. | 1990 | British Open | Bob Chaperon (CAN) | 8–10 |
| Legend |
|---|
| World Championship (1–0)[l] |
| UK Championship (1–2)[m] |
| The Masters (2–3) |
| Other (29–23) |
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1. | 1975 | Castle Open | John Spencer (ENG) | 5–2 | [271] |
| Winner | 2. | 1977 | Pontins Spring Open | Terry Griffiths (WAL) | 7–4 | [272] |
| Winner | 3. | 1979 | Castle Open(2) | Fred Davis (ENG) | 5–1 | [273] |
| Runner-up | 1. | 1987 | Dutch Open | Jonathan Birch (ENG) | 2–6 | [274] |
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Team | Opponent(s) in the final | Score | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1. | 1975 | Ladbroke International | Rest of the World:
| England: | +113[n] | [275][276] |
| Winner | 2. | 1984 | World Doubles Championship |
| 10–2 | [277] | |
| Winner | 3. | 1985 | World Cup | Ireland "A":
| England: | 9–7 | [278] |
| Winner | 4. | 1986 | World Cup(2) | Ireland "A":
| Canada: | 9–7 | [278][279] |
| Winner | 5. | 1987 | World Cup(3) | Ireland "A":
| Canada: | 9–2 | [278][280] |
| Runner-up | 1. | 1990 | World Cup | Northern Ireland Ireland "A":
| Canada: | 5–9 | [281] |
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1. | 1968 | Northern Ireland Amateur Championship | Maurice Gill (NIR) | 4–1 | [282][14] |
| Winner | 2. | 1968 | All-Ireland Amateur Championship |  Gerry Hanway (IRL) | 4–1 | [17] |
| Runner-up | 1. | 1969 | Northern Ireland Amateur Championship | Dessie Anderson (NIR) | 0–4 | [18] |
| Outcome | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1976 | Australian Invitational Pocket Billiards Championship |  Warren Simpson (AUS) | 200–98 | [283][284] |
 | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
