Jimmy Dean, born in Seth Ward, Texas, on 10 August 1928, is being remembered on the anniversary of his birth for a career that spanned country music, television and food manufacturing. Best known today for the breakfast sausage brand bearing his name, Dean first built his fame as a singer and TV personality, scoring a major crossover hit with "Big Bad John" and later appearing alongside Sean Connery in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever.

Dean's musical career began in the US Air Force, before he formed the band Jimmy Dean and the Texas Wildcats and hosted his own CBS television programme. "Big Bad John" topped the Billboard pop chart for five weeks in 1961 and won a Grammy the following year. He founded the Jimmy Dean Sausage Company in 1969 with his brother Don, selling it to Sara Lee Corporation in 1984 for $80 million; he died in 2010 aged 81 and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame later that year.