Paul Goldin: Paul Goldin, who has died aged 79, was an entertainer, hypnotist and behavioural psychologist. In later life he concentrated more on the business end of his career than on entertainment.
Born in France of a French father and English mother, his family moved to England from France at the beginning of the second World War. In 2001 he told The Irish Times that his grandfather was Russian, whose grandfather in turn "was believed to be an illegitimate son of the tsar".
He studied medicine in London but became disillusioned with it in his final year, and left to take an MA in behavioural psychology at the University of Hawaii.
He began entertaining as a student, earning enough money to pay for his education. In 1948 the actor and promoter Frank O'Donovan, who played Battie Brennan in The Riordans, invited him to tour Ireland. O'Donovan guaranteed him £100 a week and 4 per cent of the takings.
Goldin was promoted as the "French psychologist with the Gallic charm and the Sixth Sense", and the short tour was a success. He bought a car at the end of the first week, and subsequently toured the length and breadth of the country.
In 1960 controversy erupted when a 17-year-old hospital ward assistant fell into a coma while attending one of his shows. Goldin insisted that hypnotism was not to blame and maintained that his show had been "vetted by leading ecclesiastical authorities". Fortunately, after three days, the young woman made a full recovery.
Audience participation was essential to his stage shows but he never had any difficulty getting people to take part. Persuading them to search for leprechauns was no problem either, and he convinced many an unlikely lad to become a ballerina for a night.
In the 1970s he moved to the United States, where he teamed up with the psychiatrist Maurice Silver. He was hired by the US government as a deprogrammer, treating followers of Jim Jones who survived the cult's mass murder/suicide in Guyana.
Fascinated by Jones's techniques, he developed an interest in brainwashing and came to see his work in hypnotherapy as brainwashing in reverse.
In the 1980s he returned to Ireland and opened a stress management and phobia clinic in Dublin. His stop-smoking courses were so popular that his neighbours complained and he had to move. According to his website, the clinic's approach combines behaviour modification techniques that activate natural response mechanisms enabling clients to take control of their lives and to develop, in all its aspects, peace of mind.
The "colorgenics" system, developed by Goldin, is said to enable clients to identify their underlying character traits, and also provides an incisive insight into their physical wellbeing. The website advertises a range of books and CDs, including Lose Weight Think Slim, Stop Smoking, Relieve Stress and Weight Control. Goldin also operated the Paul Goldin Clinics franchise.
The golfer Philip Walton and best-selling author Cecelia Ahern are counted among Goldin's "successes". But there were dissatisfied customers as well.
In 1988 he was sued by six people who claimed he breached contracts relating to a six-day course to cure stammering. Their barrister said his clients answered a newspaper advertisement offering a six-day course and a money-back guarantee if it failed.
After the course, when they were not cured, their money was not refunded when they requested it. Following a one-day hearing and adjournment, the case was settled out of court.
Goldin was married several times. In 1971 the Sunday Press reported an allegation made by his estranged wife Patricia that he had abducted their six-year-old son Ricky in New York. A spokesman for the NYPD said they were treating it as a missing person case.
The father-son relationship survived the episode. A television actor and entertainer based in the US, Ricky Paull Goldin recently directed a video advertising his father's business. Having retired from the stage, Paul Goldin was asked in 2006 what he thought of modern-day showbiz hypnotists. He replied: "Some of it is sad. There are people who do shows in bad taste but there's nothing I can do about it."
He is survived by his wife Helen (nee Breen), their daughter Katie Jane and his children from previous marriages, daughters Joanna and Sarah and sons David, Bobby and Ricky.
Paul Goldin: born 1928; died February 13th, 2008