Profumo: Fractured legacy

London, March 10 (Reuters): John Profumo, the government minister at the centre of one of Britain’s biggest political scandals, featuring an explosive mix of high society sex and Cold War paranoia, has died at the age of 91.

Profumo was forced to resign in 1963 as minister for war over his extramarital affair with 19-year-old prostitute Christine Keeler, who also counted among her clients a Soviet naval attache.

After his downfall, portrayed in the 1989 film Scandal, Profumo devoted the rest of his life to charity work in London’s East End.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, on a visit to Prague, praised Profumo's dignity and his efforts to fight poverty.

“I think he will be remembered not just for the events that brought his political career to an end, but also he will be remembered ... with a lot of gratitude and respect for what he achieved in his later life,” he said. A spokesman for the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital said Profumo died just before midnight after being admitted following a stroke two days ago.

The affair between Profumo and Keeler began at a country house party organised by socialite Stephen Ward in 1961. Details of it and her relationship with Russian attache Eugene Ivanov became public in 1962 with the world on the brink of nuclear war over Soviet missiles being sent to Cuba. Profumo's main undoing, however, was lying to parliament about the affair.