Death happens. Why not make it interesting?
The online competition to guess which famous people won't make it to the end of the current year. If they're elderly, ill, or just live a high-risk lifestyle, stick 'em in your team, and for each one whose death you correctly predict, you'll score points. DDP was dreamt up in Derby, England (hence the name...) by Big Iain back in 1996. Other hosts: Siegfried Baboon and Rude Kid (2003-7), Octopus of Odstock (2008-9), The Man in Black (2010-17), Spade Cooley (2018-19), msc (2020-21), Grim Up North (2020-22), and Reptile (2020-23). Now the Committee of DI (2022), time (2024), and Banana (2023) oversee the biggest deadpool going...
COURT OF CESSATION The May 1963 assassination of politician and peace activist Grigoris Lambrakis, at the hands of right-wing extremists, was a pivotal moment in modern Greek history. Outrage over the murder was swift and immense, exacerbated by the government of then-PM Konstantinos Karamanlis supporting a police report that indicated it was accidental. A particular […]
VENI VITTI VICI One of the last great “ill before I was born” names is finally dead. When Italian screen icon Monica Vitti had her first signs of memory loss, Ronald Reagan was still president. When she made her last public appearance in 2002, Peter Falk was still doing the occasional Columbo. When it was […]
CARPENTER AIN’T Gangly MGM and Broadway star Carleton Carpenter has died aged 95. He was best known for a string of cheery song-and-dance roles in the late 40s and early 50s, particularly those in tandem with Debbie Reynolds such as Two Weeks with Love. Their duet “Aba Daba Honeymoon”, a peppy novelty ditty about an […]
WOODEN LEGG The doctor is out with EastEnders stalwart Leonard Fenton dead at 95. Following a longstanding and respected career before Walford, reliable GP Dr. Harold Legg became Fenton’s defining role. Dr. Legg, devised as a representation of the Jewish immigrant population at East End, was heavily based off Fenton himself, a Jew who changed […]
WATERY GRAVE British folkie Norma Waterson has died at 82, following years of failing health. She was raised in a tight-knit musical family, and this upbringing inspired her and several siblings to form skiffle-turned-folk group The Watersons. Their sharp and passionate harmonies were praised and put them at the forefront of the UK folk revival […]
SHARP DULLED I’ve written just about every flavour of DDP obit in my first month. It’s tonally easy enough to praise a Poitier or to skewer a Russell Bishop, but hoo boy, now it’s time for the grey life… *cracks knuckles* Top cop Leslie Sharp has died aged 85. After the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy in […]
RONNIE, RONNIE, RONNIE, WHY DID YOU GO… Longstanding Rons theme team …and its goodnight from him was almost retired this year, and the decision against seems to have paid off with it achieving the two Ronnies milestone before February. That second hit was former Southport MP Ronnie Fearn, Baron Fearn, who has died aged 90. […]
BAT OUT OF FUEL Power ballad ham-meister Meat Loaf has belted his last, aged 74. His death comes the year after that of his longtime composer Jim Steinman. Among Steinman and the two artists who best defined his delightfully-over-the-top sound, only Bonnie Tyler remains. She needs a hero to keep her safe throughout 2023… Dallas-born […]
DAMNING KRUGER DEFECT And so it’s auf Wiedersehen to the quintessential German soldier of wartime-set adventure romps. Hardy Kruger was the first of Germany’s postwar film scene to successfully transfer into both Hollywood and British cinema, with stances he took at a young age a crucial reason why in an era where most German actors […]
ZENNED OUT The Reaper has seemingly declared open season on principled religious leaders, beginning with Archbishop Desmond Tutu late last year and Rabbi Israel Dresner in mid-January. Now it’s Buddhism’s turn with Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh achieving nirvana at the age of 95. Noted as “the father of mindfulness”, Nhat Hanh advocated for a […]
