Bill Heine

In 1986, on the 41st anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing, Bill Heine installed a 25ft fibreglass shark through the roof of his suburban home in Headington, Oxfordshire. It was intended, somehow, as a protest against the American bombing of Libya (US planes took off from the local Heyford airbase) and began a six-year battle with the council over its existence. Eventually, in 1992, then environment secretary Michael Heseltine intervened and granted it retroactive planning permission. By that point it had become a local landmark and the only reason anyone has ever heard of Headington.

Outside of fin-based art, Heine was a US-born but British-resident daytime radio talk host, independent cinema owner and columnist for his local newspaper, which is where DDP players first learned of his battle with leukaemia. And those players are now leaving the shark tank with their full investment – most notably Going Underground, who climb top of the DDP rankings again by three points. Is this the kick in the heine-y this DDP season needs?

Bill Heine
9 January 1945 – 2 April 2019
Died aged 74 (13 picks)