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,
then was run from 2003 to 2007 by
Siegfried
Baboon and Rude Kid
From 2008 to 2009, it was run by
Octopus of Odstock
, and from 2010 to 2017 by
The Man In Black.
From 2018, Spade Cooley is host...
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Latest Stiffs: 4th March 2018 by Spade Cooley
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Kill-a-graham This is in sentence case
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run off a preacher man
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One of the DDP’s most popular picks of all time, the
Reverend Billy Graham, has died at the age of 99
. Billy G had featured on the Drop 40 every year since its inception in 2011, perpetually on the brink of death yet seemingly resistant to finally go to his boss’s office. Graham’s fame began in the late 1940s as one of the first televised preachers, and the “Billy Graham Crusades” became a TV fixture for nearly 60 years before his retirement in 2005. Graham’s combination of old-fashioned hellfire preaching with some vaguely progressive views (he was fervently against racial segregation) saw him named one of the US’s most-respected men for 61 of the past 62 years. However, as he was a protestant he is unable to pass through the gates of heaven and is now burning for hell in eternity. 118 teams can testify to the points this year, with the Drop 40 claiming its fourth success of the year.
Director
Lewis Gilbert, one of the grand old names behind the camera in British films, has died aged 97
. A child actor in the 1920s and 1930s, Gilbert became a director after World War 2, originally tackling such pressing topics in his films as the production of cod liver oil and the foreign student intake of Loughborough Engineering College. He progressed to bigger and better things, though, with such varied hits as “Alfie”, “Sink the Bismarck!”, “Educating Rita” and “Shirley Valentine”. He also directed three James Bond movies, and was Roger Moore’s favourite 007 director. He could also have directed “Oliver!” and “The Godfather” (which both won Best Director Oscars), but was trapped in a contract with Paramount at the time and instead made 1970 bomb “The Adventurers”. Three teams are no longer wondering what’s it all about.
Nanette Fabray, who has has died at 97, overcame a significant hearing impairment to become a major star of stage and screen for four decades. Progressing from vaudeville to Broadway, she became part of the TV firmament as Sid Caesar’s comedy partner in “Caesar’s Hour”, as well as appearing alongside Fred Astaire in “The Band Wagon”. In the 1970s she became a sitcom mainstay, most notably in “One Day at a Time” in the role now taken by Rita Moreno in the current reboot. Seven teams get on the band wagon.
Lassie Lou Ahernewas one of the last remaining silent movie actors. First spotted by Will Rogers (who, as historians will know, was allegedly the first ever dead pool hit), she was a recurring member of the “Our Gang” troop, and also played Little Harry in the 1927 version of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. She has died at 97and is a unique hit for A. Aaron Aardvark's Alliteration Association.
widow’s peaked
Lags are false friends to deadpoolers: you never know how legitimate their illness is, and “compassionate release” can mean anything from a return home to die instantly or al-Megrahi’s DDP-frustrating three-year jolly.
Catherine Nevin, known as the “Black Widow” for her role in ordering the murder of her husband in a case that captivated Ireland in the late 1990s, was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2016 and given just months to live by doctors. The DDP’s top brass were put on immediate alert and she remained an unsuccessful pick for the majority of the leaders in last year’s edition. Making it to the start of 2018, she saw her stock rocket and was picked by 50 teams. She becomes the fifth Drop 40 success of the year and we’re already 1/3 of the way to equalling the all-time record with just two months gone.
Vanessa Goodwin, who has died aged 48 , was the Liberal Party member for the seat of Pembroke in the Tasmanian Legislative Council. What does that mean? It means she was an Australian politician of some stripe, and if you’re Australian and of any note you get a Daily Mail obituary, so she was always going to be a popular selection for the cognoscenti. A total of 21 teams cash in, with Bucket of Blood hitting the top of the scoreboard as the competition enters its final 10 months. Just call me Newsboy.
You’ll rarely get the chance to score with an American death row resident, so full respect to Bobby Zarin's Mack the Knifed with their pick of
Alva Campbell. Campbell shot dead a complete stranger he had carjacked during a prison escape attempt in 1997 and was sentenced to death just a year later. Scheduled for death on November 15 2017, attempts to execute him failed as his body was in such a poor state that no suitable vein for injection existed. That’s right, he wasn’t healthy enough to be killed. Natural causes finally saw him off in early March at the age of 69 .
The Love Boat are bubbling under as prospects at the moment, only just creeping into the top 20, but picks like
Emma Hanniganshow why he remains a contender. Hannigan was an Irish author who had been battling breast cancer on-and-off for 11 years. A series of blog posts in late 2017 signified her time was coming to a close, but the QO would normally have been in question – if it wasn’t for the fact that, two days before her death at 45 , she shot to the top of the bestsellers list with her latest book “Letters to My Daughters”. The obituaries promptly came flooding in.
List of the Lost - Latest Entrants
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J Aelwyn Roberts,
Claribel Alegria,
Mary Lucas,
David Fisher,
Diane Bishop,
Ann Gillis,
Barys Kit
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List of the Missed - Latest Entrants
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John Mahoney,
Anna Campori
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Player
of the Month - July
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20 Hits No Problem - 55 points
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Latest
News
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Quincy Jones marks his 85th birthday by revealing that Richard Pryor and Marlon Brando were lovers... Barry Bennell has now been found guilty of a total of 43 sexual assaults on young boys...
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Further
Information
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Rules
& Scoring
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E-mail
Spade Cooley with any questions/comments about the DDP: ddp2018@derbydeadpool.co.uk |
Links
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Derby Dead Pool is hosted by The Man In Black with
contributions from Big-Iain, Rude Kid, Siegfried
Baboon, Octopus of Odstock, WEP 2.0 - World's
Eternity Prophet Reloaded, The Grey Horde, Thomas Jefferson Survives,
Bibliogryphon, David Quantick's Showbiz Pals, Dickie's Gone the Way of
the Dinosaurs & The End Of The World As We Know It |
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