January 2025 Round Up

FIX THEIR HEARTS OR DIE

Welcome DDPers to our whopping thirtieth iteration of the Derby Dead Pool. As per the norm, there has been a blizzard of January hits (including five fallers from the Drop 40) to give our game an exciting start. In addition to the committee members DI, Banana, and time, we’d like to give our thanks to the other DeathList forum members who helped chip in with the bios for new celebs – Dying Probably, Commtech Sio Bibble, Gooseberry Crumble, wannamaker, drunkasaskunk, and Marlfox.

If Jimmy Carter is 2025’s Lemmy, then surely David Lynch is 2025’s Bowie. The small-town Montanan became one of film’s leading visionaries for his surreal, dreamy approach, seamlessly juxtaposing the innocence of Bobby Vinton music with gruesome violence. His first feature film, Eraserhead, proved too bizarre for the mainstream, but enough in the industry were piqued that he broke through into public conscience with The Elephant Man. After a commercial setback with Dune, he made clear his pop culture imprint was here to stay with horror mysteries Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks. An emphysema diagnosis in 2020 left him housebound, he was forced to evacuate his home due to the California wildfires, and now it’s dark.

Jean-Marie Le Pen’s racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and homophobia, to name but five character flaws, were so unhinged that political leaders who thought the same stuff (including his own daughter) kept their distance. He was a perennial French presidential candidate under the National Front banner, and his shock advance to the second round in the 2002 election reverberated across France. Jacques Chirac routed him with over 80% of the second round vote, with a memorable slogan of “vote for the crook, not the fascist” defining the election. Oft-hospitalized in recent months, our collective was happy to vote the fascist in these particular circumstances.

Two hospice sitting ducks were quick-and-easy canon hits for oodles of deadpoolers – I diiig Peter Yarrow’s grave, the Peter in 60s folkie trio Peter, Paul and Mary who were popular for their tender hits including “If I Had a Hammer”, “Leaving on a Jet Plane”, and a cover of “Blowin’ in the Wind”. Yarrow co-penned their ode to lost innocence “Puff, the Magic Dragon”. Whatever innocence was left was gone when he sexually abused a 14-year-old. A dragon lives forever, but not so old nonces, and he’s also the second notable Yarrow to die in weeks, following 2024 cadaver Arnold. Two days later came the death of Black Bart, a pro wrestler with a cowboy outlaw gimmick. A title-deciding obit risk a decade ago, these days we knew the UK press would be anticipating Bart’s death like Sideshow Bob.

Peter, Paul, and Mary still has Paul, but several 60s groups went extinct this January rush. Sam Moore was the sole man of Sam & Dave since Dave’s 1988 death (and of those namechecked in Arthur Conley’s “Sweet Soul Music” upon James Brown’s death in 2006). Besides their signature classic, they were also known for “Hold On, I’m Comin’”, which got its title from one of the songwriters’ responses to being rushed out of the bathroom. The Band also took a load off with the death of Garth Hudson, whose classical training was a key pillar to the group’s sound. Somewhat related to the 60s pop charts was Elgar Howarth, who was primarily an opera conductor but was also a backing trumpeter on “Magical Mystery Tour”.

We’ve covered fascism and noncery, now for milking every drop out of having a couple hits 40 years ago to get media attention. Truly an axis of evil here. Linda Nolan is the second faller after Bernie of the Nolan Sisters, the Irish lassies who lit the dance floors at the turn of the 80s with “I’m in the Mood for Dancing”. In recent years she had made appearances on Celebrity Big Brother and Loose Women, and a slow battle with advanced breast cancer caused tabloids and deadpoolers alike to give a little bit of attention to her. Her eight appearances on the Drop 40 would’ve lasted even longer had she not tempted fate by taunting deadpoolers in a New Year’s tweet, and she couldn’t pull herself together after a bout of double pneumonia.

Joan Plowright was one of the theatre’s most esteemed actresses and the widow of Laurence Olivier, often acting in tandem with Sir Larry. She also was noted for film roles such as Enchanted April and Tea with Mussolini. Charles Kay was a regular of the Royal Shakespeare Company, while Doctor Who lost Christopher Benjamin, who played theatre owner Henry Gordon Jago, and Barbara Clegg, the first woman to write a Who serial (Enlightenment). Cartoonist Jules Feiffer was once considered America’s most-read satirist, and Jan Shepard acted opposite Elvis.

Denis Law was the last survivor of the United Trinity, Manchester United’s fearsome footy trio that also featured Bobby Charlton and George Best. He scored 237 goals for the Blues and remains the only Scot to win the Ballon d’Or. In recent years he suffered from Alzheimer’s and post-Charlton’s death was the go-to demented footballer pick. He died days after his final manager, Tony Book, and another dementia football hit came shortly afterwards in Aberdeen boss Jimmy Calderwood. US sport’s headliner was baseballer Bob Uecker, a World Series winner with the Cardinals in 1964 far better known for a post-playing career that included announcing for the Brewers, talk show guest spots, and playing the father on Mr. Belvedere. US sport also lost baseballer Tommy Brown and Navy football announcer Pete Medhurst.

New Year’s Day alone claimed dentally-challenged country musician Chad Morgan, Thatcher Minister Sally Oppenheim-Barnes, Campus Trilogy novelist David Lodge, and golf journalist Steve DiMeglio. Cult competitive picks lost in the early days were Scientology whistleblower Mike Rinder, photographer Oliviero Toscani, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards (not sure why a Planned Parenthood president would be keen to exit on Trump’s inauguration day), and author Charlotte Raven (a former squeeze of DDP24 graduate Derek Draper). The 100 Club’s earliest exitees were Holocaust survivor-turned-Olympic gold gymnast Agnes Keleti, French Resistance activist Genevieve Callerot, and historian/FDR expert William Leuchtenburg. Meanwhile, the Sulu Zone claimed Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago costume designer Phyllis Dalton.

So with the January dust settled, who emerges on top? Scoreboard host is Toast. Yep, Toast’s I’m Sorry For Your Trouble took to the top on the back of canon names Yarrow and Bart, perennial bedblocker Nolan, and cult picks Lynch and Raven.