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...
REST IN PISSINGER When reflecting on the crab rave breeding ground that is Henry Kissinger and his long list of “accomplishments”, it can be easy to forget how easily he himself could’ve been a genocide victim. Born to a Jewish family in Weimar Germany, the Kissingers fled to the United States in the late 1930s […]
DEATH MEANS NEVER HAVING TO SAY YOU’RE SORRY Heartthrob Ryan O’Neal has died aged 82. He was first an amateur boxer, but acting proved his calling and he became a popular soaps actor with a leading role on Peyton Place. He soon segued to film stardom, including Love Story, What’s Up, Doc?, Paper Moon, and […]
SANDRA DAY A GONER! A long-held tradition in the US Supreme Court is that of the “swing vote”, namely the right-wing justice who throws the left flank a bone once in a blue moon to continue to make the institution appear legitimate. For many a year, that niche was filled by first female justice Sandra […]
EL TEL NOW NIL Venerated footy manager Terry Venables has died aged 80. “El Tel” was England’s most popular manager since the glory days of Alf, memorably taking the team to the 1996 Euro semis. His career began as a player with Chelsea, where he won the League Cup, and crisscrossed through Tottenham and Queens […]
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BRIGIT FORSYTH? Actress Brigit Forsyth has died aged 83. A veteran of stage and drama, she was best known for the sitcom roles of prim-and-proper Thelma in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and grumpy Madge in Still Open All Hours. She was also a capable cellist and a trained martial artist […]
MA CLAVIN DELIVERS Actress Frances Sternhagen has died aged 93. A popular stage actress who won two Tonys for The Good Doctor and The Heiress, she was also known for film roles such as the sheriff’s wife in Misery. It’s a little-known fact that she also played Cliff Clavin’s bossy Ma in Cheers, with such […]
KINNOCKING AT HEAVEN’S DOOR Former MEP Glenys Kinnock has died aged 79. The wife of Neil, she was noted for her work to reduce poverty and starvation in Africa. Her family eulogised her saying “She was the beloved wife and life partner of Neil, the cherished mother of Steve and Rachel and an adored grandmother.” […]
CORKED Soaps actor Dean Sullivan has died aged 68. He was best known as lovable rogue Jimmy Corkhill in Brookside, whose gradual descent into drug addiction brought some of the programme’s most compelling storylines such as killing his neighbours in a coked-up car accident. So popular was he that he was only planned for six […]
LAND OF THE LOST Marty Krofft followed elder brother Sid into the puppet business, and the duo were behind a series of low-budget, cult favourite children’s programmes during the 60s and 70s. Their biggest hit was H.R. Pufnstuf, starring a boy and the titular puppet dragon squaring off against the evil Witchiepoo. McDonald’s borrowed so […]
BERKSHIRE PASSEDAWAY Investor Charlie Munger has hit the bear market aged 99. He was the longtime financial sidekick of Warren Buffett, often buying the same stocks and notably transforming Berkshire Hathaway from an unheralded textile mill to a corporate powerhouse in many a portfolio. His stock would’ve gone down a point had he made it […]
